This week, Tyler Young makes his debut in Futures with his legally oriented story Cease and desist. Tyler is a real-life lawyer, though he’s not yet received any extraterrestrial lawsuits. Here he explains what inspired his tale — as ever, it pays to read the story first.

Writing Cease and desist

I think it’s fascinating when courts try to apply legal standards to technological innovations that were often — ahem — mere science fiction when the laws were drafted. This story was inspired by recent court cases in which judges were asked to decide some fundamental, almost existential, questions about life: questions like, can someone own a gene? This story takes that question one step further and asks whether someone can own the basic mechanism of life on Earth and, if so, what would someone do with that right?

Once I settled on the concept for the story, the format — a surreal cease-and-desist letter — fell into place naturally. I’m a practising lawyer, so I’ve read more than my fair share of (sometimes comical) letters like this one.

The best part about writing this story was talking chemistry with my best friend, Professor Aaron Engelhart.