Push your imagination forward about 50 years. I think we'll be ready to create space-going vehicles with the capacity to travel at near light speeds and therefore would be able to reach other star systems in a reasonable time.
A very interesting news story today (link) made me think about the future and how human colonisation might work. Assuming our species lives another 50 years we might be able to set out on a journey to distant worlds. Let's say we can make it to Gliese 581 in about 30 years and colonise it. That would make the first humans born on another planet in about 80 years. They would be teenagers in about 100 years from today.
If they do not wear "corrective" spectacles then their eyes will develop very differently from their parents'. The sun around which Gliese 581 orbits is a red dwarf and therefore emits very red light, rather than a sort of yellow that our sun emits. This would mean that the cones in their eyes will be different so that they can see the detail on their native planet.
Imagine one of these people returning to Earth. How will their vision cope? Presumably they will see things very differently (probably everything will appear green since their red/green cones will have developed differently).
An interesting side affect of colonisation? Certainly it's something Star Trek never mentions!
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