In this talk, author Kim Stanley Robinson reminds us that the Anthropocene is a name in a periodizing scheme, or in more than one periodizing scheme. He suggests that, to understand it more fully, we need first to discuss periodization itself. Then, Robinson considers whether it is possible to contemplate the conditions for creating a “good Anthropocene.”

Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the internationally bestselling Mars trilogy and, more recently, New York 2140, Aurora, Shaman, Green Earth, and 2312, which was a New York Times bestseller nominated for all seven of the major science fiction awards—a first for any book. He was sent to the Antarctic by the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers’ Program in 1995, and returned in their Antarctic media program in 2016. In 2008 he was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine, and he works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and UC San Diego’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages and has won a dozen awards in five countries, including the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. In 2016 he was given the Heinlein Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction, and asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson.” In 2017 he was given the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society.

Presented by Berkeley Center for New Media as part of the Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium and in partnership with the Department of Architecture's Studio One and sponsored by the Horst Rittel Endowment and Berkeley Arts + Design as part of Arts + Design Mondays @ BAMPFA.