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Predicting, advancing, and rescuing human life-history strategies and sustainability from extrinsic mortality in extreme-Earth and extra-Earth niches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2025

Kevin B. Clark Open the ORCID record for Kevin B. Clark [Opens in a new window]
Kevin B. Clark*
Affiliation:
Cures Within Reach, Chicago, IL, USA Campus and Domain Champions Program, Multi-Tier Assistance, Training, and Computational Help (MATCH) Track, National Science Foundation’s Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services and Support, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Expert Network, Penn Center for Innovation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA Networks for Life Detection (NfoLD) and Life From Early Cells to Multicellularity (LIFE), Research Coordination Networks, NASA Astrobiology Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA, USA Frontier Development Lab, NASA Ames Research Center and SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, USA Peace Innovation Institute, The Hague, Netherlands Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA Shared Interest Group for Natural and Artificial Intelligence (sigNAI), Max Planck Alumni Association, Berlin, Germany Biometrics and Nanotechnology Councils, Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), New York, NY, USA Data Standards Technical Working Group, National Ecological Observatory Network, National Science Foundation and Battelle, Boulder, CO, USA kbclarkphd@yahoo.com
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

Harsh extreme-Earth and extra-Earth mortality sources pressure countervailing shifts in human life-history traits and survival-reproductive strategies, trading shorter lifespans and reproduction spans to hedge scarce gametes with sex-chromosome resilience. Darwinian trajectories for genotypes and phenotypes nonetheless remain unknown for future Earth-population sustainability and deep-space colonization. Controversial technology-assisted human evolution may be needed to narrow anthropological evolutionary-medicine disparities and prevent Humanity’s extinction.

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Open Peer Commentary
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Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e104
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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