The distinction between biotic variables, such as pollinators, pathogens, and competitors, and abiotic variables, such as temperature, pH, and humidity, is so basic to biology that it is routinely invoked in everything from painstaking ecological studies to basic textbooks. For all its pervasiveness, there are good reasons to renounce the biotic-abiotic distinction in daily biology. For one, the distinction is hard to make in practice because virtually all “abiotic” variables are profoundly affected by organisms. Even if it were possible, in most cases the distinction adds nothing and at worst makes communication more difficult. Best of all, overcoming the distinction leads to insights regarding niche construction, extended inheritance, and even redefinition of “evolution.”