There is a great deal of talk these days about colonizing Mars, and about the conditions that would need to be met in order to live and thrive there. 3D printing has been a big part of the conversation, as the technology would likely be used to build much of what humans need, including shelter. But there hasn’t been as much talk about what might happen to humans long term living on Mars. Would we evolve, based on the different conditions on a foreign planet? Marta Flisykowska speculates about this in a paper entitled
“Application of Incremental Technologies in Consideration of Transhumanist Aesthetics – Project ‘Who Nose‘”
In 2017, Flisykowska points out, NASA published the results of the Human Research Program, which was launched in an effort to find out more about the impact of long stays in space on the human body. Vastly different conditions will be present on Mars, such as lower temperatures, a less dense atmosphere, higher radiation and more. In the face of these conditions, what might humans evolve to look like? The depiction of extraterrestrials in literature and pop culture “often extended to the point of kitsch,” says Flisykowska, but these depictions were also based on ideas about the types of conditions that these creatures lived in.
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