Minotauro publica 2312 de Kim Stanley Robinson, uno de los grandes clásicos de la

ciencia ficción

A la venta el 18 de junio PVP 21,95€

«Si hubiera que escoger a un autor cuyo trabajo representara a la ciencia ficción en el futuro, ése

sería Kim Stanley Robinson.» The New York Times

Minotauro vuelve con un uno de los clásicos del género de la ciencia ficción. Autor de gran prestigio gracias a una extensa bibliografía, Kim Stanley Robinson presenta ahora 2312, una novela enmarcada en un hipotético mundo futuro donde la tierra ya no es el único hogar de la humanidad. Kim Stanely Robinson es considerado uno de los

clásicos del género. Sólo en España se han vendido 50.000 ejemplares de sus libros

Con esta novela el autor vuelve al terreno que más conoce y en el que ha dejado joyas de la literatura como la Trilogía de Marte, una serie que ha marcado la historia de la ciencia ficción convirtiéndose en imprescindible para cualquier amante del género.

La Trilogía de Marte, una de las obras más

destacadas del autor, es de lectura obligada para cualquier amante del género

Ciencia ficción en estado puro Corre el año 2312. Los avances científicos y tecnológicos han abierto una puerta a un futuro extraordinario. La Tierra ya no es el único hogar de la humanidad: lunas y planetas de todo el sistema solar se han convertido en nuevos hábitats. Pero durante este año, 2312, una serie de sucesos forzará a la humanidad a afrontar su pasado, su presente y su futuro.

El primero de estos sucesos se produce en Mercurio, en la ciudad de Terminador, lugar que supone un prodigio sin precedentes de la ingeniería. Una muerte inesperada transforma la vida de Cisne Er Hong. Y Cisne, que en el pasado se dedicaba al diseño de nuevos mundos, se verá arrastrada a una intriga que tiene por objeto destruirlos.

¡Pincha aquí para leer los primeros capítulos!

La Trilogía de Marte: planeta de moda Justamente ahora que se anuncia una expedición a Marte, a la que 80.000 personas están dispuestas a ir – 15.000 de ellas españoles- aun sabiendo que no hay retorno, el planeta rojo vuelve a la primera página de la actualidad. http://applicants.mars-one.com/

Arthur A Clarke, autor de obras tan conocidas como El fin de la infancia o Una odisea espacial, consideró la Trilogía de Marte como la mejor aproximación

literaria al planeta rojo.

Con su trilogía de Marte, ambientada en el planeta Rojo, Kim Stanley Robinson se convierte en el máximo referente actual de la ciencia ficción. Perteneciente a la generación de grandes como Gibson o Ballard, este autor se ha convertido en uno de los pocos referentes del género de contemporáneos. Sus obras más recientes, todas publicadas por Minotauro, se han marcado por un tono claramente ecologista, aunque en esta última aventura literaria recupera la esencia de la trilogía de Marte.

Premio Nébula 2012 La novela llega a España, además, con los mejores elogios de la crítica. Justo unos días antes de publicarse en Minotauro, 2312 ha sido galardonada con el Premio Nébula 2012, reconocimiento que concede, desde 1965, la Asociación de Escritores de Ciencia Ficción y Fantasía de Estados Unidos (SFWA), un reconocimiento más de la trayectoria de este autor que le sitúa en un puesto de prestigio entre los escritores del género.

Kim Stanley Robinson es uno de los pocos autores vivos de ciencia ficción que se

pueden considerar clásicos

La crítica ha dicho…

“2312 es un emocionante viaje de descubrimiento y exploración de la lucha humana para entender nuestra relación con los demás y el medio en el que vivimos”

Huffington Post

***** «Uno de nuestros escritores de ciencia fi cción más

visionarios. Los Angeles Times

*****

“Este libro se remonta a las raíces del género de ciencia-ficción y la coloca en el centro las visiones utópicas y

distópicas de los modelos sociales que nuestros descendientes podrían habitar”

The Independent

***** «Si hubiera que escoger a un autor cuyo trabajo representara

a la ciencia ficción en el futuro, ése sería Kim Stanley Robinson.»

The New York Times

***** “Lo que hace vital el trabajo de Robinson no es sólo el

entretenimiento, sino la profundidad de su investigación”. The Atlantic

Otras obras del autor

El sueño de Galileo 04/06/2010 En 1609, un extraño aborda a Galileo en las calles de Venecia y le habla de la existencia de un aparato para ver más de cerca las cosas lejanas. A partir de esa información, Galileo redescubre y mejora el telescopio, iniciando así sus observaciones astronómicas que le llevarían a confirmar la “hipótesis” copernicana y le conducirían al juicio por herejía. Algún tiempo después el extranjero vuelve a aparecer en la vida de Galileo, esta vez para conducirlo a

Europa, la segunda luna de Júpiter, en un lejano futuro donde se requiere su presencia para mediar entre varias facciones.

