Noor Al Omran

Humans are adaptive creatures. We are constantly conforming and shapeshifting to fit the circumstances and conditions of our environment. Here, we confront the realities of evolution through the examination of a unique feature, adaptability. In doing so, we look at some of the ways in which the natural world provides as with a range of examples that pertain to the resilience, survival, and reproduction of species. But at the same time, this feature of adaptability crosses boundaries into more sophisticated parts of our life including the ways in which we interact with the inanimate parts of our environment as well as species of plants, animals, and microorganisms. It is interesting to note the effect that we, as a cultural species, are having on the environment and the ways in which the environment comes back to affect us. This crosstalk is the topic of this anthology and a way in which we organize and cultivate growth and maturity, as a species.

Wishful idealism, youthful optimism, and a rose-tinted romanticism of the world is a somewhat necessary precondition for ambition, dreams, and ways of life. However, when these ideals get tested in the crucible of reality, the space for naivete is very limited. Oftentimes, there is a rite of passage, with maturity and age, whereby an individual or a collective may abandon a past, perhaps more innocent outlook, in exchange for a more realistic one. That being said, sometimes this realism, if not properly tempered, can produce a type of jaded complacency that can spiral into loneliness, despair, or detachment. The rise of social media, new pandemic variants, and endeavours that tread further and further beyond familiar terrains put our ideas and ideals to the test and ask us to consider and reconsider our realities in the context of both hope and rationality.

In the contemporary world, the Anthropocene has become a deeply societal and personal term to express the end of civilization and culture. The culture wars, a raging pandemic, and the realities of climate change haunt and wreak havoc on the planet, in ways that are real and ethereal. However, perhaps all this demise is a consequence of the nature that certain objects, systems, and people interact with one another. Whether it be an anterior cruciate ligament tear or a greater tear in the fabric of our society, the aggressive contacts between moving parts can lead to injury. That being said, these tears can be healed and there are ways in which we can support and destabilize that healing. In this anthology, we synergized a spectrum of stories, science, and syntheses (in a somewhat silly sibilance).