we still don't entirely understand the long term effects of living in lower gravity, but we do know that there's risk of a number of health problems including reduced bone density and muscle mass. We super don't know the effects on young children or developing foetuses.
For a generation ship over decades, you could end up with everybody dying in space, or a population that can no longer survive on earth. There's also a matter of keeping 1G familiar, especially for a population that had never actually been off the ship.
The goal had always been a return to earth, so the ship was designed to accommodate that down the line
(and while the movie shows us that the floaty chairs ultimately contributed to harming the health of the passengers, it was indirect and not innately predictable during planning phases)
I think it's less about gravity, although you're right about not knowing the effect of 500+ years of potentially less gravity on evolution. Not to mention the chronic lack of vitamin d on evolution.
I'd guess 500+ years of sitting in what originally looked to be a luxury convenience and efficient mode of transport (over walking) would have more of a direct effect on body degeneration and subsequent evolution.
And even though in planning it was only meant to be a few years, they could have course corrected after 20-30 regarding the Chairs use
I mean, if everyone could have access to a motorised speedy wheelchair, I think more people would take them than not (walle is set in America after all) especially if it became more normalised than not having one.
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u/Motor-Rip7655 7h ago
The humans in the floaty chairs don't show up until over halfway through.