How science fiction can shape our reality | Your Undivided Attention

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The meta-crisis is so vast: climate change, exponential technology, addiction, polarization and more. How do we grasp it, let alone take steps to address it? One of the thinking tools we have at our disposal is science fiction. To the extent that we co-evolve with our stories, science fiction can prepare us for the impending future -- and empower us to shape it. On this episode on Your Undivided Attention, a podcast from the TED Audio Collective, we're thrilled to have one of the greatest living science-fiction writers: Kim Stanley Robinson. His most recent novel is "The Ministry for the Future," a sweeping epic that reaches into the very near future and imagines what it would take to unite humanity and avoid a mass extinction. Whether or not you've read the book, this episode has insights for you. And if this episode makes you want to read the book, our conversation won't spoil it. Listen to more podcasts from TED at youtube.com/tedaudiocollective.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Elise Hugh, you're listening to TED Talks Daily, and today, something a little different.
0:09.1	Here's an episode of another TED podcast called Your Undivided Attention.
0:13.4	It's a fascinating conversation with science fiction author and TED speaker Kim Stanley Robinson.
0:18.4	If you enjoy it and want to hear many more episodes exploring the
0:21.6	incredible power that tech has in our lives, follow your undivided attention wherever you're
0:27.6	listening to this. The climate crisis is so vast. How do we grasp it, let alone take steps to address it?
0:37.5	One of the best thinking tools that we have is science fiction.
0:41.2	How can science fiction prepare us for the impending future and enable us to change it?
0:48.3	I'm Tristan Harris, and I'm Azaraskin.
0:51.5	And this is Your Undivided Attention, the podcast from the Center for Humane Technology.
0:56.4	And as of this episode, Your Undivided Attention is proud to be part of the TED Audio Collective.
1:03.3	Today on the show, we're thrilled to have it thus one of the greatest living science fiction writers, Kim Stanley Robinson.
1:09.6	His most recent novel is The Ministry for the Future,
1:13.2	a sweeping epic that reaches into the very near future and imagines what it would take to unite
1:18.3	humanity and avoid a mass extinction. And I want to say that the Ministry for the Future is definitely
1:23.1	one of the most powerful books that I have read in the last two years. You don't have to have
1:26.9	read the Ministry for the Future in order to enjoy this episode.
1:30.5	And if this episode makes you want to read it, our conversation won't spoil it for you.
1:36.2	Stan Robinson, thank you so much for coming on to your undivided attention.
1:40.5	Is and I are really genuinely honored to have you. Your book has had a profound influence on us
1:47.6	and a network of friends and community that recommended it. I just remember how many people over the
1:54.6	year 2021 were telling me that I needed to read your book. And I think it's something that we really
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