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The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds Hardcover – April 20, 2021
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Inevitably, life on Earth will come to an end, whether by climate disaster, cataclysmic war, or the death of the sun in a few billion years. To avoid extinction, we will have to find a new home planet, perhaps even a new solar system, to inhabit. In this provocative and fascinating book, Christopher Mason argues that we have a moral duty to do just that. As the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a responsibility to act as the shepherd of life-forms--not only for our species but for all species on which we depend and for those still to come (by accidental or designed evolution). Mason argues that the same capacity for ingenuity that has enabled us to build rockets and land on other planets can be applied to redesigning biology so that we can sustainably inhabit those planets. And he lays out a 500-year plan for undertaking the massively ambitious project of reengineering human genetics for life on other worlds.
As they are today, our frail human bodies could never survive travel to another habitable planet. Mason describes the toll that long-term space travel took on astronaut Scott Kelly, who returned from a year on the International Space Station with changes to his blood, bones, and genes. Mason proposes a ten-phase, 500-year program that would engineer the genome so that humans can tolerate the extreme environments of outer space--with the ultimate goal of achieving human settlement of new solar systems. He lays out a roadmap of which solar systems to visit first, and merges biotechnology, philosophy, and genetics to offer an unparalleled vision of the universe to come.
- Print length296 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThe MIT Press
- Publication dateApril 20, 2021
- Dimensions6.25 x 1.06 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100262044404
- ISBN-13978-0262044400
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Editorial Reviews
Review
– Publishers Weekly
“[This] book arrives at a fascinating moment in the history of technology, when we may, after all, be able to avert previously unavoidable catastrophes . . . Mason’s book is a genuine, timely and engaging addition to a 1000-year-old Western tradition, grounded in religious expectations and a quest for transcendence and salvation. Visionaries from Isaac Newton to Joseph Priestley to space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky have all expounded on the tenets that underpin Mason’s account: the apocalypse is imminent, but, by increasing human knowledge, we may recover the paradise we enjoyed before the flood . . . Mason puts a new layer of flesh on what have, so far, been some ardent but very sketchy dreams.”
– New Scientist
"In his new book, The Next 500 Years, geneticist Christopher Mason argues, 'It is no longer a question of ‘if’ we can engineer life—only ‘how' and that 'Engineering is humanity’s innate duty, needed to ensure the survival of life.'"
–Science
“What sets Mason’s ideas apart . . . is that he realizes that human bodies aren’t well suited for life away from Earth, what with the radiation, toxic gases and so on. His programme for expansion comes with a detailed blueprint for the genetic improvements we will need to make to ourselves to boost our resilience off-world. Mason is well placed to write such a plan.”
– Joshua Howgego, New Scientist
“Provocative”
– Bloomberg News
“Mason is serious. His new book, The Next 500 Years, maps out in detail how we’ll do it.”
–BBC Science Focus
Review
—Astronaut Scott Kelly
“An eye-opening and insightful tour-de-force of a genetically altered possible future for humans in space.”
—Sara Seager, MIT; author of The Smallest Lights in the Universe
“Mason takes us on a voyage into space and time to address an existential risk facing humanity with a clear-headed discussion of the limitations of human biology and how to overcome them. He gives a great perspective on synthetic biology and how it impacts us today and in the future.”
—George Church, Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
“A breathtaking vision of humanity’s future, scientifically founded on the most cutting-edge discoveries, science, and ethical frameworks of today. Dr. Mason has already driven ceaseless advances in experimental and computational genomics, and his visionary roadmap of biology and engineering reveals the exciting centuries of progress ahead.”
—Manolis Kellis, Professor of Computer Science, AI, and Genomics, MIT
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : The MIT Press (April 20, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 296 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0262044404
- ISBN-13 : 978-0262044400
- Item Weight : 1.32 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.06 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,230,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #227 in Biomedical Engineering
- #1,036 in Genetics (Books)
- #1,719 in Astrophysics & Space Science (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Christopher E. Mason](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/ev3ulq7jude0vf2bibbfvladd7._SY600_.jpg)
About the Author
Dr. Christopher E. Mason is a geneticist and computational biologist who has been a Principal Investigator and Co-investigator of many NASA missions and projects. He is a Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, with affiliate appointments at the Meyer Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School, and the Consortium for Space Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
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Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds
by Christopher E. Mason
MIT Press
This book gives the reader an inside look in why we need to think ahead about moving beyond Earth and how to go about it. All of which depends on science, lots and lots of science! It starts with how the human body changes and it's need for protection in space. It reviews the NASA Twin Study with the Kelly brothers which I found fascinating! (I want to read more on them.)
The book also discusses various ways to protect with substances from water bears injected into cells. The CRISPR projects and genome variations are also discussed in depth and in detail. I have a health background and I had to look up a several things to refresh my memory!
The book gives an outline from fairly recent to far reaching goals for humans and animals to survive in the long run. To do this it will need to be started now and biological or genome manipulation will probably be a matter of when and not if.
I found this book fascinating and informative but I wish it was slightly less scientific-speak so more people could enjoy it and learn from it. A layman's term book would probably sell more too!
I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read the book!
However, I do not foresee any tool in the geneticist's toolbox that will optimally compensate for that very unpredictable basket of variables that nebulously can be described as human nature. Where we go, you can bet tragedy and drama will accompany us, in all its gory glory. Only a blind fool would think otherwise. Consider if you have the temerity the history of our own specie on this planet in just the last few thousand years, from Alexander to Genghis Khan to Hitler. Imagine a universe not just of technological marvels, but one of nearly limitless greed and lust and envy - envy all the way to the far reaches of the cosmos, driving sentient beings irrevocably into the primordial, eternal dust.
That part of the exiting drama is too little described in this optimistic little tome.
However, I did enjoy reading it.
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