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Technology

The stories we tell have the power to shape our future

Stories about a better future can help break the dominance of the story that says you’re screwed, says legendary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson

By Sally Adee

7 June 2017

skyscraper

New York, under water by 2140, has people living in office blocks

Jon Shireman/Getty

The drowned city on the cover of your book New York 2140 may mislead people that it’s a dystopian climate change book. But it’s fun, a tale of driving stakes into vampire capitalists – the superwealthy who don’t even generate wealth.

I’ve always written utopian science fiction. The story to tell now is utopian science fiction jammed into near-future history. To avoid an environmental crash, we need an economic solution. I wanted to show people coming together in an accidental collective to do good things – financiers, reality stars, Silicon Valley people. There’s…

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