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Terrific site! In the recent New Yorker KSR profile, author Joshua Rothman mentions a 2015 essay, "What Can't Happen Won't". I haven't been able to find this - does anyone know if this essay is available?

Looks like this is the same as 'Our Generation Ships Will Sink', as per ISFDB.

I notice that when you revmamped the Forums section of the site, it returned to oldest first. Most recent first would be more convenient, I think.

 

Thanks

John

The list of Italian translations is a bit outdated. Here is an up-to-date list. Picture of covers can be easily found on the publisher's websites on on on-line bookshops like Amazon.

 

  • La costa dei barbari ("The Wild Shore", Mondadori Editore, 1990, ISBN 9788835600350, translated by G. L. Staffilano)
  • Costa delle palme ("The Gold Coast", Mondadori Editore, 1994, ISBN 9788804377634, translated by G. Alnieri)
  • Gli anni del riso e del sale ("The Years of Rice and Salt", Newton Compton Editori, 2007, ISBN 9788854107564, translated by B. Corda and F. Toticchi)
  • Il rosso di Marte ("Red Mars", Fanucci Editore, 2016, ISBN 9788834730959, translated in 1995 by M. Carità)
  • Il verde di Marte ("Green Mars", Fanucci Editore, 2016, ISBN 9788834731437, translated by A. Guarnieri)
  • Il blu di Marte ("Blue Mars", Fanucci Editore, 2017, ISBN 9788834732816, translated by A. Guarnieri)
  • New York 2140 (Fanucci Editore, 2017, ISBN 9788834734032, translated by A. Guarnieri)

Is there a way to do display comment showing most recent at top?

Done!

<p>What is a Bacino??????</p>

It's an Italian word related to the English "basin" which refers to a larger expanse of water that is still somewhat enclosed - bacini are to canals what plazas are to streets.

On page 510, about 2/3 of the way down: "Nightstick in one hand, hand on pistol in holster, ready to shout if she had to."

Should this be "shoot if she had to"?

 

FWIW,

Scott

First-time reader with a question:  In 2140, if the boys could not read, how were they able to read out the detailed epitaphs in the Bronx Cemetery?  Just asking.

Reading this new compilation of FORTY SIGNS OF RAIN, FIFTY DEGREES BELOW & SIXTY DAYS AND COUNTING. Awesome.
On page 234, KSR mentions "Ice-plant berms". I'd never heard the term before and assume it refers to some way that the factories producing ice in San Diego cut into the cliffs. But!
I can't find any mention of this term or practice online. Does anyone have a link?

After a few years of thinking through the concept of The Long Emergency, as a way to communicate and a way to act, I went and registered the primary domains. Now I'm thinking about how to put them to good use. Not as a "scare the people straight" but as a positive tool for collaboration around the issues from the level of policy down to adaption and global accomodation. 

While I have a bunch of concrete thoughts, I would like to see what others think. I'm not a social media person, be gentle :-)

The earth’s restorable ecosystems can meet the needs of all people, but the interest bearing public debt money to private banks prevents it. The peoples GRB Eco money values natural resources and earns everyone a basic income, health care, housing, education and telecom.

Peoples GRB Eco Real-time AI Algorithm
People value natural resources at 5 quadrillion (q) ecos with the buying power of 2020 US$. US$ assets are converted to ecos and possessions are transferred by smart eco contracts. GRB gains income from an ecosystem impact fee on eco accounts and exchanges ecos with the GRB eco reserve to maintain monetary equilibrium. Peoples average ecosystem impact sets peoples eco account fees and the impact of transparent commercial eco accounts sets their fees. GRB income maintains the GRB network and basic income supports everyone for life. The GRB invests .1q ecos each in ecosystem restoration, conservation, education, green energy, recycling, science, technology, AI, health care, housing, agroecology, infrastructure, transportation, communication, disarmament, sport, art and the GRB network. The peoples feedback to the GRB rule-based algorithm regulates the value of natural resources, the GRB network percentage, and amount of basic income. The GRB is a decentralized autonomous network of people who rule the GRB eco algorithm by majority. The GRB eco accounts are accessed by biometric ID. After one year of inactivity eco accounts revert to the reserve.

