Human history is marked by migration, exploration, and adaptation. This article argues that permanent settlement on Mars should be understood not as an escape from Earth, but as a long-horizon extension of evolutionary and civilizational strategies for resilience, innovation, and continuity. We pair a conceptual synthesis of literature on human dispersal, cultural evolution, technological revolutions, existential risk, space resources, and governance with an exploratory online survey of 519 respondents in China examining attitudes toward Mars migration over a 200-year horizon. The survey is used as a hypothesis-generating case study illustrating how questions of feasibility, fairness, and so... More >