The Terraformers

by Annalee Newitz

We don’t buy into that cesspit logic down here. You’re either alive or not. That’s all that matters.”

Well, for that matter, why does life matter? I DNA alive? Are viruses alive?

and a colony of naked mole rats wearing robes.

How can they be naked if they’re wearing robes?

Rivers might turn out to be people. Don’t make any assumptions.

Mmm... I love this one!

The stars changed as they approached the equator: now the Hand constellation was low in the sky, and the Rocket rose as the sun sank. The four stars representing the Rocket’s exhaust pointed at Earth’s star Sol in the sky, at least under magnification. It was invisible to the naked eye, but always there as a reminder that people came to this world from the stars.

One of the few mentions of Earth.

There was no way I was going to pay off my college debt. I was lucky to get slaved under pretty decent terms.

Pretty fucked up future… 50,000 years in the future and we’re still fucked up like this.

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?

No shit, eh?

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.

Yep. Classism.

He smiled, and his dimpled cheeks made him look less like an H. sapiens and more like a person.

I love the way Newitz challenges me to see h. Sapiens as the abnormal , the alien, the ood one out

linking the cities using train tracks pretty much guarantees that public transit will become obsolete. We need a solution that doesn’t rely on tracks, and can go into the cities when it’s needed.”

Newitz +MUST+ have some other kind of public transport in mind, since she's always trashing trains... Wtf is it?

“We can make flying trains! There is no rule that says the Verdance trains have to run on tracks.” “A train can’t fly.”

Lol ok. There it is. Fucking flying trains. Really?

“I’m sorry, but why are we building vehicles that aren’t people?”

Interesting !

“We of the Boring Fleet are not programmed to enjoy making subterranean infrastructure, but like all creatures, we find it satisfying to do things that our bodies excel at. Just as you hominins like to poke at machines with your hands and run your flappy mouths. And moose like to swim. Our bodies shape what we consider pleasant, whether that’s work or play.”

We ARE our bodies.

A government’s job is to recognize people, to help them make their own agreements with each other

Politics.

If catching a train to Eelside was as easy as catching one downtown, profits would suffer.

One might hope that, in 60,000 years, we'd have evolved past classism.

Wages haven’t kept up with the cost of living, my landlord hiked up the rent, and now I’m out on my ass without a tongue to clean it.

Lol!