Grass, a current omnipresent symbol of civilization. Grass lands as a means for livestock pasture has existed long before “the lawn”. The lawn originated as a way for aristocrats in Western Europe to look out over their kingdom and see if intruders were approaching. It quickly became a status symbol and is now synonymous with suburbia. People pay to keep their monoculture in perfect shape. Machines were invented and built to make sure that not a single blade is uneven with the next.

Everywhere I have visited has grass, at least somewhere. I took it as a given. That is until I went to Arizona. Grass no longer lined the divided highways and sidewalks. Everywhere you looked was concrete, no grassy green disruption from the gray cement. Up until then, I didnʼt even realize much I took for granted little moments of greenery.

Will grass exist in future dystopias/utopias? Will Mark Zuckerbergʼs metaverse contain grassy lawns as a status symbol? Is there grass in the interstitial space of the internet?

How will post-human bodies experience the world? As the climate begins to change and natural catastrophes become more pervasive, will bodies evolve to sense solar flares and the various forms of radiation associated with them? Will we genetically modify grass to maintain the façade that our world is habitable? Will bodies evolve to sense different pollutions and what will that sensory apparatus feel like? Will those who mutate to possess these senses be inducted into society as menaces or gods? Will racial lines be drawn by those who can breathe CO2 versus those who breathe carbon monoxide, or perfluorocarbons (PFCs)? Will plants and bacteria adapt to harness a greater wavelength of electromagnetic radiation? Will humans engineer devices to achieve these senses in the near-term as the world changes and will they be implanted or augment our existing body in some way we cannot yet comprehend?