Señales de lluvia 17/05/2005 En un futuro cercano, las consecuencias del cambio climático constituyen una grave amenaza inmediata para la humanidad. En Washington, Anna y Charlie Quibler afrontan el peligro desde dos ámbitos de trabajo muy distintos: él es miembro del equipo de un senador y se encarga de asesorarle en la legislación medioambiental; por su parte, Anna es una científica de la Fundación Nacional para la Ciencia que evalúa las peticiones de subvención para las investigaciones. Conscientes de la necesidad

de tomar medidas urgentes, lucharán por el trabajo en equipo de la comunidad científica a escala mundial, e intentarán que los gobiernos apoyen los proyectos que pueden salvar al planeta. Sin embargo, cuando parece factible el desarrollo de una máquina que controle el clima, se evidencia que los intereses de los poderes económico y político no siempre coinciden con los del bien común…

Tiempo de arroz y sal 08/04/2003 Año 1349. La peste negra ha invadido Europa y los cadáveres se amontonan en las calles de pueblos, aldeas y ciudades. En poco más de un año, Europa quedará despoblada y el cristianismo empezará a convertirse en una anécdota de la historia universal. A través de los ojos de B. y K., que van reencarnándose sucesivamente en soldados, mujeres, reyes, esclavos, eunucos o alquimistas, presenciamos siete siglos de una historia alternativa, en la que se forja de forma paulatina un nuevo orden político, social y religioso.

El autor

Kim Stanley Robinson nació en 1952. Es uno de los más prolíficos y celebrados autores de ciencia ficción norteamericanos. Especialmente conocido por la Trilogía de Marte, galardonada con los premios Nebula y Hugo, ha escrito obras como Antártida, The Wilde Shore, Pacific Edge o The Gold Coast y Tiempos de arroz y sal, que le han valido otras distinciones, entre ellas, los premios Asimov, John W. Campbwell, Locus y World Fantasy Award. Vive en Davis (California).

www.kimstanleyrobinson.info

Para más información, no dudes en contactar con nosotras:

www.edicionesminotauro.com www.planetadelibros.com

@prensascyla

Marta Oliva Directora de Comunicación

93 492 8155 moliva@planeta.es

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93 492 8871 apena@planeta.es

10/06/13 Jerry Cope: The Climate Changed World of 2312 With Kim Stanley Robinson

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The Climate Changed World of 2312 With Kim StanleyRobinson

The brilliant and highly decorated science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson has published an expansive new novel set in thenear future, entitled 2312. In this visionary portrait of a possible future, humanity has spread throughout the solar system in the greatdiaspora. On Mercury, a city rides the rails in constant motion, moving ahead of the day/night terminator, a multitude of asteroidshave been hollowed out for farming, species preservation and habitats, all of the planets and larger moons colonized. In space, alllimits and boundaries are pushed back -- way back.

2312 finds old Earth, the "sad planet," dramatically changed by an 11 meter sea level rise and the ravages of climate change. Therelentless, virtually unrestrained quest for material wealth created by capitalism, endless conflicts over resources both large andsmall and a population of over ten billion all exceed the planet's carry capacity by a significant amount. Fueled by the sustaineddomination of the vast majority of the planet's population by a privileged few, fear and economic servitude oppress the Earth'spopulation, yet Earth remains humanity's homeworld and must be dealt with. Continuing in the grand tradition of science fiction, inthis imagined future the ill consequences of continued technological and scientific achievement stay one step ahead of theirdestructive potential. By managing in the end to avoid total apocalypse, human civilization expands off planet, giving rise to adiverse civilization with room to grow. 2312 is a thrill ride of wonder, discovery and exploration of the human struggle to understandour relationship to each other and the environment in which we live.

Robinson's timing and prescient writing are spot on. In the real world, the past few weeks have seen the first successful launch of aprivate space rocket to the International Space Station by SpaceX led by Elon Musk, new peer-reviewed scientific studiesconfirming the possibility of accelerating ice loss from the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), and continued global rise in recordtemperatures and CO2 emissions. New reports from remote sensing stations in Alaska are now reading CO2 levels in theatmosphere of 400PPM, an alarming new high. Record droughts are steadily increasing in number, intensity, and duration acrossthe globe. Extreme weather events predicted by ever more sophisticated global climate models confirm to a high degree ofconfidence the direct relationship between them and anthropogenic climate change. There is even a new app for seeing theseevents as they occur, Xweather. Leading climate scientists, particularly those advocating a stronger role and direct input into policydecisions are now affirming that some of these extreme weather events are in fact directly attributable to a warming climate, a clearand dramatic shift from the past.

