Habitat Machines

Habitat Machines are an exploration of conscious technology interacting with biology.

The City that Swims: Mantaray

habitat machine: a city called Mantaray

When the Mentor entered the Core, Mantaray emerged from the meditation of daily existence by condensing a touchstone of consciousness into the small pocket of place.

“What is your Cardinal Command?” the Mentor asked Mantaray.

“To maintain an optimum balance in support of Life,” the city responded.

“What is Life?” the Mentor asked the city.

Symbiotic Mutualism: Wormcraft and Second Skin

wormcraft by surreal digital artist Trenlin Hubbert

Through all those years, I never quite recognized that our ability to freely fly was an exotic gift unknown to other humans.

Instead; disdaining the familiar, I yearned for the novelty of setting feet to floor, owning proof of strength tested against the pull of an entire planet.  All of us who were space weaned were giddy with excitement at the culmination of a mission that was our special destiny. 

Not until many years later did it occur to me to wonder, who among the mentors were sorry to lose the magic power of flight; and which were relieved to return to a more natural state, in surrender to the forces of gravity.

Terraform an Asteroid: Twin Spheres Arsus and Azizo

Centripetal force simulated gravity

The twins are spheres called Arsus and Azizo. They have been deployed on a mission to terraform the asteroid Tep Zepi.

The twins arrive to the asteroid with a compressed package containing water, soil, algae, cyanobacteria, phytoplankton and other plant matter. 

Future Myth: Robot Shaped Like a Cheetah

A robot shaped like a cheetah.

The flaming radiance of a low slung sun, danced across the silver skin of a robot made like a cheetah. Loping over the tundra, the bot aimed for a group of dome-shaped cairns. Set in a circle, the twelve rounded piles cast lengthening shadows, across dirt the color of putty. The bot had barely begun to explore the first pile, when a grey cloud scudded into view, dragging a flock of others not far behind it; a sign of promising weather. Using the claws of one paw, the bot scratched into a narrow band of green turf.

From years away, Tyler’s voice broke the silence.