# Our Descendants May Be Artificial Life Forms by John C. Mather > “So here we are in 2012, with people writing essays and wondering whether their descendents will be artificial life forms travelling back into space.” > **— John C. Mather**, *2012, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT, OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Cosmic Complexity](https://www.edge.org/responses/what-is-your-favorite-deep-elegant-or-beautiful-explanation) — the official response page preserves this exact, continuous passage and its surrounding argument. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2012 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2012 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the response object and all canonical reminder links derived from it. - **Textual provenance note:** Edge's response page spells ‘descendants’ as `descendents`; the published spelling is retained. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/MARS|MARS]] - **Article:** [[articles/Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s|AI in the 1970s]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|Never Going to Make It!]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - [[wiki/Superintelligence|Superintelligence]] - [[wiki/Posthumanism|Posthumanism]] - [[wiki/Technological Evolution|Technological Evolution]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “So here we are in 2012, with people writing essays and wondering whether their descendents will be artificial life forms travelling back into space.” — John C. Mather, 2012, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT, OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-john-mather-descendants-artificial-life-forms ```