The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth

by Michio Kaku

One day about seventy-five thousand years ago, humanity almost died.

One day about seventy-five thousand years ago, humanity almost died. A titanic explosion in Indonesia sent up a colossal blanket of ash, smoke, and debris that covered thousands of miles. The eruption of Toba was so violent that it ranks as the most powerful volcanic event in the last twenty-five million years. It blew an unimaginable 670 cubic miles of dirt into the air. This caused large areas of Malaysia and India to be smothered by volcanic ash up to thirty feet thick. The toxic smoke and dust eventually sailed over Africa, leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake.

Stark evidence of this cataclysm may perhaps be found in our blood. Geneticists have noticed the curious fact that any two humans have almost identical DNA.

Stark evidence of this cataclysm may perhaps be found in our blood. Geneticists have noticed the curious fact that any two humans have almost identical DNA. By contrast, any two chimpanzees can have more genetic variation between them than is found in the entire human population. Mathematically, one theory to explain this phenomenon is to assume that, at the time of the explosion, most humans were wiped out, leaving only a handful of us—about two thousand people. Remarkably, this dirty, raggedy band of humans would become the ancestral Adams and Eves who would eventually populate the entire planet. All of us are almost clones of one another, brothers and sisters descended from a tiny, hardy group of humans who could have easily fit inside a modern hotel ballroom.

As they trekked across the barren landscape, they had no idea that one day, their descendants would dominate every corner of our planet.

this alien planet was orbiting a dead star, a pulsar, that had exploded in a supernova, probably killing everything that might have lived on that planet.

But I was saddened when I heard the next piece of news: this alien planet was orbiting a dead star, a pulsar, that had exploded in a supernova, probably killing everything that might have lived on that planet. No living thing known to science can withstand the withering blast of nuclear energy that emerges when a star explodes close by.

Perhaps our fate is to become a multiplanet species that lives among the stars.

If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds. —CARL SAGAN

The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don’t have a space program, it’ll serve us right. —LARRY NIVEN

When I was a child, I read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, which is celebrated as one of the greatest sagas in the history of science fiction.

When I was a child, I read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, which is celebrated as one of the greatest sagas in the history of science fiction. I was stunned that Asimov, instead of writing about ray gun battles and space wars with aliens, asked a simple but profound question: Where will human civilization be fifty thousand years into the future? What is our ultimate destiny?

Our hero also comes across a civilization so sophisticated that its members enclose their mother sun in a gigantic sphere to utilize all its energy. This concept, which would later be called the Dyson sphere, is now a staple of science fiction.

The goal of terraforming Mars exceeds our capability today, but the technologies of the twenty-second century will allow us to turn this bleak, frozen desert into a habitable world.

In this book, I will describe the technologies that will take us even farther as we explore the planets and the stars. In part 1, we will discuss the effort to create a permanent moon base and to colonize and terraform Mars. To do this, we will have to exploit the fourth wave of science, which consists of artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and biotechnology. The goal of terraforming Mars exceeds our capability today, but the technologies of the twenty-second century will allow us to turn this bleak, frozen desert into a habitable world. We will consider the use of self-replicating robots, superstrong, lightweight nanomaterials, and bioengineered crops to drastically cut costs and make Mars into a veritable paradise. Eventually, we will progress beyond Mars and develop settlements on the asteroids and the moons of the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn. Reference Kaku, Michio (2018, Feb 20). “The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth.” Kindle Edition. INTRODUCTION: TOWARD A MULTIPLANET SPECIES, p. 13 of 308, 6%.

Thanks to the Human Connectome Project, which will map every neuron in the human brain, one day we may be able to send our connectomes into outer space on giant laser beams, eliminating a number of problems in interstellar travel.

In 2016, speculation about advanced civilizations in space reached a fever pitch among astronomers and the media, with the announcement that astronomers had found evidence of some sort of colossal “megastructure,” perhaps as big as a Dyson sphere, orbiting around a distant star many light-years away.

