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Emigrating Beyond Earth puts space colonization into the context of human evolution. Rather than focusing on the technologies and strategies needed to colonize space, the authors examine the human and societal reasons for space colonization. They make space colonization seems like a natural step by demonstrating that if will continue the human species' 4 million-year-old legacy of adaptation to difficult new environments. The authors present many examples from the history of human expansion into new environments, including two amazing tales of human colonization - the prehistoric settlement of the upper Arctic around 5,000 years ago and the colonization of the Pacific islands around 3,000 years ago - which show that space exploration is no more about rockets and robots that Arctic exploration was about boating!

Emigrating Beyond Earth: Human Adaptation and Space Colonization

List of Figures.- List of Tables.- Acknowledgements and Dedications.- About the Authors.- Preface.- Part I: The Context and Uniqueness of Human Evolution and Adaptation.- Chapter 1: The Extraterrestrial Adaptation: Humanity, Evolution and Migration Into Space.- Chapter 2: Stardust: The Origins of Life, Evolution and Adaptation.- Chapter 3: The Adaptive Equipment of the Genus Homo : Symbolism and Niche Construction.- Part II: Arguments For and Against Human Space Colonization.- Chapter 4: A Choice of Catastrophes - Common Arguments for Space Colonization.- Chapter 5: False Choices - Common Objections to Human Space Colonization.- Part III: Human Adaptation to Space - Lessons from the Past and Shaping the Future.- Chapter 6: Starpaths - Adaptation to Oceania.- Chapter 7: Building an Adaptive Framework for Human Future in Space.- Bibliography.- Index.