Peoples GRB Eco (e) Balance Sheet (quadrillions)
Assets                              Liabilities

5.0 natural resources        3.0 basic income for 8b+ people x e50/day x 20 years.
1.0 $ assets to e                1.8 invest in GRBnet, eco-restoration, conservation, etc.
__________________________________________________________________
6.0 minus                           4.8 = 1.2 reserve

Vision – Imagine all the people sharing all the world.
Capitalism – GRB people own and exchange property in free global markets.
Democracy – GRB people rule a direct democratic eco exchange system.
Transparency – Verifies the GRB people’s understanding and trust.
Communication – The GRBnet supplies everyone world telecom.
Steady-State – The GRB maintains a steady-state eco-economy.
World Peace – The peoples GRB network transcends borders.
GRB References – Sustainability Free Exchange Copionics

John.Pozzi@grb.net

I would like to see more interaction with readers. This is very important to maintain interest in the resource and the materials published on it.

Really Kim? I'm 30 pages in to the tedious 2312 and you've managed to disparage autistic folks twice. That's lazy writing at best and typically an indication that you've submerged your own autism from the pressures exerted by society.
I'd also speculate the captchas testing commenter's fan worthiness is an autist trait.

I can't express the volume of my disappointment with Ministry.  Are you, too, blind to the 400-pound gorilla in the room?   I'm on page 318 and I have yet to read the words "birth control".   Since you don't seem to have noticed, humans breed like cancer.  Every environmental problem stems from or is worsened by this.   

 

I read The Population Bomb (Erlich) in 1971.   I got it, and I'm not particularly smart.   As long as growth is our God, as long as religious leaders use population as a political weapon, this planet doesn't stand a chance.  

 

I will trade in my wonderful 40-mpg car for an electric.  I also just applied for a Sustainability Specialist position with my county (a Catholic county).   I don't have any illusions of the future of this planet.   I just want to die with a little less guilt.  

How can someone terraform Venus yeah I know it is a literal hellscape but there has to be a way to push it out of its hellscape orbit and get its axial tilt sorted. 

I was inspired by Ministry of the Future to write an essay advocating the construction of municipal cooling shelters to save the lives of vulnerable people during heat emergencies. I use humor to balance the depressing science of climate catastrophe, while providing a hopeful scenario, much like in the Ministry of the Future. It's a short, 690-word essay that I'm hoping to publish in the appropriate climate-writing forum. Any ideas on where to send it? I've been working on newspapers, but they are mostly owned by the same few companies, now switching gears to climate-writing outlets.

I've also got a humorous collection of stories out called Capital Disrupt (March 2024), featuring a story called What We Do in the Heat, about two lovers learning to be kind to each other through an extended heat wave.

Thanks for your inspiration. I'm promoting government-funded revolving loan funds as a way to mount solar panels on 18 million sun-facing roofs over the next 18 years.

Fixed. IT problems arise from time to time, I deal with them ASAP!

Hello Kim, would you be open to taking part in a Climate Podcast that I am hosting for the Greenly Institute? I am the cofounder of Greenly, leading carbon accounting platform supporting 2000+ companies. Our media has 3M views & we host a 350K ESG pro community on Linkedin. Many thanks ! They would love to learn about your book.

I just finished a painting that was inspired by the book Aurora. I just wanted to share it with folks who read the book. Any suggestions where I can upload the image? It's not for sale or anything like that, I just want to share it.

I have started reading your mars trilogy and I love it if there could be a modern alternative variation on the entire mars trilogy because of the aspect of human lifespan being extended by decades. It would be interesting if the characters and other humans outward appearances could gradually age until they look like variations of these images in amount of gradual outward appearance aging. 

 

Hi Kim,  I have written at least 6 of your books.  I've been reading Ministry of the Future slowly and have some ideas to share with you, some of which is written in detail in my book, Equal Rights Versus the Rights of Property.  I'd like to send you a copy of the book so you can see my take on U.S. history & corporate capitalism.  Could you let me know an address where I could send the book to you by mail?  It should be printed next month.  I've been tracking climate change since 1990 and currently do legal forest protection work (including for carbon sequestration & storage) in eastern Oregon.  You can see what I do and photos of me in the forests with volunteers at bluemountainsbiodiversity.org.  My email for contacting me is:  bluemountainsbiodiversity@gmail.com, for letting me know where to send a copy of my book to you.  I'd also like to have a conversation at some point about ideas in Ministry and ideas in  my book to consider--esp. re: issues around capitalism wrecking progress on phasing out fossil fuels, banks, and how to address the  current situation based on U.S. "ourstory" re: finance and movement-building, etc.   Thank you for  your good writing and getting good ideas out there in Ministry for the Future.  I originally wanted to be a novelist, but instead I became an activist, naturalist, and poet.  I do have some hopefully constructive critique about some aspects of Ministry, such as re: carbon capture, the role of banks and their authority over society, and saying "and so on" in virtually every chapter!  I'm also interested in how you viewed the balancing act involved with writing non-fiction/speculative fiction.  Enough said for now.  I look forward to your response and hope I can send a copy of my book to you.  For the Wild, Karen Coulter, Director, Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project