Goddard died in 1945 and did not live long enough to see the apology written by the editors of the New York Times after the Apollo moon landing in 1969. They wrote, “It is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere. The Times regrets the error.”

In the first phase of rocketry, we had the dreamers, like Tsiolkovsky, who worked out the physics and mathematics of space travel. In the second phase, we had people like Goddard, who actually built the first prototypes of these rockets. In the third phase, rocket scientists caught the eye of major governments.

In the first phase of rocketry, we had the dreamers, like Tsiolkovsky, who worked out the physics and mathematics of space travel. In the second phase, we had people like Goddard, who actually built the first prototypes of these rockets. In the third phase, rocket scientists caught the eye of major governments. Wernher von Braun would take the sketches, dreams, and models of his predecessors and with the support of the German government—and later the United States—would create gargantuan rockets that would successfully take us to the moon.

The German Army Ordnance Department, always searching for new weapons of war, noticed von Braun and offered him generous funding. His work was so sensitive that his Ph.D. thesis was classified by the army and wasn’t published until 1960.

Meanwhile, medieval Europe was wracked by religious wars and mired in inquisitions, witch trials, and superstition, and great scientists and visionaries like Giordano Bruno and Galileo were often either burned alive or placed under house arrest, their works banned.

Not once, but seven times, from 1405 to 1433, Admiral Zheng He sailed across the known world, around Southeast Asia and past the Middle East, eventually ending up in East Africa.

The Chinese emperor launched, under the command of Admiral Zheng He, the most ambitious naval expedition of all time, with twenty-eight thousand sailors on a fleet of 317 huge ships, each one five times longer than the ships of Columbus. The world would not see anything like it for another four hundred years. Not once, but seven times, from 1405 to 1433, Admiral Zheng He sailed across the known world, around Southeast Asia and past the Middle East, eventually ending up in East Africa. There are ancient woodcuts of the strange animals, like giraffes, that he brought back from his voyages of discovery being paraded before the court. But when the emperor passed away, the new rulers decided that they had no use for exploration and discovery. They even decreed that a Chinese citizen could not own a boat. The fleet itself was left to rot or allowed to burn, and records of Admiral Zheng He’s great accomplishments were suppressed. Succeeding emperors effectively cut off contact between China and the rest of the world. China turned inward, with disastrous results, eventually leading to decay, total collapse, chaos, civil war, and revolution.

Sitting in our chair here on Earth, we forget that we have almost fifteen pounds of air pressure pushing down on every square inch of our skin because there is a huge column of air sitting right above us. Why aren’t we crushed? Because we have fifteen pounds of pressure pushing out from inside our body.

Sitting in our chair here on Earth, we forget that we have almost fifteen pounds of air pressure pushing down on every square inch of our skin because there is a huge column of air sitting right above us. Why aren’t we crushed? Because we have fifteen pounds of pressure pushing out from inside our body. There is a balance. But if we go to the moon, the fifteen pounds of pressure beating down on us from the atmosphere disappears. Then we only have the fifteen pounds of pressure pushing outward. In other words, taking off your space suit on the moon could be a very unpleasant experience. Best to keep it on at all times.

Killer asteroids are nature’s way of asking, “How’s that space program coming along?” —ANONYMOUS

Asteroids, in some sense, are like flying gold mines in outer space. For example, in July 2015, one came within a million miles of Earth, or about four times the distance from the Earth to the moon. It was about nine hundred meters (or about three thousand feet) across and was estimated to contain ninety million tons of platinum in its core, worth $5.4 trillion. Planetary Resources estimates that the platinum within a mere thirty-meter asteroid could be worth $25 to $50 billion. The company has gone so far as to make a list of small nearby asteroids that are ripe for the taking. If any one of these were to be successfully brought back to Earth, it would contain a mother lode of minerals that would pay back its investors manyfold.

After months of intense speculation, in 2017 NASA and Boeing finally revealed the details of the plan to reach Mars. Bill Gerstenmaier, of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Directorate, revealed a surprisingly ambitious timetable for the steps necessary to send our astronauts to the Red Planet.