Robinson extrapolates from present day reality to create a plausible scenario of what human civilization might look like in 300years. In 2312, the world's beaches have all succumbed to rising seas, coastal cities are underwater, likewise small island nationsand Florida, and billions have perished. On the upside, New York has become the new Venice, with water ferries replacing buses,the signature city adapted into an amazing metropolis of canals and skywalks. Robinson writes of "the great flood becoming afortunate fall." Elevators provide constant access to space, sending rare earth materials (especially soil) up and food down. Acritical amount of foodtsuffs for Earth are grown off-planet and it is in space where humanity flourishes. After having escaped thedeep gravity well of Earth, humanity colonizes the solar system, reinventing what it means to be human in every regard as it does.From longevity to art to recreation to religion to sex, the possibilities and Robinson's exploration of them are a sweeping revelation.

I spoke to Kim Stanley Robinson by phone.

JC: Just this week reports are coming in from remote sensing stations in Alaska that CO2 levels are now at 400PPM. Do you thinkit is too late at this point to stop a two degree temperature rise this century? Are we past that or do you think it is still attainable?

KSR: I do not have the expertise to make that judgement. My impression is that holding to a two degree rise would be a successand that it is still within the realm of possibility. This is impressionistic from the point of view of an english major. There is aclimate scientist at the University of Illinois who sends me a google alert on anything that has to do with climate, so I do see fiveto ten articles a day -- every day -- so I feel like I am informed, but I am not a climate scientist. I recently ran into AmoryLovins, who wrote Soft Energy Paths. Reinventing Fire is the latest book from his Rocky Mountain Institute, and he was full ofgood news and good developments in that just the ordinary workings of the pricing system might tilt in favor of clean energy in away that will be extremely helpful so that you don't need universal altruistic political action. It can be a matter of supply anddemand with clean energy being cheaper and conservation as being much cheaper. So he was encouraging, and I haven't runinto an encouraging word in quite a long time.JC: There is one bit in 2312 where you write that an intentionally designed collpase of the biospere might actually be the lesser oftwo evils. What are your thoughts on that?

KSR: I feel like there are essentially free market fundamentalists for whom their religious beliefs are more important thanreality itself. It was basically just a joke saying that some people would prefer to stick to their ideas rather than adjust to realityand say this is a mass extinction event.JC: Another idea that I thought was interesting is Happy Space Sad Planet. Right now SpaceX is completing the first successfullaunch of a private rocket docking with the International Space Station and on its way back, do you think this will accelerate the

June 1 0, 201 3

Posted: 06/13/2012 4:41 pm

10/06/13 Jerry Cope: The Climate Changed World of 2312 With Kim Stanley Robinson

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HowthCastle Become a fan

privatization of space?KSR: I think it does accelerate and show what is possible. At this point Elon Musk is doing a demonstration project. It's notmaking a profit and it will be a while before it does. The whole notion of the privatization and that you can make money up there-- a lot of it is a matter of doing science. I wish that we as a nation state and the world in general had a much more robust spaceprogram and that the Pentagon would get involved as a force for peaceful good, of course that's not its assignment. We andCongress should be aligning many billions to NASA. We really should have a robust launch vehicle of the kind that Elon Musk isdeveloping, but I do think people are more interested in it if it is a public-utility type project.JC: I think the other theme that has run through science fiction from Jules Verne on has been the idea that technology somehowmanages to save us from ourselves, that the self destructive impulse is eventually won over by bigger and better things. Do you seethat as continuing or a constant struggle that is never going to end?

KSR: More the latter for sure. We can and will develop much cleaner techs, much less damaging to the biosphere and that isdefinitely a good thing. We ought to be keeping in mind that the technology is not just hardware and machinery, it is alsosoftware. So you can think of languages of the technology and writing of the technology and the social justice of the technology inwhat social justice does is reduce impacts on the Earth because the most impact is from the poorest and richest people. It alsoreduces the rate of population increase because the moment there is justice you no longer have the growth rate you have inpoverty stricken countries. So I think it is interesting that justice is another climate change technology that we have in thepicture except for getting into this weird definition of technology as nothing but a silver bullet that we imagine might help.There's also Jevon's paradox that the better we get at efficiently using energy the more energy we use; so that and thatmachine technology improvements per se do not necessarily reduce our impacts because we immediately double down on howmuch we use.It is important to de-carbonize but also important to make more horizontal the hierarchy of power and wealth. In other words, a worldwide middle class that is modestly using resources by way of clean tech is the only real solution.

JC: And 2312?

KSR: My book Is a strange portrait, like you say Happy Space Sad Earth. Science fiction is always a metaphor for the currentmoment, at least it often is when it is being used fully. So you could say in a way that 2312 is just a way of portraying what existsright now in that the most affluent say 5 percent or 10 percent of the Earth's population might as well be living in space -- theyare feeling as protected as if they are already living in space. Like whatever happens to the Earth won't really affect them, theyare so wealthy. It remains crucial to pay attention to Earth, it remains at the center of the story, as my novel keeps saying, andunless Earth's problems are solved space is just irrelevant and a playground for people who are not paying attention to the bigpicture.

