The World, the Flesh and the Devil
Overview
- Work_type:: non-fiction speculative essay
- Setting:: Early 20th-century vision of humanity expanding into engineered space habitats
- Scale:: Interplanetary at first, tending toward interstellar/post-planetary
- Transhuman_type:: hybrid
- Mechanism:: Gradual replacement of organic functions with machines; adaptation to space via engineered bodies rather than terraforming
- Degree_of_change:: Strong; humans become heavily mechanized beings or disembodied intelligences
Survival logic
- Survival_strategy:: Move off planets into artificial worlds; use technology to transcend biological limits
- Key_technologies:: Giant space habitats, artificial life-support ecologies, advanced cybernetics
- Main_constraints_addressed:: Gravity, planetary hazards, biological fragility, finite planetary resources
View on baseline humanity
- View_on_baseline:: replacement
- Attitude:: Baseline humans are a starting point; “true” long-term survival belongs to radically altered descendants
- Identity_question:: Suggests continuity of mind and culture, but not of unmodified human bodies
Notes
- Themes:: Early transhumanism, cosmic destiny, humans as unfinished biological prototypes
- Open_questions:: How much human psychology survives radical embodiment changes?
- Links:: Trans-human Space Survival Schema