After months of intense speculation, in 2017 NASA and Boeing finally revealed the details of the plan to reach Mars. Bill Gerstenmaier, of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Directorate, revealed a surprisingly ambitious timetable for the steps necessary to send our astronauts to the Red Planet. First, after years of testing, the SLS/ Orion rocket will be launched in 2019. It will be fully automatic, carrying no astronauts, but will orbit the moon. Four years later, after a fifty-year gap, astronauts will finally return to the moon. The mission will last three weeks, but it will just orbit around the moon, not land on the lunar surface. This is mainly to test the reliability of the SLS/ Orion system rather than to explore the moon. But there is an unexpected twist to NASA’s new plan that surprised many analysts. The SLS/ Orion system is actually a warm-up act. It will serve as the main link by which astronauts will leave the Earth and reach outer space, but an entirely new set of rockets will take us to Mars.

Finally, after rigorous testing, the Deep Space Transport will send our astronauts to orbit Mars by 2033.

First, NASA envisions building the Deep Space Gateway, which resembles the International Space Station, except it is smaller and orbits the moon, not the Earth. Astronauts will live on the Deep Space Gateway, which will act as a refueling and resupply station for missions to Mars and the asteroids. It will be the basis for a permanent human presence in space. Construction of this lunar space station will begin in 2023 and it will be operational by 2026. Four SLS missions will be required to build it. But the main act is the actual rocket that will send astronauts to Mars. It is an entirely new system, called the Deep Space Transport, which will be constructed mainly in outer space. In 2029, the Deep Space Transport will have its first major test, circling around the moon for three hundred to four hundred days. This will provide valuable information about long-term missions in space. Finally, after rigorous testing, the Deep Space Transport will send our astronauts to orbit Mars by 2033. NASA’s program has been praised by many experts because it is methodical, with a step-by-step plan to build an elaborate infrastructure on the moon.

NASA’s plan is carefully fleshed out and involves the creation of a permanent infrastructure in lunar orbit, but it is slow, perhaps taking a decade longer than Musk’s plan. SpaceX bypasses the lunar space station entirely and blasts directly to Mars, perhaps as early as 2022.

However, NASA’s plan stands in sharp contrast to Musk’s vision. NASA’s plan is carefully fleshed out and involves the creation of a permanent infrastructure in lunar orbit, but it is slow, perhaps taking a decade longer than Musk’s plan. SpaceX bypasses the lunar space station entirely and blasts directly to Mars, perhaps as early as 2022. One drawback, however, of Musk’s plan is that the Dragon space capsule is considerably smaller than the Deep Space Transport. Time will tell which approach or combination of approaches is better.

Once on board the Deep Space Transport, they will turn on the rocket’s engines. But instead of being jolted by a powerful thrust and watching gigantic flames shoot from the back of the rocket, the ion engines will accelerate smoothly, gradually building up speed. Staring outside their windows, the astronauts will only see the gentle luminous glow of hot ions being steadily emitted from the ship’s engines.

Unlike chemical engines, which can only fire for a few minutes, ion engines can slowly accelerate for months or even years.

In 1897 H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds. The Martians in the novel plan to annihilate humanity and “terraform” the Earth so that its climate becomes like that of Mars.

In 1897 H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds. The Martians in the novel plan to annihilate humanity and “terraform” the Earth so that its climate becomes like that of Mars. The book gave rise to a new literary genre—you could call it the “Mars attacks” genre—and the idle, esoteric discussions of professional astronomers suddenly became a matter of survival for the human race.

On the day before Halloween in 1938, Orson Welles took excerpts from the novel to create a series of short, dramatic, realistic radio broadcasts.

On the day before Halloween in 1938, Orson Welles took excerpts from the novel to create a series of short, dramatic, realistic radio broadcasts. The program was presented as if the Earth was actually being invaded by hostile Martians. Some people began to panic, hearing updates on the invasion—how the armed forces had been overwhelmed by death rays, and how the Martians were converging on New York City in giant tripods. Rumors from terrified listeners spread rapidly across the country. In the aftermath of this chaos, the major media vowed never again to broadcast a hoax as if it were real. This ban continues today.

