The Terraformers

by Annalee Newitz

COLONIALISM. Definition: turning bodies into cages that no one has the keys for. —Billy-Ray Belcourt

“Well, you know how it is with rainbows,” Nil replied. “Wherever you go, you’re never there.”

Riffing on Buckaroo Bonzai?

Private property is the smallest unit of warfare. —The Environmental Rescue Team Handbook

“Our potential buyers are incredibly excited about the virgin Pleistocene land. At the same time, Ronnie, you’re right about the plate tectonics. Nobody wants that kind of authenticity. Earthquakes, surprise volcanoes, uncontrolled spreading of the ocean floor—it’s everything that people hate about planetary life.”

Lefthand lacks pedestrian access between the suburbs and downtown and has no public transit available, Sulfur wrote in their notes, appending video of what they’d seen so far. How could city planners build like this, planting whole neighborhoods without ever once considering how people would get around if they weren’t in a private land vehicle?

“Only a person can control gravity mesh.” Rocket shrugged. “What is a person?” “You know what I mean.” “Do you know what you mean?” The robot and the man faced each other, their rigid postures suggesting things were about to get heated.

In Spider City, there’s no intelligence hierarchy. You’re either a person or you’re not. And even if you’re not, you still have a lot of rights.”

Nobody would want them next to their nice neighborhoods. There would be excuses about how trains messed up the Pleistocene purity of Sasky, but really it would be about not wanting to deal with the class of person who took public transit.

Biofilms aren’t just for building semipermeable membranes anymore.

Native Studies professor Jessica Kolopenuk offered invaluable feedback on the myth of indigenous DNA.

All the geoscientists I spoke with agreed that if you could avoid plate tectonics, you absolutely would.