I'm Christopher Leiden and this is open source with Richard Powers who may just be the bravest big novelist out there.

His new book is titled Playground, in which AI plays with the natural world.

The question is whether and how the digital transformation might undo the power of death,

as in the death of long ago people the death of organized species today even the

death of a planet. Welcome back Richard Powers just in time and thank you for

playground.

This is our third trip you and I

through a new book of yours,

aiming your imagination and hard science

at some of the scariest maladies of modern life.

First there was Ofeo about atonal music,

and then the overstory, which won the Pulitzer Prize,

and a huge audience about disappearing tree species

and now playground going deep into the breakdown of oceans,

also into dementia with Louis bodies, also fate and friendships, and damaged people who make foolproof thinking machines.

With a stunning surprise at the end.

How did you get here, Richard?

The life project I see unfolding is Richard Powers searching and finding himself.

So that question, how did I get here?

Reminds me of the great David Byrne.

And I sometimes do ask myself that when I wake up in the morning

and resume what seems to have turned out to be

...