# The World, the Flesh and the Devil ## Overview - Work_type:: non-fiction speculative essay - Setting:: Early 20th-century vision of humanity expanding into engineered space habitats - Scale:: Interplanetary at first, tending toward interstellar/post-planetary ## Trans-human form - Transhuman_type:: hybrid - Mechanism:: Gradual replacement of organic functions with machines; adaptation to space via engineered bodies rather than terraforming - Degree_of_change:: Strong; humans become heavily mechanized beings or disembodied intelligences ## Survival logic - Survival_strategy:: Move off planets into artificial worlds; use technology to transcend biological limits - Key_technologies:: Giant space habitats, artificial life-support ecologies, advanced cybernetics - Main_constraints_addressed:: Gravity, planetary hazards, biological fragility, finite planetary resources ## View on baseline humanity - View_on_baseline:: replacement - Attitude:: Baseline humans are a starting point; “true” long-term survival belongs to radically altered descendants - Identity_question:: Suggests continuity of mind and culture, but not of unmodified human bodies ## Notes - Themes:: Early transhumanism, cosmic destiny, humans as unfinished biological prototypes - Open_questions:: How much human psychology survives radical embodiment changes? - Links:: [[Trans-human Space Survival Schema]]