A Miracle of Science - Mars and Martians

Mars and Martians

Martians are humans from the planet Mars. "Mars" refers to both the planet and the group mind of all living Martians. Martians are still individuals, though individuals can have the group mind act through them (whereupon their eyes turn black) to communicate messages. Martians tend to be informal, preferring to use first names in conversation.

Mars was settled by American and Chinese missions, which eventually developed into science and artisan communities (determined by matrilineality). Communication within a community is easy, but between them requires face-to-face interaction.

Martian technology is very advanced in comparison to the rest of humanity:

• Mars began the Terraforming of Venus, Ganymede, and Titan.
• They developed the FTL communications network used by everyone in the solar system.
• Thaddeus Quevillion expects to be able to restart Martian plate tectonics to make the atmosphere self-sustaining.
• The vectored air shield allows a Martian to levitate, exist in vacuum, and deflect projectiles. It can be extended to cover nearby people.
• Nanotechnology allows many things, including forming furniture out of the floor, repairing broken bones in seconds, and reconstituting existing objects into usable materials.
• Autofactories allow manufacture of just about anything the factory can be programmed for.

After starting the terraforming of other worlds in the solar system, the Martians isolated themselves from the rest of humanity for a century, recontacting the rest of humanity just a few years before the story starts.

Quotations:

• "It must be nice to be omnipotent." "Not omnipotent, merely extremely powerful." -- Benjamin/Mars
• "I saw nothing that wasn't out in the open." "It's only out in the open if you have networking built into your head and a planetary brain backing you up." -- Caprice/Benjamin
• "Is this a common thing for Martians, re-entering without a spacecraft?" "Actually, it's never been done before." -- Benjamin/Caprice
• "Ah Mars. I wondered when you'd be showing up." "We are always here. We just usually choose to be silent." "Great. I'm sure I'll be hearing that in my nightmares for years to come." Benjamin/Mars (via Caprice)/Benjamin
• "I've been on Mars for five minutes and already my brain hurts." -- Benjamin
• "Hundreds of billions of stars. All empty of intelligent life. An infinity of darkness, containing us...and you." -- Caprice speaking to Benjamin
• "We keep telling the boys in science that stellifying Jupiter would just be gauche." -- a Martian
• "Mars likes you." "That's like saying "Brazil has decided you're cute."" -- Caprice/Benjamin
• "Does it hurt, not being able to hear other people's thoughts?" "I didn't used to think so." -- Martian boy/Benjamin
• "I'm Martian. We always remember." -- Caprice
• "The Solar Parliament requires that Mars have a government, so we cobbled one together." -- Caprice
• "The Venusians probably shouldn't have used Martian equipment to build their Martian detectors." -- Caprice
• "Any device complex enough to detect Martians is going to eventually become self-aware." -- Caprice