A story of workers on space factories and synthetic evolution of humans.
It started with the orbiters. As the number of manufacturing stations in space increased, there was a higher demand for the orbiters to man these space factories. The food needed for this many workers in space was proving to be a big hurdle for the space manufacturing startups to break even. It was eating into precious storage space for high-value goods and raw materials, with more rockets supplying food then the raw materials for factories. That’s when one of the new space factory startups created a program to synthetically mutate the orbiters’ cells to produce energy from light. It was rudimentary at first; it only added a small percentage of the total required calories. And the mutation was temporary, lasting around 28 days, a typical working shift in space factories.
However, once the gate was open… Space agencies, (Asteroid) mining companies and the Martian convention took the baton and continued to push humanity into its new era: the synthetic evolution of human beings.Within a decade we had the technology to generate most of our calories from light and a handful of pills.
Without the need for digesting, the human body needed much less energy and several organs became obsolete. We started to re-engineer our bodies for their new functionality. First, we got rid of the intestine, then the stomach. Kidneys got smaller. We lost our teeth and our jaws became more narrow. As we needed fewer calories to maintain homeostasis, we directed the excess energy towards the brain. This energy led to the creation of a new layer: the neural cortex.
A century after the first orbiter was modified, we were a new species. Our torso, harbouring fewer organs, was more narrow than that of our ancestors. We however, developed a larger brain and eyes to perceive a reality previously unknown to mankind. Filled with curiosity and hope, we set out to reach for the stars.
Inspired by Varda a space factory startup, first part of book -Molecular Biology of Cell, how discovery of fire led to bigger brains and decrease in size of intestine -from Sapiens, and this videoon jaw design etc.
Thanks Tore Knabe for creative feedback and proof reading the draft.