I was invited by editor (and OG cyberpunk ideologue) Bruce Sterling to contribute a story to the 2014 edition of MIT Press’s annual Twelve Tomorrows science fiction anthology.

The resulting story, “Los Piratas del Mar del Plastico” (Spanish for “Pirates of the Plastic Ocean”), is set in an alternate present Almeria, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. The story was strongly informed by the writings of architect Keller Easterling, and by ideas about sociotechnical change derived from social practice theory and actor network theory.

Despite—or perhaps because of?—that theoretical foundation, it was a pretty successful story, having been reprinted in a number of anthologies in the years since its initial publication.