Interplanetary Colonization:

Evolution of Human Behavior and Culture

Think about your home. Is it the place you grew up? Or do you call your current residence home? This mental association can tell a lot about how an environment can impact a person, their identity, and the habits that are formed in their life. This environmental influence can be even broader than someone’s physical residence. An emotional tie to a city, state, or nation can play a role in personal ideology and behaviors.

The link between environment and behavior is undeniable in the human world. As communities develop around resources and opportunity, so do the habits and traditions of the community. Food is an obvious example of environmental connection to human behavior. For example, coastal nations and states have strong links to seafood and fishing. The sea provides the resources that allow for a healthy community. The community creates traditions and lifestyle habits around the ocean in return. We seem to create sacred bonds with the environment through our traditions and habits. These traditions permeate through generations and evolve as the community and resources evolve.

Humans have progressed to a point where we are now able to leave our celestial home. This new capability has already influenced human civilization. Information can be shared around the world instantly. We can pinpoint locations with a few swipes of the thumb and instantly communicate with relatives around the world, because of our drive to explore the unexplored. Soon, access to the Moon and Mars will be as common as taking a flight to a distant country. As we start the visitation and colonization of other bodies in our solar system, it is important to understand how our behaviors and traditions will transform, so we can predict the needs of these future pioneers.

If we look at humans as we do other animals of the Earth, it is clear that the ability to adapt to change is our species strongest trait. The intrinsic drive to explore is not a fluke. Exploration allowed our ancestors to find new reservoirs of resources and granted us the ability to survive catastrophic events like flooding and climate change (Meerson, 1987). Migration from different areas of the planet ensured our survival, but also shaped who we are as a species. It effects our evolution, our social behavior, and how we see our place in the universe.

To estimate how interplanetary migration will affect future travelers, we must understand how it changed us in the past. Based on the current version of history, the human species began its journey in East Central Africa approximately 200,000 years ago. During this period, large amounts of the northern and southern hemisphere were covered in ice and snow. Over the course of 50,000 to 100,000 years, glaciers that once dominated the Earth began to recede and open new corridors for travel and resources. While the global climate began to warm, early humans started to expand to the north and the south, slowly adapting to life in different regions. Introduction to new types of food and temperatures slowly sculpted the evolutionary processes of our ancestors (Gugliotta, 2008).

Physical changes in human anatomy coincided with regional habitation. As various tribes settled in new areas for longer periods of time, information and knowledge was passed down to newer generations. This transfer of information began to shape cultural behaviors, habits, and traditions of these early communities. Language, storytelling, and visual communication became more complex and standardized over time (Gugliotta, 2008). Around 60,000 years ago, these formed communities started to expand even further across the Earth. Smaller groups of humans chose to leave their established communities for new land and areas to inhabit. This continuous practice of exploration ultimately has led us to where we are now.

The last 5,000 years of our history has been documented with more detail than any other time in of the past. Passing on information to the next generation evolved from only using oral history and stories, to written text. This new technology of communication enabled groups of humans to maintain habits and beliefs for longer periods of time. Stories and religion were now documented in a way that could be referenced thousands of years later.

Religion and other ideological structures could now be shared with different cultures without distant travels through the use of books. The continuous expansion of various cultures created a sharing of knowledge and behaviors. A more recent example of this was with the migration to the Americas and eventually to the American west with European pioneers. In the very beginning of European expansion to the Americas, many cultural changes began to take place quite quickly. Unfortunately, with the quick changes in culture and environment, violence and hostilities arose. Native tribes of the America’s would compete with each other for resources and land, but the various tribes shared many cultural similarities. As European values and behaviors spread with their expansion, clashes in cultures were more complex than the clashes between the Native American tribes (Parkman, 2000). European culture and traditions ultimately overpowered the native civil structure through massacre and tyranny.

Instead of melding two cultures, we see how powerful and harmful ingrained behaviors and traditions can be to misunderstood cultures. That being said, Native cultures still had influences on the new European Americans and Americans today. We see native cultural ties in art, architecture, national holidays, and local traditions within North America. This adoption of culture, once again, displays how environments, including people, slowly shape and create new behaviors and traditions.

The first humans in space experienced an environment novel to all other forms of life on Earth. For the very first time, a human was able to see the world as a single object. Astronauts of the Mercury and Apollo missions came back to Earth with a new perspective. This new perspective is called the overview effect. Michael Collins, an Apollo astronaut was quoted in reference to the overview effect saying, “The thing that really surprised me was that it [Earth] projected an air of fragility. And why, I don't know. I don't know to this day. I had a feeling it's tiny, it's shiny, it's beautiful, it's home, and it's fragile..”. (O’Neill, 2008). There are no boarders, country names, or territories on Earth when viewed from space. Earth is a single environment. Acknowledgment of the Earth as our common home has taken root within our global culture. Most nations now recognize our shared existence with each other. Global communication is helping fuel the recognition of cultural commonalities. As more people have access to space, a global perspective will soon dominate. I believe access to space will begin a new era of human identity. Instead of regional cultural differences, we will identify as Earthlings and have a shared cultural and human experience in space.

