A Christmas Eco-Fiction Recommendation: Richard Powers’ Playground

A challenge facing us all is how to transition from a fossil carbon civilisation to one that is less damaging for society and the planet. Some believe the solution lies in stopping fossil fuel extraction and doing no harm. Others, like me, believe the way ahead is to design connections between nature, technology, the economy, and—as it’s Christmas—human kindness, to create systems out of which a better future for all can unfold.

For rewilders, environmentalists, #NatureFinance pioneers, I have a Christmas book recommendation: Richard Powers’ Playground. Some of you may know his earlier novel Overstory, which explores the boundaries between eco-activism and eco-terrorism. Playground is, in many ways, more contemporary and prescient. It offers a thought-provoking fictional account of the interplay between #MarineScience, colonial histories, #community empowerment, Generative AI, and the ambitions of tech-libertarian venture capitalists.

I’ve been listening to it while renovating my flat in Musselburgh.

The story begins in the late 1950s and traces the lives of four characters into the present day. It took me a few hours of listening to understand what was going on, and I started to wonder if it was all just literary indulgence. But the story of Evelyne, a young marine biologist, kept me going. I found her story captivating, bringing back old memories of the 1960s and 1970s heyday of ocean exploration—Jacques Cousteau documentaries, the early days of scuba diving, and articles in National Geographic.

Ocean exploration continues today, but it doesn’t enter public consciousness the way it once did. Perhaps we, and commissioning editors, feel safer with David Attenborough-esque documentaries featuring polished nature vignettes. Or perhaps marine scientists are too immersed in their work to amplify their stories amid the cacophony of social media. Whatever the reason, Powers beautifully brings this dimension of our world to life through Evelyne and primes us for the launch of REV Ocean in 2025—a 21st-century upgrade of Cousteau’s Calypso.

The other three main characters are Rafi, a super-bright Black kid with a penchant for literature from the West Side of Chicago, who forms a deep childhood friendship through playing chess and Go with Todd, a computer geek from the wealthy suburbs who creates the platform Playground and becomes a tech billionaire. The fourth ‘character’ is the Pacific island community of Makatea.

The disparate stories slowly weave together into a compelling and thought-provoking journey of imagination, sparking connections with both old and emerging trends in science, philosophy, and politics.

In the near-present day, the islanders of Makatea face a Peter Thiel-like offer: to become the site of a #ClimateChange-proofing eco-town populated by wealthy 21st-century sea-steaders. These investors are not old-style colonialists; they offer the community a vote and provide them with extensive information through Profunda, a state-of-the-art generative AI that speaks honestly, provides informed answers to all their questions, and responds to deep philosophical prompts like: “If the lagoon animals will be harmed, should they also have a vote?”

This is where I’ve paused in the story to write this #BookReview. It’s an old truism—or perhaps a truth—that Christmas is a time for reflection, assessment, and preparation for a new annual cycle. At this point, Playground has connected three themes in my mind:

The Wider Significance of #GenerativeAI. Almost two years ago, ChatGPT was introduced to the CreditNature team. As a nature-tech start-up, we decided to embrace it and learn how to use it responsibly and effectively to accelerate the impact of our work. Today, generative AI is an integral part of my work, serving as a research assistant with exceptional general knowledge, logical clarity, and style-editing abilities.

The Ideology of Community Empowerment and Decision-Making. This philosophy pervades nature-related policy, and while I support its principles, in my experience, it is rarely the panacea that proponents suggest. The tension between external expertise (increasingly embodied in AI) and local agency resonates throughout Playground.

The Concept of Deliberative Democracy. Jurgen Habermas’s idea of deliberative democracy, developed in the 1990s, resonated deeply with me during my doctoral studies. Powers’ exploration of generative AI, through Profunda, has prompted me to ponder: can AI technologies create Habermas’s ideal public sphere where people with diverse voices come together, with equal access to knowledge, to deliberate on decisions of importance?

Of course, both generative AI and sea-steading—the idea of creating permanent, self-sufficient communities on floating platforms in international waters—are the inventions of a wealthy and powerful elite who thrive on disruptive innovation. I have 3 hours and 15 minutes left in the audiobook and anticipate that the story will delve deeper into the serious ethical, political, and environmental concerns, as well as the opportunities, associated with these ambitions.

For now, though, I recommend Playground wholeheartedly—especially as an audiobook. It is beautifully narrated, with different actors voicing the characters. For me, audiobooks provide an alternative to anxiety-inducing news, a shield from hearing those two overplayed Christmas songs too many times, and prompts to pause, reflect, and collect one’s thoughts.

Postscript

Since retiring from CreditNature at the end of September, I’ve been renovating my flat in Musselburgh, on the shores of the Firth of Forth. This has given me time to reflect and plan my semi-retirement projects. I now live a short walk from a coastal ecosystem that has suffered at least two major downgrades in the last two centuries.

I’ve been expanding my understanding of terrestrial ecosystems to include the marine realm. While painting, I’ve been reading T.C. Smout’s The Firth of Forth: an Environmental History and listening to Callum Roberts’ The Unnatural History of the Sea. Together with long coastal walks, these books initially filled me with hopelessness and anxiety. Serendipitously, Playground rekindled my #Rewilding mindset: what is done is done, but we have the opportunity to shape a better future with the recovering forces of nature.

I’ve also reconnected with my earlier work in #Indonesia and the progressive conservation community that emerged with the rise of the international biodiversity regime in the early 1990s. I was recently invited to exchange trends, ideas, and action philosophies with a group of Indonesian conservationists pioneering a nature-based enterprise approach in East Kalimantan. The ‘tsunami’ of illegal logging followed by #oilpalm plantation expansion has left them no choice but to adopt the rewilding ethos summarised above. Over Christmas, I intend to share some of my insights and experiences in future posts.