To Save Earth We Must Leave It Behind
And these technologies will enable us to do so
As our population continues to rise, life on Earth grows increasingly complicated. If human civilization isn’t brought to its knees by a global pandemic or a war, climate change lurks on the horizon — challenging our long-term ability to survive on this little blue marble.
Even discounting gravity, Earth’s environmental conditions appear to be exceptionally rare. If we could replenish Mars’ atmosphere, trying to colonize it will require severe adaptations to the human body — possibly causing the settlers to branch into a different species within generations.
In the early 70s, American physicist Gerard O’Neill asked his students at Princeton University, “Is a planetary surface the right place for an expanding technological civilization?” Their research convinced O’Neill the answer was a resounding no.
It became the inspiration for his groundbreaking work designing rotating habitats, cylindrical megastructures that perfectly replicate Earth’s gravity and atmospheric conditions, requiring no adaptations to the human body.