Based on what we know, predicting our behavioral and traditional evolution in space starts with the environment. Our initial footing in space will be heavily supported with technology. Home in space will be defined by the bubbles of life we design. Spacecraft like the International Space Station (I.S.S.) and MIR have already set a precedent for the next generation of habitation systems. These early platforms provide proof of concept for life in space and display what will need to be improved for a self-sustaining colony.

The most influential environmental factor that will shape our behavior and traditions is gravity. Every human body has been designed specifically for Earth. The human body needs gravity to function properly and overcoming this obstacle could have a heavy influence on our collective cultural evolution in space. Currently, the only way to lessen the effects of sub-earth gravity is to exercise a lot. This strategy to counter body decay would drastically shape our routines and daily habits. Each solar body we colonize will have its own unique gravitic conditions that will have to be accounted for. The moon has 1/6th the gravity of Earth. Mars is approximately 1/3rd. Zero-gravity space travel may allow for artificial gravity systems by using rotational structures to overcome body effects. The Moon and Mars do not make this system viable, which means exercise will be relied upon to maintain health.

The astronauts of the I.S.S. have more than 2 hours of exercise built into their daily routine. Unique weightlifting products have been specifically designed for zero gravity but are bulky and awkward to use. Future pioneers would demand something more efficient and practical to match their exercise requirements. Products that could shape culture in space could be things like weighted clothes and resistive apparel. It is easy to imagine these early pioneers having only one brand of clothing which could set a standard for all future products used in space. The various gravitational environment these pioneers experience would have direct impact on architecture, transportation, and pretty much every aspect of daily living (Phillips, 2012).

Besides gravity, another environmental factor that will have its influence on human behavior is radiation. Radiation will drive us into the ground, literally. Short term visitation could accommodate above surface structures, but a thriving, self-sustaining colony, will have its roots underground. Solar and cosmic radiation blast the Moon and Mars due to a lack of magnetic fields and atmosphere. Besides moving underground for protection, the only other possible solutions are thick shelled structures with ice or regolith. The invention of artificial magnetic field production could also improve radiation conditions, but this technology has not been developed yet. With current technology, going underground seems to be the most likely option to decrease radiation.

So, will the first colonizers turn into mole people? Maybe. Our attachment to the sun is one that transcends planets though. It is the same sun we look to from Earth and our attachment to it would most likely become even stronger. Architecture could be designed in a hybrid sub-surface way to experience natural light while spending most of the time underground. The architectural choices made off Earth could develop traditions as a by-product of protective design necessities (Phillips, 2012). It hard to predict what traditions would be established, but broad assumptions could be made that an unground society would highly value surface level experiences. Routines and habits might be developed around the idea of that experience. Identifying possible opportunities for cultural growth can only improve our experience in space.

Humans are a massive part of the environment. Social interaction and dynamics will influence our cultural evolution as well. This will be one of the hardest predictors to accommodate for. Our individuality and personal perspectives are unique to each person. On Earth, we struggle to accommodate for everyone. In tight quarter environments, accommodation for everyone will be paramount and must be designed for. A focus on mental health will also have to take priority. To balance human psychological needs, things like meditation or prayer might be set into the daily routines of off-planet pioneers.

Spaces dedicated to for experiential internalization and personal growth will be important. Private and spiritual space maybe designed to match the needs of this experiential internalization. Looking back at human history, these spaces may evolve as we discover more about our place in the universe. Although we may not know exactly how our beliefs may evolve, we can design in a way that can be adaptable to meet personal needs.

There are so many factors in space that could affect us as humans. Some things we won’t know until it is experienced. It is a valuable exercise to evaluate our past to see what is in store for our future. Even if we can just identify certain factors of the environment that could have impact on our behavior and traditions, it will be beneficial to the early colonizers. This will help inform how we design habitation, social programing, and ultimately how we design systems of the future on Earth.

Phillips, Robert W. 2012. “Living Away from Earth.” In Grappling with Gravity: How Will Life Adapt to Living in Space?, edited by Robert W. Phillips, 185–216. New York, NY: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6899-9_10.

Parkman, Francis. 2000. Oregon Trail: Adventures on the Prairies in the 1840’s. Santa Barbara, UNITED STATES: Narrative Press, The. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=3375129.

Paine, Stuart D., and M. L. Paine. 2007. Footsteps on the Ice: The Antarctic Diaries of Stuart D. Paine, Second Byrd Expedition. University of Missouri Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=3440707.

“The Human Brain in Space: Euphoria and the ‘Overview Effect’ Experienced by Astronauts.” 2008. Universe Today (blog). May 22, 2008. https://www.universetoday.com/14455/the-human-brain-in-space-euphoria-and-the-overview-effect-experienced-by-astronauts/.

“Survival: Human Adaptation to Extreme Conditions - UNESCO Digital Library.” n.d. Accessed April 7th, 2022. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000073365.

“The Great Human Migration” 2008. Smithsonian magazine. July 2008. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-human-migration-13561/