Kim Stanley Robinson on Real Utopian Futures
Future Histories International
Utopian Fiction as a Counter-Aesthetic
Robinson defines utopia as a believable direction and outlines conservation goals like 30x30 and Half-Earth as practical visions.
Kim Stanley Robinson discusses Real Utopian Futures.
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Shownotes
The reference page on Kim Stanley Robinson, his works, interviews, talks, etc. (including a discussion forum):
https://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/
Robinson, K. S. (2020). The Ministry for the Future. Orbit Books.
https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-ministry-for-the-future/9780356508863/
Robinson, K. S. (2017). New York 2140. Orbit Books.
https://www.orbit-books.co.uk/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/new-york-2140/9780356508788/
Robinson, K. S. (1988). The Gold Coast. Macmillan.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312890377/thegoldcoast/
Blumenfeld, J. (2024). Managing Decline. Cured Quail, Vol. 3.
https://curedquail.com/Managing-Decline
Blumenfeld, J. (2022). Climate Barbarism. Adapting to a wrong World. Constellations, 30, 162–178.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8675.12596
the quoted Kohei Saito video:
https://youtube.com/shorts/WnvhD7p651M?si=SdfPftKOCJM6MS9j
the lecture in which Kim Stanley Robinson talks about “futurecide” and “preemptive capitulation”:
https://youtu.be/HpzXkpx29S4?si=PVlOE53Hj5-BZR5B
reporting on and summary of the talk:
Löwy, M. (2005). What is Ecosocialism? Capitalism Nature Socialism, 16(2), 15–24.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10455750500108237
for an overview of the history and different schools of Ecomarxist/Ecosocialist theory:
https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/ecology-marxism-andreas-malm/
on Anna Kornbluh:
on Mass Extinction Events:
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-mass-extinction-and-are-we-facing-a-sixth-one.html
Dressler, A. (2025). You have 100 ‘Energy Slaves’. The Climate Brink.
https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/you-have-100-energy-slaves
on the 30 by 30 Biodiversity Goal:
https://www.cop28.com/en/thought-leadership/The-30x30-Biodiversity-Goal-at-COP28
the International Maritime Organization:
on the ‘Half-Earth Project’:
https://eowilsonfoundation.org/what-is-the-half-earth-project/
Wilson, E. O. (2016). Half-Earth. Our Planet’s Fight for Life. Norton Books.
https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631492525
Pendergrass, D. & Vettese, T. (2022). Half-Earth Socialism. A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics. Verso.
https://www.versobooks.com/products/2650-half-earth-socialism
one of the many interviews/talks in which Kim Stanley Robinson talks about science fiction as the realism of our times:
https://youtu.be/p1wNhc46xjE?si=hOdKuwRQhef-9tLs
on the Turing Test:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test
on Neoliberalism attaching itself to demands of the New Left:
Boltanski, L. & Chiapello, E. (2018). The New Spirit of Capitalism. Verso.
https://www.versobooks.com/products/1980-the-new-spirit-of-capitalism
on Friedrich Hayek:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek
Williams, R. (2015). Structures of Feeling. In: D. Sharma & F. Tygstrup (Ed.), Structures of Feeling. Affectivity and the Study of Culture (pp. 20-26).
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110365481.20/html
on Keynesianism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_economics
Vogl, J. (2017). The Ascendancy of Finance. Polity Press.
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-ascendancy-of-finance--9781509509294
Graeber, D. (2011). Debt. The First 5,000 Years. Melville House.
https://files.libcom.org/files/__Debt__The_First_5_000_Years.pdf
on Thomas Piketty:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Piketty
on Gabriel Zucman:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Zucman
on the ‘Zucman tax’: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2025/09/23/zucman-tax-what-the-proposed-wealth-tax-would-mean-for-france_6745653_8.html
on Carbon Taxes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_tax
Sorg, C. (2023). Finance as a Form of Economic Planning. Competition & Change, 29(1), 17-37.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10245294231217578
Sarkar, S. (2024). The Carbon Coin. An Eco-Speculative Approach to Decarbonisation in Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future. Green Letters, 28(4), 297–310.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14688417.2025.2483998
A policy proposal on ‘Carbon Reward’ from the same researcher whose earlier policy work inspired the ‘Carbon Coin’ idea in The Ministry for the Future:
https://deltonchen.substack.com/p/new-economic-blueprint-for-resolving
see also:
https://globalcarbonreward.org/newsletters/carbon-coin/
on Quantitative Easing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_easing
on Carbon Drawdown:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_sequestration
on Nicolas Stern:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Stern,_Baron_Stern_of_Brentford
on the Democratic Socialists of America:
the Network for Greening the Financial System:
on COP30 in Belém:
Solnit, R. (2022). Orwell’s Roses. Penguin.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/607057/orwells-roses-by-rebecca-solnit/
Future Histories Episodes on Related Topics
S3E47 | Jason W. Moore on Socialism in the Web of Life
S03E44 | Anna Kornbluh on Climate Counteraesthetics
https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e44-anna-kornbluh-on-climate-counteraesthetics/
S03E32 | Jacob Blumenfeld on Climate Barbarism and Managing Decline
S03E30 | Matt Huber & Kohei Saito on Growth, Progress and Left Imaginaries
S03E23 | Andreas Malm on Overshooting into Climate Breakdown
S02E18 | Drew Pendergrass and Troy Vettese on Half Earth Socialism
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If you are interested in democratic economic planning, these resources might be of help:
Democratic planning – an information website
https://www.democratic-planning.com/
Sorg, C. & Groos, J. (eds.)(2025). Rethinking Economic Planning. Competition & Change Special Issue Volume 29 Issue 1.
https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ccha/29/1
Groos, J. & Sorg, C. (2025). Creative Construction - Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and Beyond. Bristol University Press. [for a review copy, please contact: amber.lanfranchi[at]bristol.ac.uk]
https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction
International Network for Democratic Economic Planning
Democratic Planning Research Platform:
https://www.planningresearch.net/
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Episode Keywords
#KimStanleyRobinson, #JanGroos, #Interview, #FutureHistories, #FutureHistoriesInternational, #futurehistoriesinternational, #Utopia, #RealUtopias, #DemocraticPlanning, #Keynes, #Dystopia, #DemocraticEconomicPlanning, #Capitalism, #EcoSocialism, #Socialism, #GreenCapitalism, #Narratives, #ClimateCounterAesthetics, #Transition, #SocioEcologicalTransition, #SocialDemocracy, #ScienceFiction
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