Invasive species are a kind of renegade technology. Whether created by evolution or by culture, we can think of invasive species as more than just zebra mussels or Asian carp. Cultures can also have invasive properties, which enter and mutate other cultural and environmental systems. The movement of western culture into the New World is a salient example of the changes that such introductions can create. And if it weren't for the environmental changes that Europeans made to North America, invasive species like sparrows and starlings would not have had grain to eat or green lawns to grub. I wanted to carry this idea full circle, so I introduced an engineered virus, “Hebbets”, that infected these birds. In the story “Hebbets” actually improves the success of these invasive bird species, causing even greater potential for massive environmental changes. I think that this sequence of environmental transformation from Europeans, birds, and then Hebbets is a good example of the way that Gaia layers one system on top of another to build her complexity.

Our technologies are also strange invaders. They could simply be perceived as extensions of human activity, but they also affect our human “nature”. Technology's affect on our behavior has created massive environmental changes. Like Johnson's ant colony, each individual person can only comprehend a tiny fraction of what is happening to the whole technological system (Johnson 97). Humans can comprehend more than ants, but that also means that there is that much more behavior in the whole system. In this way, I would say that technology has its own “nature”, its own emergence. The system of technology perpetuates itself. And it uses humans to do so. Even if initiated by advertising, human culture increasingly relies on technology for its survival. As individuals we have little control over it. But on a more literal level, we have begun to imagine technologies that would reproduce without the help of humans. Machines and bio-machines will increasingly make copies of themselves the way that the “Hebbets” virus does in my story. The renegade technology of the invasive species comes full circle.