Mocrobial

I think that one of the big things that will change with how we see the world is microbes–which have always shaped our world–we now realize how powerful they are. Because of that, we are both recognizing their power in their ability to evade our control but in their ability to make all the things we want to do easier.

It’s acknowledging the power. They are functionally powerful. They are able to digest food, digest toxins, make things produce food. They are incredible converters of things. They are food producers, energy harvesters. They can manipulate things by changing their genetics.

Microbes have no morals. For a long time we thought they were enemies, and now sometimes we see them as friends. But they are purely extant life forces that we need to learn how to live with. Part of this project was having everything not be about the human.

There is something about wonder. We are entering a new age, another level of personal individual discovery and engagement with the loveliness of the things in the world. Microscopes are much more available. There are opportunities.

Post-antibiotic

When people first found antibiotics, they always knew there was an end date, that they would eventually stop working. It is natural that they are going to change and evolve.

Microbial. From the beginning of the antibiotic age, humans knew it would be a temporary arrangement. Endlessly versatile transformers and producers, microbes would soon evade human control. Microbes have no morals; they are neither enemies nor friends, but purely extant life indifferent to human designs. Learning to live with them brought

, but also a new cultivation of wonder

A cultivation of wonder, the

of their place in the cosmos.