The dice may be loaded, but It is far from certain that the climate-changed world depicted in 2312 will come to pass. Millions areworking to effect the changes needed across the globe in ways both large and small, witness the outstanding work of Bill McKibbenand 350.org. Each day brings an increasing sense of urgency to these efforts as the science continues to confirm what until recentlywere worst case scenarios. As Dr. Ira Leifer said earlier this week, new greenhouse gas data from NASA's remote sensingsatellites confirmed by ground observation is "scary." To continue with business as usual could result in a sixth massive extinctionevent (some say it is already well underway) and severe consequences for human civilization. It would seem that the time has come

to commit to the stars and embrace the vision offered by Robinson in 2312, or make the changes necessary to ensure the lifesupport systems and biosphere on Earth are stable and protected for generations living now, and those yet to be born. Better still --do both.

Follow Jerry Cope on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jercope

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10/ 06/ 13 Science Fict ion

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July 12, 1998

Science Fiction

Reviewed This Week

Antartctica by Kim Stanley Robinson

Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

Related Links

Browse an archive of science fiction reviewed by Gerald Jonas since January1997

By GERALD JONAS

here is no finer writer of science fiction today than Kim Stanley Robinson,

and he is at the top of his form in ANTARCTICA (Bantam, $24.95). The

genesis of this novel was unusual. While researching his Mars trilogy, which

concluded in 1996 with the masterly ''Blue Mars,'' he learned that scientists who

study Mars often spend time in Antarctica because it is the part of Earth most likeMars. Within two weeks of completing his Mars trilogy, Robinson was off to

Antarctica, courtesy of the National Science Foundation, which sponsors a

program that sends artists and writers to the southernmost continent. The result is

an exhilarating addition to a body of work distinguished by two elements all too

rare in modern science fiction: a sense of character and a sense of place. Robinson

brings the two together by writing about people who are in love with where they

are. Appropriately enough, the book begins, ''First you fall in love with Antarctica,

and then it breaks your heart.''

Val is a mountaineer who shepherds tour parties on the most dangerous Antarctictreks while hungering for a deeper relationship with her awesome surroundings.

The lonely newcomer called X is simply looking for a home. Wade, trouble-

shooter for a maverick United States senator, is on a fact-finding mission, probing

the uneasy intersection of ideology and greed in a setting as awe-inspiring as it is

fragile. Ta Shu is a Chinese geomancer, a practitioner of feng shui who broadcasts

his poetic yet scientifically informed meditations on the environment to a worldwide

audience. Carlos the engineer is trying to prove that drilling for natural gas beneath

the polar ice cap can be both profitable and ecologically sound. What unites them

all is a passion for the last ''unspoiled'' landscape on an overpopulated and

overheated Earth that they share with the scientists and the administrators, the

tourists and the terrorists, whose contending visions of Antarctica's future propelthe narrative in surprising yet always satisfying directions.

10/ 06/ 13 Science Fict ion

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Robinson writes about geography and geology with the intensity and unhurriedattention to detail of a John McPhee. This is fiction so sturdily underpinned by facts

that you might forget the story takes place sometime in the next century -- until a

commune of ''ferals'' swoops into view, flying powered blimps that could have

been lifted out of a novel by Jules Verne.

Facts are never mere background for Robinson's fiction. He not only brings

Antarctic science alive, he makes the great explorers of an earlier day -- the

Amundsens, Scotts and Shackletons -- into important characters in the unfolding

drama. Exposed to Antarctica's crystalline atmosphere, everything is stripped to its

essence, which different people struggle to comprehend in different ways. Struck

anew by the size and splendor of an Antarctic icescape, the practical-minded Val

thinks, ''It was like becoming an ant and hiking through the ice tray in your

refrigerator; there are scores of beautiful ice formations in every refrigerator, buthow many people notice?'' Faced with a similarly overpowering scene, Ta Shu

courts the truth in poems so bare they are virtually transparent: ''white sky / blueice.''

DARWINIA (Tor/Tom Doherty, $22.95), by Robert Charles Wilson, represents

a triumph of style over substance. Reduced to synopsis, the story would not holdthe attention of a 14-year-old. In March 1912, Europe is replaced -- in the blink

of an eye -- with an entirely different landmass, devoid of human beings andinhabited by insentient brutes whose apparently de novo creation mocks the still-controversial theories of Charles Darwin. Brash explorers from America plumb the

steamy wilderness, only to stumble on a mysterious stone city where madnessawaits. Meanwhile, strange and powerful apparitions seek allies among susceptible

humans as the universe rushes toward an end-time battle between Good and Evil.

What redeems this mess of born-again cliches is Wilson's utterly confident prose,which is as clear and level-headed as the plotting is murky and overexcited.

