The Ministry for the Future
by Kim Stanley Robinson, Simon Saito · first published 2020
47% recommend39% neutral14% critical
Why HN recommends it
Climate novel laying out concrete political, economic and technical responses, such as carbon quantitative easing and co-ops, while staying hopeful and avoiding survival plots. Suits readers wanting realistic solutions.
Common criticism: Reads more like a manifesto than a novel, with weak plot and prose
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel from visionary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis. ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR “The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” —Jonathan Lethem "If
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For a harrowing depiction of what sustained wet-bulb temperatures could look like, check out the opening of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future.
on “Wet-Bulb Temperature” ↗Heatwave in India you say? Reminds me of: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50998056-the-ministry-fo... Beginning of that book was downright terrifying.
on “Heatwave in India breaks records, still worsening” ↗If you haven’t read it yet, the first section of Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson describes a wet-bulb event in striking detail. The horror of this climate-change catastrophe is what finally triggers a significant global cultural shift around climate change.…
on “Wet-Bulb Temperature” ↗…out) or to sequester carbon with various methods. It's thought of as a carrot along with the stick of carbon taxes adding a cost to emissions. First learned about this in the excellent sci-fi novel The Ministry for the Future. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_quantitative_easing
on “The University of California has all but dropped carbon offsets” ↗You were referring to Kim Stanley Robinson's latest book, The Ministry for the Future. I have read both and recommend both highly.
on “Land Gained and Lost: A Fermi Estimate” ↗The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson is pretty good if quite preachy. It shows how bleak things have gotten that a book about surviving the coming climate crisis seems fantastical.
on “From Cyberpunk to Solarpunk: Technics and the Cities of the Future” ↗There was a nice discussion on Mondragon, and co-ops in general, in Kim Stanley Robinson's recent book Ministry for the Future. That book is chock full of ideas - a fun read!
on “How Mondragon Became the World's Largest Co-Op” ↗I really liked Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future as a guide to think through the effectiveness of various carrots and sticks in staving off the climate catastrophe. It's a work of fiction set in the very near future. The carrots include a carbon coin…
on “A campaign to make environmental destruction an international crime” ↗Kim stanley robinson’s “ministry for the future” discusses something similar to this dubbed “carbon coin” at some length, together with possible pros, cons, issues, opposition, etc. Worth the read.
on “Ask HN: Is it technically possible to tie a cryptocurrency to decarbonization?” ↗Great blog post. Just want to post in favor of this: "Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future, which I know you know well. Although climate change / the Anthropocene has been widely recognized for more than ten years, I think the combination of, not solutions, but at least ameliorations, presented…
on “In search of the new” ↗If you want to see a very realistic, depressing, and ever-so-slightly hopefully depiction of the possible near-future, read The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.
on “It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record” ↗There’s a book with this at its core - Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson.
on “Startup Ideas” ↗Two titles that I hope everyone reads and are not on the list: * The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson * The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk And a bonus: * Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler
on “Science Fiction Books Everyone Should Read” ↗Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson presents a best case scenario for our future.
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗Hard to say 500 years out. 500 years ago takes us to before Bach's time. If we instead focus on the next 100 or so years: - The Ministry for The Future, Kim Stanley Robinson (might be seen as an important historical marker of the spread of knowledge about climate change.) - On the Nature of Daylight, by Max Richter? - Coco (Pixar Film.) - The Intouchables…
on “Ask HN: What recent art (last ~20 years) will be well known in 500 years?” ↗