The CO2 fertilization effect and plant-based futures. A place that is visually greener (i.e., has more vegetation than concrete) is both felt and quantified to be more sustainable. From 1980-2010, there has been a persistent and widespread increase of growing season integrated leaf area index LAI (literal greening) between 25-50% of the global vegetated area. The greening of the planet since the year 2000 represents an increase in LAI of plants equivalent to the area covered by all the Amazon rainforests combined. Quantitatively, there are now more than two million square miles of extra green leaf area per year, compared to the early 2000s. For those who like Texas analogies, this is like having eight additional Texases worth of green in the world since 2000.
Both theory and experimental observations show that with rising atmospheric CO2, a process known as the CO2 fertilization effect (CFE) increases productivity in plants. The physiological response of plants to CO2 and elevated temperatures is well-known. CO2 drives photosynthesis and higher temperatures allows plant stomata to stay open longer to take in more CO2, resulting in accelerated growth. Elevated temperatures and CO2 concentrations are the same inputs used by greenhouse operators to boost yields in commercial crops. Other field data reaffirms that crop yields are boosted by CFEs and may be the hidden driver of U.S. farm output efficiency that has grown by 170% since 1948.
The astounding result of the CFEs across the globe points in the direction that there is no better time to perform graceful adaptations at the ecological interface of human/plant relationships. Enhanced CFE might mean urban farmers can grow more food with less land area, countries can reforest with native species via automated drone planting, and other geographic areas can break India’s world record of planting 50 million trees in one day. Many designs harnessing CFEs with currently available technologies to increase plant biomass already exist and are waiting to be implemented.
As CFEs boost conventional crop yield, it is likely that CFEs likely boost bioengineered crop yield currently in rotation (e.g., golden rice, biofortified cassava, high oleic soybeans, omega-3 canola, orange bananas, etc.). We might further leverage CFEs in bioengineered plants through enhancing existing photosynthetic machinery. For example, the more biotechnologically inclined could leverage enzyme engineering techniques to optimize rubisco activase (the key enzyme involved in enhancing the rate of photosynthesis). Plants could be engineered to overexpress such optimized enzymes in their tissues; further enhancing the already prominent CFE observed across many plant species. Not so futuristically, tools to computationally design/optimize and experimentally build/test enzymes like rubisco activase already exist. However, adventurous souls are needed to optimize rubisco activase and determine if/how optimized enzymes can be expressed in specific plants able to retain CFE-like traits; as to boost growth/yield across landscapes (e.g., forests, farmland, backyard greenhouse).
Another promising area is in understanding growth/productivity of plants successfully enhanced with CFE-traits in the presence of bioinoculants (i.e., tailored soil microorganisms that boost plant growth and soil health). There are nitrogen fixing microbial fertilizers used as bioinoculants for commercial crops, designed and deployed to outperform/replace chemical fertilizers; increasing yield and decreasing negative effects of excess nutrient runoff. Crops can also be augmented with extremophile bioinoculants that are proven to encourage plant growth in extreme conditions (e.g., saline, high temperature, drought). Coupling traditional cultivation techniques with desalination/hydroponics technologies are already showing promise of growing food in previously inaccessible environments (e.g., growing tomatoes in deserts with desalinated water on no soil). Taken together, exploring novel combinations of CFE-enhanced crops, bioinoculants, and modern cultivation techniques are likely to extend human adaptation toward generating plant biomass in new environments.
Wendell Berry’s term “genius of place” refers to the unique qualities, characteristics, and spirit of unique geographic locations. We need new experiments to determine which combinations of agricultural technologies/tools work best to generate biomass within the genius of place. If such experiments are successful, we might begin to democratize guerilla gardening tools that allow anyone to grow more biomass anywhere (e.g., abandoned lots, ditches, deserts). Such tools can enable individuals to contribute to further CFE-based greening of our planet and encourage myopic stewardship of plants.
Plant subordinate. Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire presents the idea that humans do not have sole control over our relationships with plants; in that plants continuously shape human desires, culture, and evolution in a way that sustains their own survival and proliferation. His examples include: 1) apples that have seduced humans into cultivating them by satisfying our desire for sweetness and 2) psychoactive plants (e.g., cannabis) that evolved to appeal to the human seeking of altered states of consciousness. Many varieties of apple/cannabis cultivars that wouldn’t survive in the wild are now propagated worldwide; shaping human cultures in ways that continue their propagation.
