I’m appearing at UCSD on February 9, with a talk called “Scarcity, Abundance and the Finite Planet: Nothing Exceeds Like Excess,” in which I’ll discuss the potentials for scarcity and abundance — and bright-green vs austere-green futurism — drawing on my novels Walkaway, Makers and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
The talk is free and open to the public; the organizers would appreciate an RSVP to galleryinfo@calit2.net.
The lecture will take place in the Calit2 Auditorium in the Qualcomm Institute’s Atkinson Hall headquarters. The talk will begin at 5:00 p.m., and it will be moderated by Visual Arts professor Jordan Crandall, who chairs the gallery@calit2’s 2017-2018 faculty committee. Following the talk and Q&A session, attendees are invited to stay for a public reception.
Doctorow will discuss the economics, material science, psychology and politics of scarcity and abundance as described in his novels WALKAWAY, MAKERS and DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM. Together, they represent what he calls “a 15-year literature of technology, fabrication and fairness.”Among the questions he’ll pose: How can everyone in the world live like an American when we need six planets’ worth of materials to realize that dream? Doctorow also asks, “Can fully automated luxury communism get us there, or will our futures be miserable austerity-ecology hairshirts where we all make do with less?”
Author Cory Doctorow to Speak at UC San Diego on Scarcity, Abundance and the Finite Planet [Doug Ramsey/UCSD News]