5104697777 Dr M. Paloma Pavel for Dr Kim Stanley Robinson

Stan- Invitation to speak with Bishop Marc Andrus series -November 16 ,2023 "Sacred Earth: Growing Beloved Community"

 

Dear Mr Robinson:

Congratulations on receiving the gold medal in Californiana from the Commonwealth Club.  I am the leader of the Reading Californians book discussion group at the Commonwealth Club.  I was wondering if you would be willing to join our book discussion when we talk about your book, The High Sierra:  A Love Story?  The good news is that you won't even have to come to SF as we will do the discussion via Zoom!  Our available dates (all Tuesdays) would be August 8, December 5, (in 2024) February 6 and April 2.  We usually have the discussions at 5 - 6:15 p.m. but we can be flexible on the time.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kalena Gregory

Reading Californians

Commonwealth Club

Any idea how to get the email address of the man himself. Just have a question about a recent talk he gave is all

Regards. 

I would like to meet, or at least contact, you. We are very nearly the same: been all over the Sierras, class 2, passes, basins, off trail, Zen, old, writer (mostly unsung). I liked "High Sierra' and have been ti almost every destination mentioned in it. Enjoyed "Ministry of the Future" too.  At 82, I've lost all my backpacking companions to death or disability. I have also lost interest in the JMT, but I still hold the age record for completing it. I'm a freelance science writer, but I also write for outdoor/adventure magazines for fun. chickenfat2@gmail.com

I think this will be of interest to fans of the 'Mars' trilogy; the link is to part 3 of a blogpost on the 'VolcanoCafe' site about the martian volcanoes the first two parts presented as a fictional account

http://www.volcanocafe.org/the-science-behind-mars-2067-the-olympus-mons...

I just finished listening to you High Sierra book and a love story does not adequately describe your relationship. The Sierra's are your mistress, and I hope she is up to sharing.

My question is; could you remind me what you take for altitude acclimation.

Thank you KRS for The Capital Trilogy and the mission of popularizing global science you suggested via your charecter Edguardo.  This is my idea dreamofheavenonearthwithus@blogspot.com

however i am an artist and writing and the computer are new to me and given the Supreme Courts actions regards the Paris Climate Talks, the Human Race  and the planet Earth dont have time for an amature right now.  Then i discovered your sight with this format and it moved me to hope that you and your readers would help me write it on line and get it produced as a series that would broaden the audiance to Billions of people in a more timely manner, say a single year.

The synopsis is 44 pages.  The story involves a quest to save a future ecotopian society and the Earth from certain anihelation.  It's an metaphisical odyssy of disfunctional charecters of our day across time and  a pristine planet Earth into their own being to liberation.  Our major motivation to show billions of people what a functional looks like by weaving existing brilliant sollutions to human based problems, including the teachings of the great masters, into an interesting sci fi adventure story they can watch in a weekly series.  

If Kim Stanley Robinson manage to acquire the appropriate permission from Amazon Studios/MGM Studios. You might be able extend/expand your novel the Years of of Rice and Salt by blending it/crossing it with the Stargate Franchise tv shows lore and other multimedia lore content.

Technically it looks very impressive and sleek, like most TV productions the quality is really high. I have only seen the pilot. There is enough worldbuilding potential to sustain a series, however this is rather off the point the book tries to make. I don't know how they'll handle the whole forgery / "fakeness of reality" aspect, which is the core of the book, and which sounds like a recipe for disaster for a TV show if they base a whole mystery around it for years on end and build expectations towards "that" reveal.

Would you please if you are in contact with the author pass the following on to him. If you manage to acquire the appropriate permission from Amazon Studios/MGM Studios. You might be able extend/expand your novel the Years of of Rice and Salt by blending it/crossing it with the Stargate Franchise tv shows lore and other multimedia lore content.

