Living in Their World

I frowned. ‘‘They’re just bacteria. They don’t think or plan. They just . . . exist.’’ ‘‘Just exist? They do things we only dream of. They are fecund and potent, they can speak to one another with chemicals and light, they can form teams—oh, the teams they can form. Millions strong, all working together perfectly. If we could cooperate like that—if we could even get close—we would have all of our problems solved. They can live at the bottom of the ocean. They can live in volcanos. They can live forever.’’ Well: my comrades below had sent me to the right person. This was a man who loved microbes.—Robin Sloan (Sourdough)