Future Humans
Interplanetary expansion could potentially bring about speciation, which means the separation of Homo sapiens into different species. The Expanse includes some signs that this might be starting to happen; Belters are well adapted to low‐gravity environments but unable to survive on Earth anymore. Certainly, the changes are merely environmental, but it’s possible that, in the long run, they might become genetic as well. Speciation might not happen if there’s enough genetic exchange between the two populations. As Holden explains to his racist Earther mom prior to bringing Naomi to meet her, “Earthers and Belters can have kids just fine. We’re not a different species.”25 In a scenario of prolonged isolation, though, it might happen. This can be problematic because humans are not at their best when dealing with difference. Our species has a low rate of genetic diversity; yet people still find a way to discriminate based on outdated concepts of “race” which do not even adequately track actual biological ancestry.
In Leviathan Wakes, Havelock criticizes Miller for espousing racist propaganda that “the difference in environment has changed the Belters so much that (…) they aren’t really human anymore.”26 Obviously the Belters still belong to the same species as Earthers. But the phrasing “not even human anymore” betrays how much we’re used to being the only human species in existence. As paleontologist Clive Finlayson explains, we are so used to being alone on this planet that we imagine that it was always this way.27 But actually, for most of human evolution, several human species existed simultaneously. Neanderthals, for example, were a separate human species with which Homo sapiens coexisted, and recent evidence shows they were quite intelligent. Actually, their brains were slightly larger than those of modern humans. They had language, cared for the sick, and buried their dead. Other species, such as Homo ergaster, Homo erectus (who discovered fire), and Homo heidelbergensis, were human too.28 While it’s true that Neanderthals eventually went extinct and modern humans survived, this was not simply a matter of modern humans killing them off.29 Even if it had been, it stands to reason that competition for resources on the same land by prehistoric hunter‐gatherer bands is not representative of what a future scenario of human speciation on different planets would look like.
Does the diversification of humans lead to unique dangers and, if so, should the project of interplanetary expansion be dropped? Phil Torres, who writes about existential risk, believes that it would inevitably lead to a constant state of war, which would greatly increase human suffering.30 We, therefore, should abandon the idea of expanding beyond Earth. But this reasoning has several problems. First of all, it’s unclear that diversity per se is what drives aggression and warfare. After all, it’s not as though humans don’t engage in war with other humans who are exactly like themselves. Religious, political, and ideological differences, as well as territorial disputes, are much more powerful forces of conflict than genetic or morphological differences.
While some sources of conflict in The Expanse stem from the racist or xenophobic attitudes of Belters, Martians, and Earthers, human diversification is not the main factor. Politics, lack of trust between governments, and people’s dissatisfaction with living conditions seem to be the main factors in generating conflict. For instance, although the attack on Earth in Nemesis Games is carried out by Belters, it is not the OPA, but the Free Navy, that causes it. The Free Navy is an extremist faction of the OPA and does not speak for all Belters despite Marco Inaros’ attempts to do so; many Belters, including Naomi, would be appalled at the attack. The Laconian Empire also stems from a disaffected faction of the OPA. Ultimately, the UN, MCR, and OPA manage to come together despite their differences to form a special task force against the Free Navy. Moreover, many people from different places do get along well, as is the case with the diverse crew of the Rocinante, which includes Earthers, Martians, and Belters. When Filip accuses Naomi of betraying her own kind, her reply is illuminating: “Let me tell you about my own kind. There are two sides in this, but they aren’t inner planets and outer ones. Belters and everyone else. It’s not like that. It’s the people who want more violence and the ones who want less.”31
Ćirković argues that not only is “the whole tradition of liberalism and the Enlightenment” based on the assumption that “free choice, as a source of all diversity, is of an intrinsic value,” but diversity itself is not a source of conflict.32 On the contrary, the attempted suppression of diversity and the imposition of uniformity on the part of repressive regimes has brought on the most horrific episodes of human history. Ćirković also points out that not expanding to other planets is no guarantee of non‐differentiation. Speciation can occur even in the absence of isolation, and all the more so if we consider the possibilities afforded by various “post‐human” enhancements.
In fact, while autocratic political regimes see human diversity in all its forms as a threat which must be suppressed, democratic societies value the diversity of people, of cultural practices and ways of life, which enrich the human experience. Attempting to prevent conflict by preventing the diversification of humans through authoritarian means would more likely lead to a Laconian Empire‐style regime, an abhorrent outcome which people who value their personal freedoms are prepared to fight against, even at the cost of their lives.33 Arguably, the Laconian Empire poses a much more significant threat to the human future in the solar system and beyond than the existence of people with different morphologies because they grew up under more or less gravity.
Yes, parts of our nature are worse than others. We are smart enough to recognize that, and even to want to do better. Our nature is not immutable; we are also what we make of ourselves. We among all the animals are the only ones who can have preferences about how we’d like to be, who can form second‐order preferences about our own preferences. Why should we not want to do better? When Ganymede station is collapsing, we are introduced to a couple of Earth‐born missionaries from the Church of Humanity Ascendant, a naturalist religion whose theology is basically “Humans can be better than they are, so let’s do that.”34 Honestly, sign me up!
What Really Matters
Even if humans manage to expand to other habitats in the solar system, the human species we are now—Homo sapiens—might eventually be replaced by other human species. Does this defeat the point of expansion, which was to avoid extinction in the long run? I don’t think so. The survival of humanity matters to us not because it is important that our particular species survives forever (which is not possible in any case). Rather, we are deeply invested in the existence of beings who can contemplate and attempt to understand the universe, as well as themselves. The existence of such beings certainly seems to be a good thing in itself. At the end of the second volume of his magnum opus On What Matters, Derek Parfit claims that “What now matters most is that we avoid ending human history. If there are no rational beings elsewhere, it may depend on us and our successors whether it will all be worth it, because the existence of the universe will have been on the whole good.”35
Human interplanetary expansion offers not only the prospect of human survival, but also the continuation