The Next 500 Years
Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds
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Publisher Description
Introducing a 10-phase, 500-year vision for the future of space exploration, genetic engineering, and the human species—on Earth and on other planets.
As the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a moral duty to land on, to live on, and to extend life to other planets.
Inevitably, life on Earth will come to an end, whether by climate disaster, or by cataclysmic war—or when the sun runs out of fuel in a few billion years. To avoid extinction, will we have to find a new home planet, perhaps even a new solar system, to inhabit?
In this provocative and fascinating book, Christopher Mason argues that we have a moral duty to do just that. Because we are the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a responsibility to act as the shepherd of lifeforms—not only for our species but for all species on which we depend and for those still to come (by accidental or designed evolution). Mason argues that the same capacity for ingenuity that has enabled us to build rockets and land on other planets can be applied to redesigning biology so that we can sustainably inhabit those planets. And he lays out a 500-year plan for undertaking the massively ambitious project of reengineering human genetics for life in other worlds.
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Missions to other planets are a "necessary duty for humanity," argues Mason, a geneticist and associate professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, in this impassioned vision for the future of life. Mason believes that the awareness that all life on Earth will some day be extinct creates the "responsibility, power, and opportunity" for humans to be the "guardian of all life forms." He suggests that intelligent life can thrive centuries into the future in space, which he writes will require genetic engineering. To that end, he shares discoveries about the effects of living in space on the human body, noting that Scott Kelly, an American astronaut who spent almost a year on the International Space Station, returned to Earth with "more than 8,600 genes...significantly altered." Mason explores findings on organisms that live in extreme environments, such as the tardigrade, a microscopic animal capable of surviving in the vacuum of space whose DNA could provide a template for modifying human genes to create resistance to high levels of radiation. While Mason's road map for realizing his vision feels far-fetched, his optimism as to what humans are capable of is inspiring. Readers looking for science writing that sees bold possibilities in the future will be enthralled.