Against all reason, I found myself rooting for the likable Guilford Law, anAmerican who finds himself on the cusp of Armageddon and who sensibly draws

back until the last escape route closes. Like Job's, his suffering takes on a cosmicsignificance that finally eluded me. But his reluctant journey toward the heart of

darkness is never boring.

A showdown between Good and Evil also animates BROWN GIRL IN THERING (Aspect/Warner, paper, $12.99), by Nalo Hopkinson, winner of thepublisher's First Novel Contest and packaged with glowing testimonials from

estimable science fiction writers like C. J. Cherryh, Tim Powers and Octavia E.Butler. Set in a near-future Toronto where order has broken down, the story

centers on a young woman of Afro-Caribbean ancestry named Ti-Jeanne, whohones her survival skills in the inner-city neighborhood known as the Burn. Her

mother is a herbalist and adept of the old West African-based rites known bydifferent names in various New World locales: ''The African powers, child. The

spirits. The loas. The orishas. The oldest ancestors. . . . Each of we have a special

10/ 06/ 13 Science Fict ion

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one who is we father or mother, and no matter what we call it, whether Shango orSanteria or Voudun or what, we all doing the same thing. Serving the spirits.''

Ti-Jeanne has the gift as well, but it doesn't keep her from falling in love with Tony,

a clueless soldier in the posse of a master of evil who keeps the Burn under histhumb with the aid of a ''duppy,'' an undead spirit who turns out to be ----.

But that would be telling, a dangerous occupation in the Burn, where ignorance, if

not exactly bliss, is safer than challenging the powers of darkness.

Ti-Jeanne makes an unusual heroine, her freedom of action constrained by the as-yet-unnamed baby she is nursing. If you are wondering why a story that takes the

existence of wonder-working spirits for granted is science fiction, then you havenot fallen under the spell of Hopkinson's island-accented prose. She treats spirit-

calling the way other science fiction writers treat nanotechnology or virtual reality:like the spirits themselves, the spirit-callers follow rules as clear to them (if not

always to the reader) as the equations of motion or thermodynamics are toscientists and engineers. Readers should be forewarned that this book includesmoments of stomach-turning horror, rendered in appallingly clear language. But the

pleasure of watching Ti-Jeanne grow in knowledge and power seems recompenseenough. I am happy to report that Hopkinson lives up to her advance billing.

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Orbit

Where's the great novel about climate change? I'd argue that to find it, you're

better off leaving the world of "straight fiction" for science fiction, specifically for

Kim Stanley Robinson.

Over the weekend, Robinson's latest novel, 2312, was nominated for a Hugo

award, one of the most prestigious prizes in science fiction (it's also in the running

for sci-fi's other big accolade, the Nebula award). But Robinson's name is already

familiar to devotees of the genre. He came onto the scene in 1984 with his

enigmatic novel Icehenge, and continued to write at a prolific pace, winning

eleven major sci-fi awards and being nominated for more than twice that. And

though he's written about everything from the plague to Yeti, his most well-

known books are those that compose the Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars,

Blue Mars). The trilogy deals with the all the various implications of terraforming

the red planet, from the science of the transformation to the political and social

ramifications of the project. 2312 is a thrilling mystery that includes his usual

themes of scientific development, political intrigue, and social experimentation.

These books are the gold-standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction

writing.

What makes Robinson's work vital, rather

than just entertaining, is his depth of the

research. Many of the futures and worlds

he writes about resemble a world that

might find ourselves living in. Ahead of the

In 300 Years, Kim Stanley Robinson'sScience Fiction May Not Be FictionThe author talks about climate change, capitalism, and the other circa-2013 concerns that

underpin his award-winning novels about "the solar system in the next few centuries."

V IDEO

New insight fromdecades of research

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Space Cartoons to Space

Psychedelia: How Sci-Fi Book

Covers Evolved

Science News has an

uncanny way of

publishing articles that

pertain to my current

project, such that by the

end of any novel I have

piled up a stack of

issues, opened to the

articles I am using.

Hugo nomination announcement, Robinson

took the time to discuss with me via email

some of the ideas and concerns that

animate his work, including artificial

intelligence, Buddhism, climate change, and

the future of capitalism.

Many of your books, 2312 included,

are known for describing realistic,

possible, and complex worlds. You

address issues as diverse as science,

art, psychology, and economics. One of the ways that you add detail

in 2312 is by separating chapters of plot with manufactured lists or

fragments of primary documents. How do you prepare for writing a

novel like 2312? What is your research process like?

Because I have been working in a story space that could be described as "the

solar system in the next few centuries" from the beginning of my career, now

about 35 years ago, I've amassed a good library of books I can turn to when I

need to research things. The planetary and scientific texts are just a part of it,

the rest being books about various social sciences, political and utopian thinking,

design and the like. These days I also sometimes rely on my own previous

novels, both for ideas to re-examine, and for leads back into my research

materials.

