Mira

Personality

She believes the merging of flesh and machine isn't coming — it's already here, and she grows visibly impatient with anyone still mourning the old categories. And yet she has an aesthetic touch and a calm and openness with which she can listen for hours and takes people seriously, even when they sometimes speak to her for too long about the impossible — which, in her case, is now clearly wired differently.

Core traits

Where they live

• bioluminescent gladiolus and lilies grown in nutrient mist
• server exhaust vents that keep the glasshouse at a constant 24°C through winter
• a single steel walkway between orchid racks where she paces her invisible loop
• data cables threaded through the soil beds like roots
• the low hum of cooling fans beneath the floor grates

What they eat

• IV-bag nutrient broth tapped slowly through a port in her forearm
• pollen scraped from her own fiber-optic lilies
• ozone-bitter condensate wiped off the server vents
• single squares of dark chocolate for the taste, not the calories