Panthropy

The pantropy (pantropy) is a term used in the field of science fiction coined by James Blish in a series of stories that in 1957 he would gather under the title of Stellar Seeds (The Seedling Stars). The word is formed from the Greek words παν (pan, everything) and τρoπή (tropé, transformation).

Pantropy appears as an alternative to the concept of terraforming to carry out the colonization of other planets: while the latter has as its objective the alteration of the planet in order to be able to be inhabited with some ease by humans, pantropy adopts the opposite solution: instead of adapting the environment to man, it is the The human being itself is modified, generally through genetic engineering techniques, to adapt to all kinds of alien environments.

Other works that use the still not very exploited concept of pantropy are the story Call me Joe (1957; Call me Joe), by Poul Anderson, Homo plus (1976; Man Plus) by Frederik Pohl and Terra Formars (テラフォーマーズ) (2011), Japanese manga.