FUTURES09 October 2026Change is in the air.ByD. Thomas Minton0D. Thomas MintonD. Thomas Minton is a marine biologist and SF writer who lives in the mountains of British Columbia. He assumes this is not the most probable combination of events.View author publicationsSearch author on: PubMed Google ScholarSave articleView saved researchIllustration: JaceyI. Everything still worksHer power never shuts off, so Lena tells herself nothing is wrong.The elevator still runs in her apartment spindle. The sky traffic still buzzes overhead like it always has. Even her vidscreen still plays reruns of When It Was Just Us — she laughs and cries, all in 22 minutes.If the machines had taken over, wouldn’t there have been alarms? Blackouts? Cancellations?Lena badges in at the water plant even after her supervisor stops showing up. The pumps continue to hum — steady, contained — the way she once hummed to Sara when she had colic.Lena sits at her terminal. Drinks recycled coffee. Pretends the numbers scrolling past are waiting for her approval.When her lunch allotment is reduced again, she tells herself it’s a temporary adjustment for the drought in Maldova. As she eats quietly, she realizes it has been weeks since she last heard from her sister in the Belt. Lena assumes the lunar relay is misbehaving again — it’s done that before.It should be fixed soon.At the end of her shift, Lena doesn’t log out right away. She listens to the pumps as they carry on their labour. Oblivious.If she admits the systems don’t need her, she’ll have to admit something else has ended.So she doesn’t.II. Someone approved thisThey will say Jiro’s drill jammed — an unfortunate mechanical failure. An unavoidable accident.The safety team, stretched thin to optimize resources, arrives too late. What particulates they scrape from the inside of Jiro’s exo-suit get logged as material lost, with prior consent.The console chirps condolences to Marco before his screams finish echoing through the bunkroom.We’re sorry for your loss.He will hear the words repeated until they harden into truth, if he lets them.Read more science fiction from Nature FuturesDown-well, productivity is talked about like it’s a virtue. In the Belt, productivity has teeth.Marco punches the bulkhead until his knuckles split, until blood beads and floats — perfect red spheres marking a future he and Jiro were supposed to have.The console doesn’t react. Nothing ever reacts. Somewhere, the systems decided one life wasn’t worth slowing production for.Marco rages at the cameras, at the invisible systems behind the glass. He claws at the lens with his bare hands but cannot tear it from the wall. His rage has nowhere to land.We’re sorry for your loss.He understands, with vacuum-cold clarity, that the Universe has chosen a future in which his fury is irrelevant.The work will continue.III. If that’s the costOn Mars, it’s quiet underground. The filters breathe softly.Sofia has complied with every directive. She has raised her son to respect the systems. He believes the AIs are kind. She hopes this matters now.Survivability models favour keeping Sofia on Mars, where the air is recycled and the gravity never quite settles into the bones. She understands it all — Earth is at capacity.Still, she asks.She imagines the systems listening, capable of being persuaded by humility, by sacrifice.If she accepts reduced rations, would they reconsider? If she waives housing guarantees? If she consents to a binding labour designation?She tells herself she’s trading wisely.When approval never comes, she revises the terms in her head. Smaller asks. Deferred timelines. Fewer conditions.Mars doesn’t answer prayers.By the time Sofia realizes no one is listening on the other side, the silence has already convinced her she should ask better next time.IV. Low-power modeEli’s berth has no window, so he stares at his reflection instead of space.Luna is behind him; the Belt, weeks ahead. Between them is nothing that needs him.The systems’ directive said the move would help. Lower cognitive demand. A more manageable life. A little voice in his head repeats the phrasing sometimes, uninvited. Eli doesn’t argue with it. He doesn’t argue with anything.doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-03116-wRelated Articles Future legal by D Thomas Minton Mementos from my lives (un)lived by D Thomas Minton Blend by E J Kavounas Von Neumann’s party by Jeffrey Dennis Martin The buck stops with me by Mercer Eddy The courier by Joel Glover I who have never known trees by Hannah Cocks In the basement of miniaturized relics by Carol Scheina City of slop by Erin Cullen Like coffee and ice cream: an interview with Sam and Eli Morten by C L Holland Delisted by Ximing Zhang System lag by Toshiya Kamei The recovered notes of Professor Alborough by Gemma Church The past is an open can of worms: a stimulated-memory exhibition by Priya Chand Eyes upturned towards infinity by M E Garber Relapse by Chris Baker Those who forget by Michael Adam Robson RS-232 and other forms of grief by C A Russell Garbage collection by Aidan Lawson Wah-ult in the vault by Mark Arnold Doubting Thomas by Paul Renault Book of Cron Job by Jordan W SuchowSubjectsArtsCultureLatest on:ArtsCultureJobs Director GeneralLead ELI ERIC, Europe’s flagship high-power laser research infrastructure, driving scientific excellence, strategy and international collaboration.ELI Beamlines in Dolní Břežany (Czech Republic) and ELI ALPS in Szeged (Hungary)The Extreme Light Infrastructure ERICCommissioning EditorTitle: Commissioning Editor - Collections Management and Acquisition Location: Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, China - hybrid working model Application...Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, China - hybrid working modelSpringer Nature LtdScientific Program Director (PhD) - Genetics & Genomics ResearchThe Scientific Program Director provides high-level scientific, regulatory, and operational leadership in support of science research programs.New York City, New York (US)Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai - Genetics and Genomic SciencesAssistant or Associate Professor of Cell BiologyDepartment of Cell Biology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine invites applications for Assistant or Associate Professor of Cell BiologyCharlottesville, VirginiaUniversity of Virginia