Cultural historians believe that this explanation for the superpowers of John Carter formed the basis of the Superman story.

Many people were caught up in Martian hysteria. The young Carl Sagan was enthralled by novels about Mars, such as the John Carter of Mars series. In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, famous for his Tarzan novels, dabbled in science fiction by writing about an American soldier during the Civil War who is transported to Mars. Burroughs speculated that John Carter would become a superman because of the low gravity on Mars relative to Earth. He would be able to jump incredible distances and outfight the alien Tharks to save the beautiful Dejah Thoris. Cultural historians believe that this explanation for the superpowers of John Carter formed the basis of the Superman story. The 1938 issue of Action Comics in which Superman first appears attributes his superpowers to the weak gravity of the Earth compared to his native Krypton.

Because the gravity on Mars is a little bit more than one-third the gravity on Earth, a person can in principle jump three times higher on Mars.

If we draw up a list of the sports that are found in the Olympics, we see that, without exception, each and every one would have to be modified to take into account the reduced gravity and air pressure on Mars. In fact, a new Martian Olympics may emerge, including radical sports that are not physically possible on Earth and don’t even exist yet.

Mars’s Olympus Mons is the largest known volcano in the solar system. It is about 2.5 times taller than Mt. Everest and so wide that, if placed on North America, it would extend from New York City to Montreal, Canada.

tectonic activity seems to have ended on Mars long ago, providing evidence that the core of the planet has cooled down.

Whereas the Earth’s surface is continually changing, Mars’s basic topography has not altered much in a few billion years.

Because the air is so thin, airplanes would need a much larger wingspan to fly on Mars than on Earth. A solar-powered aircraft would require tremendous surface area and might be too expensive to deploy for recreational purposes. We probably will not see tourists flying through Martian canyons like they do over the Grand Canyon. But balloons and blimps could be a viable means of transportation, in spite of the low temperature and low atmospheric pressure. They could explore the Martian terrain at much closer distances than orbiters, yet still cover vast areas of the surface. One day, fleets of balloons and blimps may be a regular sight over the geologic wonders there.

Because the air is so thin, airplanes would need a much larger wingspan to fly on Mars than on Earth.

Because the air is so thin, airplanes would need a much larger wingspan to fly on Mars than on Earth. A solar-powered aircraft would require tremendous surface area and might be too expensive to deploy for recreational purposes. We probably will not see tourists flying through Martian canyons like they do over the Grand Canyon. But balloons and blimps could be a viable means of transportation, in spite of the low temperature and low atmospheric pressure. They could explore the Martian terrain at much closer distances than orbiters, yet still cover vast areas of the surface. One day, fleets of balloons and blimps may be a regular sight over the geologic wonders there.

In 2016, Claudius Gros, a professor at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, published a paper in the journal Astrophysics and Space Science detailing what a real-life Genesis Device might look like.

In the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a fantastic new technology called the Genesis Device was introduced. It was capable of terraforming dead planets into lush, livable worlds almost instantly. It would explode like a bomb and release a spray of highly bioengineered DNA. As this super DNA spreads to all corners of the planet, the cells would take root and dense jungles would form until the whole planet was terraformed within a matter of days. In 2016, Claudius Gros, a professor at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, published a paper in the journal Astrophysics and Space Science detailing what a real-life Genesis Device might look like. He predicts that a primitive version will be possible in fifty to one hundred years. First, scientists on Earth would have to carefully analyze the ecology of the lifeless planet. The temperature, soil chemistry, and atmosphere would determine which types of DNA should be introduced. Then, fleets of robotic drones would be sent to the planet to deposit millions of nano-sized descent capsules carrying an array of DNA. When these capsules release their contents, the DNA, engineered precisely to thrive in the planet’s environmental conditions, would latch onto the soil and begin to germinate. The contents of these capsules are designed to reproduce by creating seeds and spores on the barren planet and use the minerals found there to create vegetation.

