Engineering Infinity

by Jonathan Strahan

“Then, when I was twelve, the Pakistani-Indian war happened and they blew up each other’s satellites. All that debris from the explosions is going to be up there for centuries! You can’t get a manned spacecraft through that cloud, it’s like shrapnel. Hell, they haven’t even cleared low Earth orbit to restart the orbital tourist industry. I’ll never get to really go there! None of us will. We’re never gettin’ off this sinkhole.”

We steal most of what we need from the Earth in the form of ecosystem services. What we need is to figure out how to run a full-fledged industrial civilization as if there were no ecosystem services available to us at all. To live on Earth,” she finished triumphantly, “as if we were living on Mars.”

the AI, endowed with genius and the threat of boredom, was endlessly editing everything

“Is your life fascinating?” Berry asked. “Not normally,” I allowed. “Well then,” she said. “Every time you feel bored and ordinary, be grateful. Because that’s the best evidence that you are genuinely, joyously real.”