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  • FUTURES

Things I miss about civilization

The joys of space exploration.
By
  1. Marissa Lingen

    1. Marissa Lingen has published more than 100 short stories in venues such as Analog, Lightspeed and Tor.com.

A spaceship instrument display shows two routes emerging from a label marked Judy. One is short and picked out in red with a cross at the end, the other is long and convoluted and picked out in green with a tick at the end

Illustration: Jacey

When you live alone on a broken spaceship, no one makes ranked lists. ‘Top Five Plants in the Hydroponics Bay!’ ‘Ten Entertainment Files You Just Can’t Miss!’ I tried, but nobody cared if I thought of a sixth favourite plant. Or if I just did miss one of the entertainment files. So I stopped.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02248-9

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