CFE-enhanced plants are but the next installment in the Botany of Desire; where CFE-enhanced plants have quietly domesticated humans to facilitate the arrival of the perfect greenhouse conditions for their growth and survival. The ability to ecologically support more plants in previously inaccessible environments, augmented by artificial intelligence, imbues plants with novel capabilities to exert ever more control/influence over future human culture than ever before.
Over time, CFE-enhanced plants will generate a new-to-nature human subspecies…
Homo botanicus dominatus, 2053
When the global mass of the built environment (anthropomass) exceeded plant mass, homo sapiens had an awakening: the built environment would be used as a substrate on which to grow new biomass. This period marked the dawn of the Botanocene.
In urban areas, an outbreak of governance concluded that hurried city dwellers did not have time or lawns on which to grow augmented plants enhanced with more efficient photosynthetic traits and/or bioinoculants (now called synplants). Urban flora development funds were deployed to enable veggie, flower, herb, and salad green synplants to be grown at home in easy to use, AI-facilitated, hydroponic chambers that autonomously take care of synplant water, air, and light needs (now called ecochambers). Urban flora development subsidized the AI and electrical utility fees so that most apartment dwellers could participate in growing plants of their choice within ecochambers. With a unique combination of online seed ordering systems, open source seed repositories, and robotics-driven cyanobacterial 3D printers that grow ecochambers, entire cities began germinating/growing soil-less synplants in a fraction of the time their forebears used to.
Over time, Homo botanicus dominati became the electronic cocoons that harbored nonlocal information/materials for synplants to generate more of their own biomass without soil. Just like cordyceps force eusocial ants to hike to the highest tree; synplants have thus forced eusocial humans to grow more of them above the highest canopy in urban skyscrapers from Dubai to New York. As sessile beings, synplants performed this feat without a nervous system and without moving. In the Botanocene, plant moods are not often questioned.
Personal synplant matter (PSM) from individual ecochambers is now taken to the local ‘mill’, where farmacists convert PSM from local producers to supplements and/or medicine. Local mills often buy raw PSM from city dwelling producers, to provide them with excess digital currency (colloquially called ‘digi’). Additional digi is provided to producers that generate the highest yielding synplant raw materials and are given percentages of revenue in the sale of final downstream products for their efforts (i.e., food, fuel, and medicines now called fums in slang). Urban flora planning now takes ranked choice electronic votes on what fums to grow in hanging flower pots on street lamp poles; generating fum of highest public need for the mills.
Societal requests for new fums and prospective demand for common fums are aggregated by AI-enabled software ticketing systems. Livestream metadata of global fum demand is accessible by growers’ personal AI assistants. AI-assistants perform personal grower analyses based on sliding scales of grower mood preference and local inputs (e.g., most lucrative plant to grow with fastest turnaround time on current greywater profile, best medicine to grow on limited phosphorus with high societal need).
AI-enabled grower analysis is listed in option form to users’ neural interface (NI) in mixed-reality, where an upward facing left blink facilitates the one-blink digicount purchase of synplant seeds that will accomplish grower goals on available inputs. While the seeds are in transit to individuals, integrated AI on user ecochambers begins adjusting environmental conditions within the ecochamber that are unique to each seed selection.
Ecochambers are manufactured at the point of need by robotic 3D printing of cyanobacterial-derived cellulose. Single palm-sized biorobotic arms control the growth/direction of cellulose deposits from specialized cyanobacteria, through light and previously programmed teach points; growing ecochambers toward a set size/shape in a period of weeks. After growth/curing of ecochambers, users ship the palm-sized biorobotic arm back to the manufacturer to recharge with cyanobacterial template resin. For additional digi, users order off-template ecochambers in the architectural style of their choosing. The latest viral sensation on neural feed has been an off-template ecochamber is tomatoes grown inside the architectural style of Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia.
