Editing Mars trilogy (section)

== Story elements ==

=== Corporations ===
Trans-national Corporations, nicknamed "transnats", are extremely powerful multinational corporations that first emerge in the mid-21st century.  Robinson tracks the evolution of the transnats into what he terms "metanats" (metanational).  These multinational corporations have grown so large as a result of [[globalization]] that they have sufficient economic power to take over or strongly manipulate national governments, initially only relatively small [[Third World|third-world]] governments, but later, larger developed governments too, effectively running whole countries. In Robinson's [[future history]], the metanational corporations become similar to [[nation-state]]s in some respects, while continually attempting to take over competitors in order to become the sole controller of the [[wikt:interplanetary|interplanetary]] [[Market (economics)|market]]. As the ''Mars'' trilogy draws to a close in the mid-23rd century, the metanational corporations are forced by a global [[Disaster|catastrophe]] to concede more democratic powers to their workforces.

Although there are many transnational and metanational corporations mentioned, two play an active role in the development of the plotline: Praxis, a largely benevolent and relatively democratic firm, and Subarashī, which plays a large role in the maltreatment of the citizens of Mars.

=== Genetic engineering ===
Genetic engineering (GE) is first mentioned in ''Red Mars''; it takes off when Sax creates an alga to withstand the harsh Martian temperature and convert its atmosphere into breathable air. Eventually this is done on a massive scale, with thousands of types of GE algae, lichen and bacteria being created to terraform the planet. In ''Green Mars'', GE animals began to be created to withstand the thin Martian atmosphere, and to produce a working planetary-biosphere. By ''Blue Mars'', GE is commonly being done on humans, willingly, to help them better adapt to the new worlds; to breathe thinner air (e.g. Russell), or to see better in the dimmer light of the outer planets.

=== Other themes ===
The books also speculate on the colonization of other planets and [[Natural satellite|moon]]s in the [[Solar System]], and include descriptions of settlements or terraforming efforts on [[Callisto (moon)|Callisto]], [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]], [[Titania (moon)|Titania]], [[Miranda (moon)|Miranda]] and [[Venus]]. Toward the end of the last novel, humans are taking sub-light colony ships to other stars, taking advantage of the longevity treatments to survive the trip to their destinations.

A great portion of ''Blue Mars'' is concerned with the effects of extreme longevity on its protagonists, most of whom have lived over two hundred years as a result of repeated [[longevity]] treatments. In particular, Robinson speculates on the [[psychology|psychological]] effects of ultra-longevity, including memory loss, personality change, mental instability, and existential boredom.