Pantropy

From Gothpoodle

A term coined by writer James Blish (from the Greek, grow anywhere), this is the philosophy of adapting humans to live and work in hostile environments. The benefits of pantropy are reduced life-support costs and, if long-term colonization is planned, greater psychological stability. The latter comes from making people feel they can live comfortably in an alien environment, rather than risking quick death if the supporting infrastructure breaks down.

The pantropy meme has caught on in space. Here, functional radical modifications designed for Martian, Lunar, and microgravity habitats are common. Having extra arms, a prehensile tail, or skin and lungs capable of surviving sudden pressure loss is useful in space. There is a certain social distance among the human-appearing majority on Earth (who may include millions of parahumans, but who usually possess invisible enhancements to intelligence, health, and longevity), the radical transhumanists, and the spacers for whom significant gene altering is fact and necessity of life.