Space humans will have to be different but the politics will be the same

I am up to the 6th book in The Expanse series. Lots to consider but I am impressed by the human evolution and geopolitical considerations.

Similar to the Quantum Magician, is this idea of genetically altered humans to the space exploration era. With the rise of CRISPR-cas9 as a form of cheaper genome editing, this seems far less implausible.

One of the considerations is that space is enormous so we have to move at extreme speeds (far outside our current capability) to reach anything. It doesn’t matter what we use in terms of propulsion system, until we find a way to move the human body without acceleration, we will forced to either conceive of elaborate ways to minimize the gravitational force (g force) or we are going to have genetically reinforce the human body. The Quantum Magician uses a new, highly dense human species while The Expanse uses a crash couch which bolsters the body (and injects lots of drugs into it) and much of the intense actions scenes are really about the impacts of acceleration rather than violence.

Similar with spending long times in zero G (no gravity). Think about how fraught pregnancy is on our own planet where we evolved. Now place that process in zero G and we are looking at a substantial set of new challenges. So we have to either build elaborate processes to replicate Earth’s conditions or we are going to have to gestate humans in a new or modified way. The Expanse has specific settlements that are considered to be ‘pregnancy areas’ and zero G people who are taller and not able to live on planets with Earth’s gravity. The Quantum Magician focuses far more the genetic alteration although it notes that most of the new human groups have difficulty in procreating.

These new human groups create age old problems of racism and exploitation. Much of the conflict is about the endless re-balancing of human society as new groups rise. The economic implications are then overlaid with considerations about what space looks like with private corporations and shareholders.

Both books push far beyond the Star Trek idea and build a deep, complicated scene with the kinds of errors and follies that we see in human history.