1 Abram (1996). In Abram’s original formulation, more-than-human designated a context, including plants, animals and ecosystems. In the spirit of that definition, in this essay, I focus on ‘naturally occurring’ more-than-humans, rather than on technological devices—such as tools, machines, or algorithms—crafted by humans.

2 We may not be mostly bacteria, but a substantial part of us is. See Abbott (2016).

3 Natureculture is a concept developed by Donna Haraway (2003) to indicate that culture and nature are inseparable and mutually constitutive.

4 For Sophia Roosth (2017) ‘the difference between synthetic biologists’ impulses and earlier examples of biological experimentation is that they do not make living things in the service of experimental research alone. Rather, making is also an end in itself’ (4).

5 Here, Christina Sharpe’s words are appropriate. ‘Every memorial and museum to atrocity already contains its failure’ (2023, 38).

6 Sand is already facing a global shortage. See UN Environment Programme 2023.

7 Sahlins, who frequently used this expression, was paraphrasing (and slightly modifying) Emile Durkheim’s dictum that ‘a science of the future has no subject matter’ (Sahlins 2002, 49). Michel-Rolph Trouillot makes a corollary point when he writes that the ‘past has no content’ (1995, 15).