At 08:07 PM 1/06/00 -0700, Rob Bradbury wrote:
>You might also want to consider the argument that we will sooner
>be able to engineer humans to be biocompatible with alien environments
>than we will be able to engineer alien environments to be human
>compatible. Its a function of the fact that humans are "programmable"
>while harsh environments generally are not
What the brilliant sf author James Blish dubbed `pantropy' back in the
1950s. My 1975 pb of the linked story collection THE SEEDLING STARS (1957)
has this definition on the back jacket:
"Pantropy: total genetic engineering capable of modifying the human body to
the requirements of the alien world."
Nothing new under *any* sun...
Damien
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