Christopher E. Mason - The Next 500 Years: Engineering Life to Reach New Worlds

Christopher E. Mason

The MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts

London, England

2021 Christopher E. Mason

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

Figures and art by Dr. Matthew MacKay.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Mason, Christopher E., author.

Title: The next 500 years : engineering life to reach new worlds / Christopher E. Mason.

Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020012162 | ISBN 9780262044400 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Space medicine. | AstronautsHealth and hygiene. | AstronauticsHuman factors. | Genetic engineering.

Classification: LCC RC1150 .M37 2021 | DDC 612/.0145dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012162

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Special Thanks: Dr. Matthew MacKay

Dr. Matthew MacKay not only made the beautiful figures in this book, but he was also cocaptain on the quest to detail the 500-year vision presented here. This vision is a shared hope of what can be done, and what must be done, for our species and all others we serve to guard (past, present, and future). He endlessly helped as editor, writer, debater, and visionary. While the biotechnology, engineering, and genetic guardianship ideas in this book are described in the future, hopeful tense, they are actually grounded in Dr. MacKays published and pioneering work, which has shown that many of these ideas are in fact possible. Many of the constructs for cells, circuits, and planetary design already have a proof of principle from the writings and algorithms he has published, and this book could not have happened without this guiding light and engine of science.

To all humans and any extinction-aware sentience

Embedded in every single neuron in a human brain is a shared ancestry of humans genetic codedeoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)carrying the unique capacity for protecting and preserving the complexity and beauty of all life. This DNA also contains the molecular recipe for the synthesis of human bodies, brains, and minds, whose dreams and technologies have spanned visions of other planets and spacecraft that have reached beyond humankinds first solar system. The fundamental thesis of this book is that the same innate, biological capacities of ingenuity and creation that have enabled humans to build rockets to reach other planets will also be needed for designing and engineering the organisms that will sustainably inhabit those planets.

The missions to other planets, as well as ideas for planetary-scale engineering, are a necessary duty for humanity and a logical consequence of our unique cognitive and technological capabilities. There is no other species that leverages, or even can leverage, the frailty of mortality into an intergenerational stability of sentience. As far as we know, humans alone possess an awareness of the possibility of our entire species extinction and of the Earths finite life span. Thus, we are the only ones who can actively assess the risks of (and prevent) extinction, not only for ourselves but for all other organisms as well. This is unusual. Most duties in life are chosen, yet there is one that is not. Extinction awarenessand the need to avoid extinctionis the only duty that is activated the moment it is understood.

This gives us an awesome responsibility, power, and opportunity to become the universes shepherds and guardians of all life-formsquite literally a duty to the universeto preserve life. This means we need to prevent the death of not only our species, but of all species on which we depend and any others we may find that are or were threatenedthus, all current, future, and even past life-forms (through de-extinction). This duty is not only for us, but for any species or entities who can engineer themselves to avoid the end of the universe. Even if our species does not survive, this duty is passed on to the next sentience, which will undoubtedly arise.

Regardless of who is here in billions of years (ourselves or someone else), life cannot remain on Earth, because the sun will eventually overheat the Earth, likely engulf the Earth, shrivel into a White Dwarf, and die. Earth is the only home we have ever known, and if it remains that way, it will also be our grave. Thus, it is essential for us to land on, live on, and survive on planets around other stars to continue this duty of humanity. To do this, we will need to deploy all the technological, physical, pharmacological, and medical protective measures that we know and will learn, but we can also, for the first time ever, deploy genetic measures of defense. As a part of this moral duty to preserve and protect life, we will eventually need to engineer it. Evolution has created life only in the context of one planet so farin the Goldilocks zone of a temperate Earthand it is likely that we, and all other organisms, will need extensive physical and genetic help to survive anywhere elseeven if just to arrive at our next destination.

Sending any Earth-evolved organism to any other planet would result in almost certain death, which represents the sad, evolutionary good luck plan. This limited plan is not our only option. Today, we know enough to be able to modify, tweak, and engineer life to improve the odds of survival or to create entirely new adaptive features and mechanisms. Evolution has finally created an organism that can direct and engineer not only its own development, but also the evolutionary paths of all other life. This stage of directed evolution for life, drawing on all past, current, and future genetic substrates, is an essential step for life itself to survive.

To save life, we will need to engineer it. Notably, humans are already accidentally engineering life and directing evolution; now it is time to do it with volition, direction, and purpose. Through the use of the collective genetic lessons we have learned from all organisms over billions of years, we have developed many extraordinary technologies that make this possible, and many are highlighted in this book. Our own DNA is composed of relics of what life once was, life as it is today, and the ongoing evolution toward what life will become.

However, with synthetic biology and DNA synthesis costs declining, we can even imagine extinct life returning, as well as means by which to create chimeric or hybrid entities, and this too will be examined in this book. Moreover, by using studies of organisms in extreme environments (extremophiles), we can learn new mechanisms and modalities of adaptation that have enabled alien-like life on Earth, and, indeed, some of this work we have already begun in our laboratory, such as using genes from tardigrades in human cells. These technologies and new methods will enable humans and other organisms to survive in otherwise impossible settings caused by extreme levels of radiation, temperature, or pressure.

This inherent duty of humanityto preserve lifeis as natural as one cell dividing into two. Right now, all humanity is as fragile as an embryo at the single-cell stage. We are an embryo full of extraordinary potential, but only on the primordial beginning step of our home planet. Our next step is to get to a nearby planet (e.g., Mars) and set up a sustainable habitat in order to ensure we have a backup plan for all life, including humanity. This accomplishment would be a point of euphoric celebration, as the tired eyes of a Martian explorer would watch as the sun sets on the dusty horizon, and the air would reveal beautiful blue sunlight diffracting through the thin Martian atmosphere and dust. At long last, we would have two planets to call home around the same sun.