Artists, recently inspired by ancient 20th century 40-fruit trees, have extended ecoengineered art toward the growth of 50-herb personal shrubs. Design protocols for 50-herb shrubs are expected to become available in upcoming ecochamber substrates, within the next 5 growth seasons. Landscape architects are now growing winter wall crops of u-pick, vitamin C-enriched, soil-free, 10-berry bushes, whose leaves reduce residual air pollutants and fruits can be picked during the pre-winter months to prevent common colds for 22digi per u-pick session.
Homo botanicus dominatus, 2082
Most apartment complexes have now become various forms of ecological production systems of plant barter; where plant artisans grow and trade novel varieties of unwilded herbs, spices, fruits, and vegetables; avoiding the hassle of haggling with AI attendants over 60digi for ifeelike basil and 35digi for ifeelike cauliflower at WholeMoods. WholeMoods reluctantly changed their name from WholeFoods in the 2071, due to cultural shifts in which plants became a mood not a food and inspired the ifeellike brand. WholeMoods is considering closing their plant department due to lack of demand. Producer reports are predicting that the era in centralized herb production may be coming to an end within 4 grow seasons, largely due to increased PSM production and trade by the open source herbalist movement.
For decades, ecoengineered plants have been grown with fewer resources, are producing higher yields, and are enhancing human nutrition profiles. Microfloralogists have recently isolated new to nature microbial consortia in the human gut and are exploring the longevity properties of such microbes for extending the current 89-year average human lifespan. Designer microbial consortia are now available in pill form for 5,000digi per dose that claim to be “nature’s life elixir”’; however, it is unclear if the purported
youthicrobe juice is worth the squeeze. Some new anecdotes are reporting that the youthicrobe pills are being called dog bones, as dog bones extend life on the order of 7 years.
Some recent non-digi efforts have focused on urban growth operations for neglected upwestern diseases. Such efforts have focused on commissioning translocal AIs for growing/shipping precision antibiotic leaves to those suffering from a novel fruit-borne infection, incurred during control efforts of rapidly encroaching 10-berry overgrowth in the upwestern territories. Bioinoculation of concrete structures to grow 10-berries has led to an increased rhizome spread in built structures. The winter strawberry presented on bioinooculated concrete has been found to carry a novel strain of bacteria that causes GI issues in humans. However, such bacteria have not been found to affect the migratory avian population that now feeds on ‘concrete strawberries’ or what locals call ‘creteberries’. This emergent phenomenon has led to a territory-wide recall on creteberries and system wide alerts for human avoidance of future creteberries.
Homo botanicus dominatus, 2101
All cause urban air quality is rising and all cause mortality across indicator species is falling. People now consider AI as a type of abacus on the way to EI (ecological intelligence). EI is becoming an established technology, where mashups of human-machine intelligences within software are being leveraged to understand metabolic/bioelectromagnetic plant memory languages. New products using EIs now include functional 4D electrobiological materials that integrate ecochamber designs into materials that respond to multi-plant stimuli in real time.
New EI-chambers are turnkey 4D materials that can change design to meet grower needs but also sense local ecological signals (e.g., combinations of chemical, weather, and electromagnetic emissions from local ecologies). After verification from specific thought patterns in producer neural interfaces, EI-chambers change shape over several weeks time to anticipate what PSM ought to be grown.
Neural-interfaces have been recently augmented with Large Gaiain Models, allowing human users to interpret how sets of local natural systems feel that day. So far, the models have incorporated plant memory into metaversal chat interfaces called ‘Pleople’, in which people/plant conversations occur over periods of weeks to months. As plants speak a slower biochemical/electromagnetic language, the timescale of chat has had to be adjusted accordingly. Pleople has allowed PSM producers to consider new growth-chamber modifications through plant/human intelligence augmented reality (PHIAR), mediated through EI, to improve both plant/human relations and overall PSM productivity.
Pleople has started to influence an emerging realm of light cafes, as adoption of bioink synplant tattoos have recently taken off as both a practical human augment and a fashion statement in their own right. EIs are able to change bioink styles if desired, providing a unique personalized leaf vein from ear to crown
(what Pleople is calling the skinopy) that shapes the human neural interface. Skinopy tattoos are also practical, possessing photosynthetic machinery that converts sunlight into monosaccharides for the brain; bypassing the need to generate as much food for the human gut. New pop-up light cafes are becoming more popular, consisting of elaborate light hookahs that human groups use to shine on their skinopy tattoos. Tableside neural ports at light cafes are becoming equipped with PHIAR-EIs, allowing skinopy tattoos to converse in plant languages and change shape based on their conversations. New courtship behaviors of the younger generation are becoming based on unique combinations of skinopy leaf shape and Pleople chat communicated via neural interfaces in PHIAR environments; while older generations don’t know why anyone would want a skinopy tattoo and why people talk through this fire thing.