The world's "experts" are contantly getting the cause of climate change wrong. The majority of them (including the latest UN IPCC report) focusses on emmissions. "if we can get emmissions down by switching to renewable or solar or nuclear energy, that will solve the problem. We just need the political will to do so." Actually, it would make no difference whatsoever until we solve the world's biggest problem - global population. If we want to generate "political will", we have to give them sound information. People cause climate change. If population grows from 8 billion people to 10 billion by ~2050, then emissions will rise regardless of what forms of energy we use. The extra people will heat homes, drive cars, clear fields, and cause industry to raise their emmissions. Getting global population under control is key to fighting climate change.

Fortunately, there is an effective and humane way to do this that the "experts" are not talking about - global education. Many studies (including one by the UN) have suggested that increasing education can lower fertility rates by as much as a factor of 3. Smarter women and men have fewer babies. If we can get population growth stopped, then we have a chance to prevent futher damage to the planet from climate change. If we don't, it won't matter. Millions or perhaps billions will die. That's solving the problem the Hard Way!

Dave Mackidd  Calgary Alberta Canada mackidddave4@gmail.com 403-968-6904

what do you think about the"The Man in the High Castle'? being filmed.

[b]Testing[/b] this system... :x

Kim Stanley Robinson Short Speech Accepting Thankyou Gifts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYZKumE3VM

Bioethics of Terraforming panel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2eSC9Xbexw

I suggest setting up a shared set of markers for Google Mars that depict the sites from the Mars trilogy.

Sun Symbiosis – by Forrest Sol

The following review of my unpublished first novel was written by the best-selling science fiction author Piers Anthony. It can be found in the June, 2010 newsletter on his website:

www.hipiers.com

“I read Sun Symbiosis, by Forrest Sol, a pen name for a PhD in environmental science. This is presented as a novel, but is actually a book-length essay phrased as an extended interview. I had to tell the author that it really didn't work for me as a novel, because there is no human interaction other than between the interviewer and his subject, both male. A novel does better with a rich background of science or fantasy and a telling human story, preferably a romantic one, and perhaps a moral theme. An example is the movie Avatar. I'm not sure whether that was a novel first, but if so, it was surely a good one. Sun Symbiosis has the background, and is in fact a work of formidable imagination, and a moral theme: saving the environment. The author clearly knows what he is talking about; I am judging not by his doctorate but by my own awareness of the issues. For example he has a major project to reverse global warming by flooding deserts with sea water and letting it evaporate. Ah, I thought, but that would load the land with salt. Then he addressed that aspect too, so it was factored in. He addresses the arguments made by the naysayers, those who prefer to pretend that there is no warming, and if there is, it is not by human hand. There is an impassioned speech made by the female president of the USA invoking God, I think not really as a religious concept, but as a common belief most of the world shares, so that there can be a way to unify diverse people in the effort to save the planet. "You are right to believe in God. I know that some of you become very uncomfortable when I speak this way. If it is any consolation to the skeptics, I have great respect for science, and I defer to the advice of scientists in all technical matters. But it is also science that informs my faith. And it is my joy to affirm the miracle that nature and the natural world are more clear than any ancient text written by human hands in the search for consciousness greater than our own." As a lifelong agnostic I find this a worthy statement.
But this is only part of it. Much of the story centers around a special project to study dark energy. This president fully supported that, and it seemed to be on the verge of a phenomenal breakthrough, when she abruptly canceled it, erased the records, and arranged to have laws passed to prevent any continuation of the study made for three generations. What happened? That is the mystery of this story. Because as it turns out, they discovered a universe of dark energy beings who might be considered alive but not at all in the manner we think of life. One inhabits the sun, and is a significant component of it. Others travel across the universe to tune in on the flickering consciousnesses that we know as people. It seems the dark energy beings are addicted to consciousness; it's like a drug or perhaps pornography. We are not aware of them, and they do not harm us; they are part of that other, overlapping realm we can barely fathom even conceptually. But with this dark energy project we could become aware of them, and just possibly interact with them. Are we as a species mature enough to safely do that? Maybe in three generations.
So I deem this book not to be a proper novel, and I suspect the average reader would not understand or appreciate it. But it ranges into territory that not much science fiction does, and I think it should be worth the while of the intelligent, motivated, moral (in the sense of doing what is best for the world) reader. If it can find a publisher.”

