Future Humanity

[Asperion]

In the future,  it will become harder for people to tell the difference between us using historical methods, such as Chinese,  American,  English,  black, Hispanic, etc.  This will be because people will be mixing more than they have ever before,  regardless if they are in space, on some planet,  asteroid,  or any other place. Those historical differences will disappear. However,  humans being the separatist creatures that they are will develop other ways to separate themselves according to new lines in the future. Here are some forms I have considered -

 

Spacer - These people live all to most of their lives off planet. Their entire existence is the ship,  station,  or anything else that is free-form,  essentially manmade. If they ever touch a planet, asteroid,  or other natural body,  it will cause feelings of sickness (define as you will) until they return to space. 

 

Planeter - These people live their entire life on the planet,  almost never getting off.  Despite the easy access to space traffic,  they always have some excuse for not going.  On the rare occasion they get off-planet, they will have vertigo, nausea,  disorientation,  among much more, even if artificial gravity exists. 

 

In-Betweeners - These people are essentially a "mid-point " between the first two.  They are equally at home on a planet as they are in space.  They basically spend equal time in each environment,  so neither one will can create a stronger or weaker influence upon them.

 

Those are the three primary methods that I have thought of recently.  What other ways do you think of and how would they be described? Any comments would be welcome. 

[DShomshak]

Even if differences based on inherited somatic difference ("race") blur away and we all become Niven's "flatlanders," the tribal impulse will make humans create artificial differences in appearance through makeup/dyes, tattoos, clothing, ornament, etc.

 

And such differences will appear, whether by religion, political identity, or whether you crack open your soft-boiled egg at the big end or little end (as in the Lilliput section of Gulliver's Travels.)

 

Thgough such visible differences might also be created by genetic engineering, whether for practical purposes (such as adjusting spacer genomes to prevent bone loss from prolonged microgravity -- or the more extreme modifications of quaddies, from Bujold's "Vorkosigan" setting), or various transhuman notions (such as Betan herms -- Bujold again), or if the technology becomes accessible enough, pure whimsy (we want to look like anime characters! With cat ears!). James Blish coined the term "pantropy" for genetic adaptation to new environments, but it doesn't have to be that rational. In a Star Hero setting I made, the ideology that humans should genetically fragment into new species was called "cladism." It had dire consequences because people were still people.

 

Different approaches to cybernetic/bionic modification might happen, too. Analog to Mac vs PC tribalism, only for brain implants from different companies.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Duke Bushido]

Dean has pretty much nailed it.

 

Though I am not sure why he ommitted the obvious supremacy of bald guys with large beards.

 

 

[Asperion]

The real problem is that there is not just one way to operate.  The method I used could be one form,  Dean's system might be equally as effective (might even be used in conjunction), along with many other systems.  

[DShomshak]

13 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Dean has pretty much nailed it.

 

Though I am not sure why he ommitted the obvious supremacy of bald guys with large beards.

 

I didn't want to reveal the Secret Masters.

 

Now, if anyone wants a look at possibilities for the *really* far future vesions of humanity, read Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men, which portrays post-humanity through two billion years and three worlds.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Sundog]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schismatrix