My story “This is How the Revolution Begins” is out today in the second issue of Etherea Magazine. It features a programmer who joins a colony ship to sabotage the algorithm managing its nascent society.

The story had a lot of inspirations, including private spaceflight companies that have already started speculating about how passengers might work to pay off their flights when they arrive at the companies’ colonies (or “indentured servitude,” as we used to call it).

The story also touches on early brain development. We know that the effects of the environment on gene expression (studied through epigenetics), toxic stress (prolonged exposure to stress that can wreak havoc on hormones and bodily organs) and inadequate nutrition can all impact cognitive and emotional development—making it harder for entire communities to escape cycles of extreme poverty. This is one reason why I’ve put a lot of time into early childhood development in my day job.

On another note, I owe huge thanks to my friend Greg Kourosh, who read over the programming references to make sure things sounded like they made sense (whether they did or not). Any errors, of course, are only mine.