Galileo was forced to recant his theories under pain of death. His accusers reminded him that Giordano Bruno, who had been a monk, had been burned alive for making statements about cosmology far less elaborate than his.

Personally, Galileo believed that science and religion could coexist. He wrote that the purpose of science is to determine how the heavens go, while the purpose of religion is to determine how to go to heaven. In other words, science is about natural law, while religion is about ethics, and there is no conflict between them as long as one keeps this distinction in mind. But when the two collided during his trial, Galileo was forced to recant his theories under pain of death. His accusers reminded him that Giordano Bruno, who had been a monk, had been burned alive for making statements about cosmology far less elaborate than his. Two centuries would pass before most of the ban on his books was finally lifted.

Much of what we know of Jupiter comes from the Galileo spacecraft, which, after eight years of faithfully orbiting Jupiter, was allowed to end its storied life by plunging into the planet in 2003.

Astronomers were thrilled when they discovered that underneath the ice on Europa could be an ocean of liquid water. It is estimated to be two or three times the volume of Earth’s oceans—our oceans only lie on the surface, while the oceans of Europa make up most of the interior.

Kurzweil also foresees a time much further into the future when robots will convert the atoms of the Earth into computers. Eventually, all the atoms of the sun and solar system would be absorbed into this grand thinking machine. He told me that when he gazes into the heavens, he sometimes imagines that he might, in due course, witness evidence of superintelligent robots rearranging the stars.

In my theory, these loops can be grouped according to a certain level of consciousness.

The smallest unit of consciousness might be found in a thermostat or photocell, which employs a single feedback loop to create a model of itself in terms of temperature or light. A flower might have, say, ten units of consciousness, since it has ten feedback loops measuring water, temperature, the direction of gravity, sunlight, et cetera. In my theory, these loops can be grouped according to a certain level of consciousness. Thermostats and flowers would belong to Level 0. Level 1 consciousness includes that of reptiles, fruit flies, and mosquitos, which generate models of themselves with regard to space. A reptile has numerous feedback loops to determine the coordinates of its prey and the location of potential mates, potential rivals, and itself. Level 2 involves social animals. Their feedback loops relate to their pack or tribe and produce models of the complex social hierarchy within the group as expressed by emotions and gestures. These levels roughly mimic the stages of evolution of the mammalian brain. The most ancient part of our brain is at the very back, where balance, territoriality, and instincts are processed. The brain expanded in the forward direction and developed the limbic system, the monkey brain of emotions, located in the center of the brain. This progression from the back to the front is also the way a child’s brain matures. So, then, what is human consciousness in this scheme? What distinguishes us from plants and animals?

I theorize that humans are different from animals because we understand time.

I theorize that humans are different from animals because we understand time. We have temporal consciousness in addition to spatial and social consciousness. The latest part of the brain to evolve is the prefrontal cortex, which lies just behind our forehead. It is constantly running simulations of the future. Animals may seem like they’re planning, for example, when they hibernate, but these behaviors are largely the result of instinct. It is not possible to teach your pet dog or cat the meaning of tomorrow, because they live in the present. Humans, however, are constantly preparing for the future and even for beyond our own life spans. We scheme and daydream—we can’t help it. Our brains are planning machines.

the very purpose of having a memory may be to project it into the future.

MRI scans have shown that when we arrange to perform a task, we access and incorporate previous memories of that same task, which make our plans more realistic. One theory states that animals don’t have a sophisticated memory system because they rely on instinct and therefore don’t require the ability to envision the future. In other words, the very purpose of having a memory may be to project it into the future. Within this framework, we can now define self-awareness, which can be understood as the ability to put ourselves inside a simulation of the future, consistent with a goal. When we apply this theory to machines, we see that our best machines at present are on the lowest rung of Level 1 consciousness, based on their ability to locate their position in space. Most, like those built for th the DARPA Robotics Challenge, can barely navigate around an empty room. There are some robots that can partially simulate the future, such as Google’s DeepMind computer, but only in an extremely narrow direction. If you ask DeepMind to accomplish anything other than a Go game, it freezes up. How much further do we have to go, and what are the steps we will have to take, to achieve a self-aware machine like The Terminator’s Skynet?

antimatter is the most expensive form of matter in the world. At today’s prices, a gram would go for about $70 trillion.

