Week 13 Theme 3

Humanity

Sent by Jourdan Beauchamp (local age 31) on December 15, 2510, UTC

Received by Jerome Chang (local age 36) on May 10, 2515, UTC

Dear Jerry,

I hope this letter finds you well. In our profession, I suppose “well” means a steady stream of problems and paying clients to bring them to you. You know well my reasons for joining the expedition – that troubled life I left behind, which, unfortunately meant that I had to part ways with you as well. I hope your business managed to continue without me.

I’m writing to you about a thought that occurred to me recently, something the bright minds at the Space Institute clearly anticipated when they planned our social experiment. Bring families so that the strongest social bonds are preserved. Bring people of every profession to keep the ship running. Require that at least one generation of kids grows up on the ship so that they are not predisposed to build the new colony in Earth’s image. Those make sense. What tipped me off was a recent wave of xenophobia, which had the anthropologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists worried.

It occurred to me that the Space Institute intended for our colony to be the “Adam and Eve” of a new world, and thus wanted to capture the full range of human genetic diversity in this ark. In addition to bringing families instead of unattached individuals and in addition to requiring that the first generation to step foot on the planet be those who don’t have life on earth as a reference point.

Separated by light years, it will be impractical for humanity to stay connected to its colony. The Space Institute clearly saw that, and probably concluded that the best thing they could do would be to guarantee our genetic survival in the evolutionary game. Does it scare you that we might one day meet again, but as Homo Sapiens Terra and Homo Sapiens Secundus, psychologically, politically, culturally, physically incompatible peoples?

I only wish that I could live long enough to see it.

Best wishes,

Jourdan