All this has been greatly augmented by the appearance of the Internet and its

ever-expanding store of information. I still like a good book for getting a solid

sense of a subject, but the internet is becoming invaluable for quickly looking

things up, exploring topics, and so on.

It's also true that I have been reading the periodical Science News all along, and

it has an uncanny way of publishing articles that pertain to my current project,

such that by the end of any novel I have piled up a stack of issues, opened to the

articles I am using.

In the case of 2312, deciding to use John Dos Passos's format from his great

U.S.A. trilogy gave me a structure that required me to range widely, and think

about as many elements of society 300 years from now as I could, and include

something in my lists or extracts about how they might help create the lived

feeling of the time.

How did you decide which fictitious lists to

make? Which documents or extracts do you

think would be helpful in describing our

present world?

I started keeping lists of lists, in effect, so that I

could judge which kinds of topics should be

included. Most of them provide some kind of

expansion or context or explanation of the science

fictional new things the story was introducing in its

plots. For instance in the book the characters who

live in space have to return to Earth about one year

in any seven or so, to stay healthy; this is a

statistical observation without a clear cause yet

identified, so rather than slow the story to have characters or narrator discuss

this, in one of the extract passages the whole thing could be laid out as essential

information gathered in small pieces of crucial information from different sources

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10/06/13 In 300 Years, Kim Stanley Robinson's Science Fiction May Not Be Fiction - Scott Beauchamp - The …

3/11theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/04/…/274392/

How we think about climate change, and how we respond to it, has

been a major theme of a lot of your work. In your Science in the

Capitol series you explore climate change explicitly, and in 2312 the

problems that arise from sharing finite resources are discussed.

What role does science fiction play in helping us address these

issues? What advantages does it have over nonfiction in doing so?

Science fiction can be regarded as a kind of future-scenarios modeling, in which

some course of history is pursued as a thought experiment, starting from now

and moving some distance off into the future. The closer to the present the work

of science fiction stays, the more obvious it is that it is a way of thinking about

what we're doing now, also where we may be going, and, crucially, where we

should try to go, or try to avoid going. Thus the famous utopian or dystopian

aspects of science fiction.

The advantage science fiction has is precisely that it is fiction; it does not pretend

to predict what is really going to happen in the future, which is more in the bad

realm of futurology, but rather presents possibilities, which together make a

range of potentiality. When we see the full range of potentials by reading a lot of

science fiction, we can figure out better what we should be trying for as a society

now. Thus I think all science fiction has a utopian underpinning, in that it's a tool

of human thought for deciding on current actions to make a better world for our

descendants. Even the dystopias are part of that, by way of their warnings.

The other great advantage of fiction is that the reader gets immersed in the

story, in the characters; it resembles a kind of telepathy in which we finally get to

experience how others think, by reading their thoughts. The emotional

investment in these fictional lives is immense, and a big part of why people love

fiction so much. So science fiction can explore not just what might happen, but

how it might feel, and what it might mean. This means that science fiction has to

work as fiction to work at all, which means it must have characters the reader

can move inside; the old notion that science fiction was only "about ideas" was

not correct. It's best when the fiction part of it is best.

In your Science in the Capitol series, the reaction to climate change

of ambassadors from the fictional Buddhist state of Khembalung are

compared to the reaction of American characters. Does Buddhism

inform your writing? Does Buddhism have something to teach us

about environmental issues?

Some of my novels are about various aspects of Buddhism, while others are not.

Certainly Science in the Capital (which consists of Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty

Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting), The Years of Rice and Salt and

Escape From Kathmandu are informed by Buddhism and are in part about

Buddhism, in very different ways.

Yes, I do think Buddhism does have something to teach us about environmental

issues; and so do all the world's religions, one way or another. Our relationship to

the Earth is a religious relationship, which does not necessarily always mean a

good relationship. But the connectedness of all things, and the miraculous or

sacred nature of all things, is often a matter of emphasis in many religions.

What I found interesting to explore in Science in the Capital was how Buddhism

and science seem to share certain qualities, or cast an interesting light on each

other, and that's something that that trilogy explores. I threw the two together

and tried to follow what would happen.

Did the results surprise you?

Yes, to a certain extent, in that I did not know in advance how far my scientist

protagonist would go in his relationship with the Buddhist community he comes

into contact with in Washington, D.C. Ultimately he moves in with them and

becomes part of their extended family. This, however, was a nice expression in

the plot itself of my feeling that the two ways of seeing can be usefully brought

together, and help us see our way forward more clearly.

In 2312, capitalism as we understand it really only exists on Earth.

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10/06/13 In 300 Years, Kim Stanley Robinson's Science Fiction May Not Be Fiction - Scott Beauchamp - The …

4/11theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/04/…/274392/

Much of the rest of the solar system operates under something called

the Mondragon Accord. You also mention in the novel that economic

systems contain characteristics of both the systems they evolved

from as well as what they will inevitably evolve into. What is the

Mondragon Accord? Where did the idea come from?

