2312
by Kim Stanley Robinson · first published 2012
35% recommend53% neutral12% critical
"The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future. The first event takes place on Mercury, on the city of Terminator, itself a miracle of engineering on an unprecedented scale. It is an unexpected death, but one that might have been foreseen. For Swan Er Hong, it is an event that will change
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One of my all time favourite books too. I'd recommend 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson if you've not read it - it's in a similar vein / world to the third part of Seveneves.
on “We are all nerds: The literary works of Neal Stephenson” ↗The book that won this year's Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C Clark award, Ancillary Justice, has a pretty not-glum view of AI. Also Kim Stanley Robinson's AI in 2312 is also not glum. The AI in both these books are pretty cool actually. I'd even go so far to say that the AI in Verner Vinge's Rainbows End is also pretty cool.
on “Why Is Our Sci-Fi So Glum About A.I.?” ↗This discussion and the term "rewilding" reminds me of Kim Stanley Robinson's excellent Nebula Award winning novel "2312" - and the "reanimation" project which is part of the complex web of plot lines. One of a few recent books that embody the best part of what I consider "classic science fiction" (whatever that might mean…
on “‘Rewilding’ process could soon return wolves to Scotland” ↗The novel 2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson, explores this idea and has a fun chapter describing the process of hollowing out and terraforming an asteroid, using the ejecta to give it artificial gravity and a stable orbit…
on “Autonomous Restructuring of Asteroids into Rotating Space Stations” ↗…things I loved growing up, but what I ended up with was a pile of teen-fict no better than Twilight. I am a little bit bitter about RP1, can you tell? Right now I'm reading Kim Stanley Robinsion's '2312'. It's very similar to some of the Culture novels - indeed I picked it up after feeling the loss of no more Iain M Banks books coming... If you like Culturesque stuff, I can totally recommend it.
on “Ghost in the Shell” ↗Kim Stanley Robinson is a great SciFi Writer. "2312" is probably my favorite of his works (the first I read). I enjoyed the hopefulness of the article. Being part of the next decades will be very interesting.
on “There is no Planet B” ↗…about "The Population Bomb" scenarios than "Global Ecosystem Collapse" scenarios. That said - the underlying driver of ecosystem collapse is overpopulation, so there is a fair amount of thematic overlap. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson comes to mind, but that might just be my broken brain talking nonsense...
on “Paranoid Android: The Divine Madness of Philip K Dick” ↗…it builds on existing tech in a collective way, so it contributes to the story. Even so, it was criticized for being too technical (even though I enjoyed that part of it immensely). Another example is 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson, which makes the mistake of focusing too much on the tech - in fact the whole plot is essentially a vehicle for the author to describe all the possible human habitats that could…
on “Something Is Broken in Our Science Fiction. Why Can’t We Move Past Cyberpunk?” ↗Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a book, 2312, which featured an equatorial city on Mercury mounted on massive concrete rails. The expansion of the concrete rails on the day side permanently keeps the city in the planets relatively pleasant pre-dawn…
on “Mystery of interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua gets trickier” ↗…He's the rare writer who combines hard and soft SF in one; keep plowing through the first thirds to halves of his novels, which are confusing but worth the payoff. I also read Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 not long ago and didn't dislike it, exactly, and yet felt bored even in the midst of exciting reversals and shocking events in the context of the world.
on “My Summer Reading List” ↗The author of this ought to read a plot summary of 2312: http://www.amazon.com/2312-Kim-Stanley-Robinson/dp/031609811... In that book, a colony on Mercury is attacked through the use of several billion pebbles that were flung into the solar system in a calculated…
on “Essay on Realistic Space Combat” ↗That was Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2312_(novel)
on “Power on the Moon. What Will It Take to Survive the Lunar Night?” ↗Not super related, but for whatever reason I've had a flare up in thinking about sci-fi moving cities/neighborhoods again. Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312 with a Mars city going around the terminator (not super well described tbh but fun), Hannu Rajaniemi's Fractal Prince (book #2 of Jean le Flambeur's series) with a reconfiguring Mars city wandering around…
on “Traveling Neighborhoods” ↗Crazy how one man can do something that normally would take hundreds of people to accomplish. Wouldn't it be nice if Erik Wernquist was in charge of the filmatization of "2312" (the novel that inspired his "Iapetus Ridge" scene). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2312_(novel)
on “Wanderers: a short film of humanity's expansion into the Solar System [video]” ↗Having read the trilogy (as well as "2312"), I must agree that it was poorly written, with some very poorly constructed characters. Having said that, and despite my distaste for and disagreement about the political outcomes, the technical vision…
on “Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]” ↗