ABSTRACT
Humanity is on a quest to improve the species, marshal the forces of nature, and reshape the universe. Vladimir Vernadsky's noosphere corresponds to its meaning in the expansionary vision of the human future. In Vernadsky's theory humankind would eventually expand the noosphere–human consciousness and intelligence–into nearby space and eventually into the farther reaches of the solar system and beyond. Interestingly, purposive self-development will lead to moderate modifications in the human genome at the subgroup level. The laws of physics appear to be expressly designed for the emergence of human beings. Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky wrote a seminal work in 1932 entitled Cosmic Philosophy. In this work he combined religion, morality, space science, and human destiny into a utopian vision of the future, one in which science and technology are harnessed to attain universal happiness. Like Freeman Dyson, Michio Kaku takes the long view of human development clearly influenced by expansionary Russian cosmism school.