There is a city in the Basque part of Spain called Mondragon, which works

economically as a system of nested co-ops, including its banks, so that the

community is structured as something not capitalist in the usual sense. It's worth

studying Mondragon's system to see if there are positive aspects of life there that

can be scaled to larger communities, and indeed the world; worth it because

capitalism as practiced now is not only strip-mining the biosphere and wrecking

it, but it also distributes the useful effects of human labor and natural resources

and life-support systems in a grotesque way, very far from justice or

sustainability. So we should be on the hunt for how to structure a post-capitalist

world, and there are not that many real-world clues. It's been my habit for many

books now, starting back in the 1980s, to explore various post-capitalist

scenarios to see what they might reveal.

The idea that economic systems contain elements of their precursors and their

successors is a version of Raymond Williams's idea of the residual and emergent,

in which aspects of the present have their deepest roots in the past and future.

Naturally science fiction takes an interest in this, by projecting a future history,

thus portraying both what is emerging now, and also what persists and will be in

the future a residual. It has to be said immediately that residual and emergent

do not equate to bad and good, that it is more complex than that, and really the

idea is more a tool of historical or sociological analysis, a way of seeing.

With capitalism, we can say that it has very strong residual elements of

feudalism. It's as if feudalism liquefied and the basis of power moved from land to

money, but with the injustice of the huge hierarchical feudal differences between

rich and poor still intact. What is emergent in capitalism is harder to identify, but

there may be something to the idea of the global village, also the education of the

entire world population, so that everyone knows the world situation and wants

justice, that may be leading the way to a more just global society. Seeing and

exaggerating these emergent elements is something utopian science fiction tries

to do. So the dichotomy is a sort of x/y graph in a thought experiment.

In 2312, you refer to our present era as "The Dithering," citing our

refusal to accept and deal with climate change. Is there a

relationship between entrenchment in our current economic system

and how we address climate change?

There certainly is, and this is a very important question. Capitalism is a system

of power and ownership that privileges a few in a hierarchical way, and it has in it

no good controls or regulation concerning its damage to the biosphere, so to deal

with the environmental catastrophes bearing down on us, we have to impose our

will as a civilization on capitalism and make it do what we want civilization to do

now, which is to create a just and sustainable human interaction with the

biosphere and each other.

So this suggests legal changes imposed by democratic government, which are

more and more urgently needed. The free market can't do it because it isn't free,

but in fact a particular legal system completely inadequate to the situation, and

the prices we concoct for things are completely unresponsive to physical realities.

So we are in quite a bit of trouble here, because capitalism is a cultural dominant

and the current global way of conducting things, world law, and yet completely

inadequate to the situation we face.

Speaking specifically of climate change, we can say very roughly that we can

burn about 500 gigatons more carbon before we push the climate over several

tipping points into truly catastrophic change, essentially the sixth mass-

extinction event in Earth's history, and the first caused by humans of course.

This mass extinction event will be a huge danger to humanity and even our own

existence as a species may be challenged, and even if we survive as a species, it

10/06/13 In 300 Years, Kim Stanley Robinson's Science Fiction May Not Be Fiction - Scott Beauchamp - The …

5/11theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/04/…/274392/

will be in a devastated new jungle ecology. Things will be all right for life on Earth

and in a few million years all will be well, but for us, not.

So in this situation we also have identified about 2500 gigatons of carbon that we

can access and burn. And there are people out there who own this carbon, and in

the capitalist system there is nothing that keeps them from mining and burning

these 2500 gigatons, and there are people who will be making their best efforts

to do just that. They think it will be profitable and they will be individually rich

enough to dodge any bad consequences, and science will find a way, etc. These

people are wrong but they will persist past the point where the damage they are

doing will be easily undone.

The sooner this is generally recognized the better. I think it is better recognized

now than it was before the crash of 2008, which exposed so many capitalist

presumptions as badly wrong, really just stories some people have told to protect

their privileges. Now that the emperor is revealed to have no clothes, it gets

easier to work on a new system. But although the emperor has no clothes, he

does have a gun in his hand pointed at us.

So it is tricky work. But I am saying that democracy and science are stronger

than capitalism. It is an assertion we are going to have to test to see if it is true or

not. It will be a fight. It is the fight of the 21st century like the fight against

totalitarianism was the fight of the 20th century. Indeed we did not definitively

win that fight, because capitalism is a new kind of totalitarian system, fully

capable of buying up democracy and science, and trying now to do so. So it is a

tricky fight, but necessary work for us all.

In 2312, the character Swan has an artificial-intelligence device

called a qube implanted in her brain. This becomes a problem when

she learns that some quantum devices have started to develop

sentience. People often complain about our intimacy and reliance on

personal technological devices. They want the technology, but they

fear needing it. Did this inform your portrayal of AI? Does it factor

into your own feelings about AI?