Homo botanicus dominatus, 2110
New issues with EI-chambers and insect allies have arisen; where a growing number of synthetic colony nectar bees have determined how to interfere with EI-chambers and teach the social behavior to non-local colonies. Nectar bees are beginning to perform unique waggle dances in response to bioelectromagnetic signals generated by crosstalk between EI-chambers and Pleople-designed plant species that grow more rapidly than all previous cultivars.
Through Pleople EIs, humans were convinced of saving seeds of synplants that produced ever faster germination and time to maturity rates; resulting in flowering of synplant species in a few days time. The seeds were propagated widely at open source seed repositories and shipped worldwide. This resulted in new to nature products like 5-day zucchini, 3-day squash, and 4-day herbs. Synthetic colony nectar bees have grown increasingly interested in entering the chambers at specific flowering periods and become enamored by scent profiles of certain herbs that flower at unprecedented rates.
Experts currently think new nectar bee adaptations to be due to a mixup in pollinator attractant profile generated by the EI-chamber and premature blooming of two-day basil flowers (quickly becoming one-day basil). As a result, nectar bees are causing chambers to shift shape without thought pattern verification from human neural interfaces, ultimately disrupting many livelihoods in the community commons herb trade. This ecoincidence is so far said to be contained to chambers of two-day basil growers. EI-users of two-day basil seeds commonly complain that their ecochambers quickly become transparent beeswax barrels, unresponsive to neural interface inquiry and thus unable to adjust chambers to align with new growth protocols.
Transparent beeswax barrels that house new synthetic colonies are growing exponentially, resulting in uncontrollable growth of synthetic nectar bee colonies in human compartments in Urbania. Some human compartments have been abandoned entirely, due to nectar bee colony overgrowth. Little can be done about the nectar bee overgrowth, as pollinator species are no longer considered pests but allies.
Outlawed 15 years ago, no allicides in chemical form exist. Now, Growthorities are continuously seeking bioelectronic and/or architectural versions of chambers that confuse or deter continued nectar bee colonization.
New gathervals have arisen in upwestern colonies surrounding the discovery of new beehaviors in synthetic colonies. Neural porting will be available for CityBee Jazztronic Fest in Fall 2108. Excess digi from saxolin quintet performance and laser-lilly exhibition will be sent to raise cog-aware digi for ally management of synthetic nectar bee colonies in Urbania.
Homo botanicus dominatus, 2112
So many human compartments in Urbania have been supplanted by synthetic nectar bee colonies that inflatable habitat human colonies have been established in Woodregion4, outside Urbania. Human migration from established human compartment complexes Urbania-wide is now imminent. Bee/Human interspecies relations have declined to a century low.
Inflatable habitats, made from scrap shape memory bioalloy, were originally made for space-faring peoples; however, have made a comeback in recent years due to the great Urbania displacement by nectar bees. Portable, insulated, dry, and spacious, they are becoming a boon for the colonies in Woodregion4. Local Growthorities are encouraging production of more inflatables for the other colonies, but production has been slowed by inedible 5-day squashkin overgrowth that tends to clog main access roads. Maintenance crews are being deployed but have faced setbacks, due to limited staff.
It is currently unknown what the human population is, but there is still a version of Pleople chat that produces feelings that numbers are lower than expected. Synthetic nectar bee removal mechanics with thought interface beecryption experience have been hard to staff for ally management; specifically, in dismantling/processing nectar bees that are converting human compartments into waxy megastructures. Botanolinguists are still needed, to engage bees for improved interspecies relations and to generate new chambers to reboot PSM production.
While unfortunate for previous human occupants, the nectar bee takeover has been a boon for neural-port gaming; as the bee-milled megastructures are considered attractive targets for automated drones that capture natural images and convert the renderings for real time neural environments in new parkour gaming adventures.
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This is an award-winning entry for the Ideas Writing Challenge