It may interest you to know that [u]The Years of Rice and Salt[/u] inspired this map: [url]http://www.cyon.se/#!alkebu-lan/ck0q[/url]

[quote=Jeffrey A. Ehrnman]I have read the trilogy and "The Martians" and found I am always trying to find a map or illustration... So I compiled a list. Here goes...

RED MARS
Frontispiece, Mars Map, 2 pages
Page 110 The Martian Calendar Year 1, (2027 AD)
Pages 196,197,198 Greimas Schematic Rectangle

GREEN MARS
Frontispiece, Mars Map, 2 pages
Page 30 Map: Mars Polar Region
Page 130 Map: Burroughs C. 2100 AD
Page 500 Map: Burroughs Region
Page 537 Diagram: Temperature Comparisons

BLUE MARS
Frontispiece, Mars Map, 2 pages
Sub-Frontispiece,The Martian Calendar Year 1, (2027 AD)
Page 6 Map: Pavonis Mons Caldera (Sheffield)
Page 208 Map: Tempe Terra (Kasei Fjord)
Page 308 Map: North Sea Polar Projection (North Pole)
Page 334 Map: Chryse Gulf (Da Vinci, Kasei Fjord, Sinai Peninsula)
Page 450 Map: The Grand Canal (Isidus Bay, Hellas Sea, Odessa)
Page 549 Map: Olympus Mons Caldera

The Martians
Frontispiece, Mars Map, 2 pages (From BLUE MARS)
[/quote]

Kim Stanley Robinson Short Speech Accepting Thankyou Gifts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYZKumE3VM

Bioethics of Terraforming panel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2eSC9Xbexw

Sorry did not add urls as links...

Hi David,

Thanks for the info; I've also added this to our more comprehensive interview list:

http://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/w/index.php5?title=List_of_interviews...

Do you know if this interview appears in a print issue of The Edge, or was it a web-only interview?

Also, the site indicates that the interview first appeared in Mike's Dreamberry Wine; do you happen to know when that might have been?

Nice! I have your contact details, we'll see what I can do :wink:

Lori, thanks, I will relay this and keep you posted.

j'aime beaucoup vos livres,
depuis plusieurs années
merci
vraiment
je vous souhaite d'être heureux, empli de bonheurs
bien sincèrement
françoise

I have read the trilogy and 'The Martians' and found I am always trying to find a map or illustration... So I compiled a list. Here goes...

RED MARS
Frontispiece, Mars Map, 2 pages
Page 110 The Martian Calendar Year 1, (2027 AD)
Pages 196,197,198 Greimas Schematic Rectangle

GREEN MARS
Frontispiece, Mars Map, 2 pages
Page 30 Map: Mars Polar Region
Page 130 Map: Burroughs C. 2100 AD
Page 500 Map: Burroughs Region
Page 537 Diagram: Temperature Comparisons

BLUE MARS
Frontispiece, Mars Map, 2 pages
Sub-Frontispiece,The Martian Calendar Year 1, (2027 AD)
Page 6 Map: Pavonis Mons Caldera (Sheffield)
Page 208 Map: Tempe Terra (Kasei Fjord)
Page 308 Map: North Sea Polar Projection (North Pole)
Page 334 Map: Chryse Gulf (Da Vinci, Kasei Fjord, Sinai Peninsula)
Page 450 Map: The Grand Canal (Isidus Bay, Hellas Sea, Odessa)
Page 549 Map: Olympus Mons Caldera

The Martians
Frontispiece, Mars Map, 2 pages (From BLUE MARS)

This article in the BBC news entitled "Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars" reads almost like the first chapter of Red Mars.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22146456

Just started to read Forty signs of rain. On page 3, third line one calorie will raise the temp of one kilogram of water should read one GRAM. This is the type of mistakes that are being made at NASA where they can loose space craft on Mars. Stick to one system. One calorie=4.185 joules.
Regards,
Bernard.

[url][/url]thefreeonline.wordpress.com

Hi there Kim from a big fan.
Here's some ideas for a future novel, it's a story I wrote, mostly unknown, a successful anarcha-feminist revolution set in the near future amid climate chaos and the collapse of capitalism.. also funny, tragic.... :idea: :idea:
You can read it online or download at the above site.
Great to see you still going strong, we're almost the same age!
all the best... salud... mike gilliland

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