In science fiction, issues of cost and storage are sometimes eliminated by the discovery of a deus ex machina—an anti-asteroid that enables us to mine antimatter cheaply. But this hypothetical scenario raises a complicated question: Where does antimatter come from, anyway?

The possibility of a space elevator was first explored by the Russian physicist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who was intrigued by the building of the Eiffel Tower in the 1880s.

The possibility of a space elevator was first explored by the Russian physicist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who was intrigued by the building of the Eiffel Tower in the 1880s. If engineers could build such a magnificent structure, he asked himself, why not keep going and extend one into outer space? Using simple physics, he was able to show that, in principle, if the tower was long enough, then centrifugal force would be sufficient to keep it upright, without any external force. Just as a ball on a string does not fall to the floor because of its spin, a space elevator would be kept from collapsing by the centrifugal force of the spinning Earth. The notion that perhaps rockets were not the only way to enter space was radical and exciting. But there was an immediate roadblock. The stress on space elevator cables might reach one hundred gigapascals of tension, which exceeds the breaking point of steel, which is two gigapascals. Steel cables would snap, and the space elevator would come tumbling down.

The concept of space elevators was shelved for almost a hundred years. They were mentioned occasionally by authors like Arthur C. Clarke, who featured them in a novel called The Fountains of Paradise. However, asked when a space elevator might be possible, he replied, “Probably about fifty years after everyone stops laughing.”

Finally, in 1905, he found the answer. His name was Albert Einstein, and his theory was called special relativity.

Finally, in 1905, he found the answer. His name was Albert Einstein, and his theory was called special relativity. He discovered that you cannot outrace a light beam, because the speed of light is the ultimate velocity in the universe. If you approach it, strange things happen. Your rocket becomes heavier, and time slows down inside it. If you were to somehow reach light speed, you would be infinitely heavy and time would stop. Both conditions are impossible, which means you cannot break the light barrier. Einstein became the cop on the block, setting the ultimate speed limit in the universe. This barrier has bedeviled generations of rocket scientists ever since. But Einstein was not satisfied. Relativity could explain many of the mysteries of light, but he wanted to apply his theory to gravity as well. In 1915, he came up with an astonishing explanation. He postulated that space and time, which were once thought to be inert and static, were actually dynamic, like smooth bedsheets that can be bent, stretched, or curved. According to his hypothesis, the Earth does not revolve around the sun because it is pulled by the sun’s gravity, but because the sun warps the space around it. The fabric of space-time pushes on the Earth so that it moves in a curved path around the sun. Simply put, gravity does not pull. Instead, space pushes.

Einstein also realized that there was a loophole in his general theory of relativity. The larger a star is, the greater the warping of space-time surrounding it. If a star is heavy enough, it becomes a black hole. The fabric of space-time may actually tear, potentially creating a wormhole, which is a gateway or shortcut through space. This concept, first introduced by Einstein and his student Nathan Rosen in 1935, is today called the Einstein-Rosen bridge.

The simplest example of an Einstein-Rosen bridge is the looking glass from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The simplest example of an Einstein-Rosen bridge is the looking glass from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. On one side of the looking glass is the countryside of Oxford, England. On the other side is the fantasy world of Wonderland, to which Alice is instantly transported when she puts her finger through the glass.

Wormholes are a favorite plot device in the movies.

Wormholes are a favorite plot device in the movies. Han Solo sends the Millennium Falcon through hyperspace by propelling it through a wormhole. The refrigerator that Sigourney Weaver’s character opens in Ghostbusters is a wormhole through which she peers at an entire universe. In C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the wardrobe is the wormhole connecting the English countryside to Narnia.