In the future, the Earth has a second moon that is square. This was one of the weirdest things I tried to set up in Book 1. Doug Hiro and Miyumi both reference the “Original Moon” and how much cooler it is compared to the new one, but we never actually see either of them until now. The Original Moon has been completely industrialized with lots of stores, eateries and music venues. There’s a parking hub on the Dark Side of the Moon. The Sock Factory was intended to be a play on the Knitting Factory, a place I’ve seen a lot of rock shows in NYC.

Since there’s still no air on the moon people travel through a systems of tubes that connect all the buildings. People travel on plastic sleds from place to place.