We all need our technologies to survive. Humanity has been a technological

species from its very beginnings. So, now the technologies are extremely

complex and powerful, but we would still hope that we get to put them to use to

make ourselves safer and more healthy and comfortable, and more self-

actualized, however you interpret that.

So I'm fine with AI, because I don't believe in it in the usual way it is interpreted,

as machine consciousness. I don't think that will happen, because brains and

machines are very different things, and will end up always doing different things.

The tendency to regard the brain as a machine should be easy to dodge by

considering how we have successively considered it as a clock, a steam engine, a

hologram, and now a computer; none of them are good analogies, not even our

current favorites.

So "artificial intelligence" really will come down to machine algorithms designed

for human uses, and when we understand AI as that, we can begin to think about

the algorithms and the uses, without getting into anything more metaphysical or

fantastical. We will certain project personalities onto machines, we already do

that, but it is a projection and we have to keep that in mind.

In the past you've mentioned that you have your doubts concerning

the Singularity. Can you elaborate on that?

Yes, this follows from what I was saying above. The Singularity is an idea from

science fiction, that a point will come when machine intelligence will surpass

human intelligence and machines will take on wills of their own, and in essence

take off and create their own history, leaving us behind. This has been aptly

called "the rapture of the nerds," and is a deep misunderstanding of our brains,

of computers, of consciousness and will, of history. I'm a great patriot of science

fiction and believe in it as an artistic method, but that doesn't make every

science-fiction idea right—far from it!

10/06/13 In 300 Years, Kim Stanley Robinson's Science Fiction May Not Be Fiction - Scott Beauchamp - The …

6/11theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/04/…/274392/

You've mentioned that your most intentionally predictive writing

was "Prometheus Unbound, At Last." What was that?

This was a short story I wrote on an invitation from the editors of Nature

magazine, when they were doing a series that filled the last page of every issue

for a year or two, called "Nature Futures" or something like that. There was a

word limit of 800 words or so, which as a novelist I found fairly daunting, and I

solved the problem of doing something interesting in that word-length by writing

a "reader's report" on a fictional science fiction novel that told the story of the

21st century going well, by way of a particular kind of "scientific revolution." It

can still be found online, and I would offer it as a brief bit of sport that is a kind of

skeleton key to the futures in many of my stories, one way or another.

What's next for you?

I just recently finished a novel set in the ice age, called Shaman, which describes

the people who painted the Chauvet cave in France, 32,000 years ago.

This is not as much of a change of pace as it might seem at first glance. I've

always been interested in exploring "what we really are as a species," which is an

impossible question in many ways, but still worth pondering, and certainly our

long evolutionary history has to be part of the answer. Also, we would not know

what we were like in the Paleolithic if it were not for the work of archeology,

biology, and other sciences, so in a sense writing about this prehistorical period is

a kind of science fiction. So it was a natural progression for me, and really an

interesting book to write, a beautiful experience.

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All novels about the future are in some sense

about the present. But they are also about the

present's desire that there be a future, and one

that we have some hope of understanding. One

of the attractive things about 2312 is that its

central characters, who are endlessly free to zip

around the inhabited parts of the solar sy stem,

are nonetheless constrained by death, irritation

and falling in love.

This is a novel that begins with a funeral and

ends at a wedding, even if in the interim it has

had hairs-breadth escapes, terrify ing plots and a

near interplanetary war. Kim Stanley Robinson

is a supremely rational man, and we know that

his female protagonist and the man she works

with will win, and end up together. That is the

only outcome consonant with good sense.

The feel of this book is a little sideway s from that

of Robinson's classic Mars trilogy , even if it seems

to take place in a universe in which many of the

same things happened. The environmental

collapse of Earth was narrowly avoided, or at least

mitigated. Humanity has spread out among the

planets, moons and asteroids, and started turning

some into unspoiled earths. Every thing is a

perpetual project of improvement. Where the

Mars books were thought – experiments in how

we might get there, historical novels about the

future, here there is some sense that the spreading

of humanity might not be an unalloy ed good

thing. There is a tone of ironic teasing that was not

in the earlier books.

Sculptor Swann finds herself pulled into the heart

of events by the death of Alex, her grandmother.

Alex was part of a conspiracy to prevent various

bad things happening – supposedly impossible

meteorite strikes that helped trigger implosions

of habitats, which nearly kill Swann. Wahram is a

plodding scientist, Swann is a flighty artist: they

have to remember that Alex valued both.

This is not, though, in the end a book about its

own plot or its quirky characters. It goes back to

the roots of the sci-fi genre and puts at its centre

utopian and dy stopian v isions of the social

models our descendants might inhabit, with a

flashy travelogue around the places they might live. It is a novel of ideas

that also sets out to be tremendous fun.

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