The complete understanding of the human genome allowed for marvels of science. For starters, a lot of the “welfare diseases” were eradicated completely. People rarely got ill from diabetes, cancer or cardiovascular diseases anymore. As the population grew older, they also grew healthier.

The understanding of the human genome also promised a new humanity, adapted to the myriads of worlds out there. Up to this point, “race” was a difficult and controversial concept, as there were no discrete boundaries between the races. “Ethnic groups” was in many cases a better concept than “race”, but even there matters often blurred. In the fast-moving global community of early space travel Earth, both race and ethnic group blended and became irrelevant. The colonization of the Solar system and its planets and moons changed that.

As Mankind settled on the many worlds, they had to adapt to their new environment. The new worlds of Mankind were so different that in order to stay human in appearance, humans had to adapt to the new environments. These adaptations were artificially created rather than randomly through mutations, giving the most nominal-looking adaptations an edge in the procreation game.

For instance, a “nominal” human born on the Moon would grow well above seven foot tall and be thin as a pole. In order for the Lunarian to look like a Terran – which by all means still is the human ideal – the Lunarian morphology and metabolism had to be modified for the lower Lunar gravity. On the other hand, a Lunarian born on Earth would be short, stocky and muscular.

Distance, time and above all gravity consolidated the adaptations and reintroduced the race concept to the species. Europids, Ganymedians, Callistians, Titans and Lunarians could easily travel between each others’ worlds, as they had similar gravity, but not to Earth and only briefly and with difficulty to Mars. Martians could freely visit all other worlds except Earth; the mother planet would simply crush them. Terrans could go anywhere, but if they stayed for too long without regular exercise, there was the risk of never being able to return. Belters are a special case: as the asteroid belt colonies or the colonies in high orbit are not restricted by any ground, they can create their own gravity through simple means like rotation to suit their fancy. Hence belters are used not only to different gravities ranging from zero to one Earth gravity, but also varying gravities.