7 Ways Humans Might Evolve In The Future

4. Space Species

What with all that multiculturalism flying around, it seems a little unlikely that our species is going to diverge at any point. Unless some of us went to space of course. Whilst we're all still down here, mixing our genes around in that big, old human melting pot, the isolation required for an evolutionary offshoot is pretty limited.

However, there are those who think that a spacefaring colony of humans might just create the environment needed for speciation. The vastly different environment of a starship, or even an alien world, could also kickstart this, as certain physical attributes may be much more favourable there than they would be on Earth. Even in the short term, the way the body reacts to interstellar travel might make those explorers look very different.

Nobody knows, for example, what effect zero gravity would have on the growth of a human, or even what a different atmosphere, perhaps more enriched with oxygen, would do to the human body and the brain. If, someday in the future, we sent a gaggle of humans off in generation ships to explore the galaxy, they might not still be humans when they came back.