156. How to fall in love with the future… Where does AI fit? / Rob Hopkins

For the final episode of the season, I have the distinct pleasure of being in conversation with the renowned author, activist and friend of the podcast, Rob Hopkins.

Having interviewed him about his powerful book,  From What Is to What If: Unleashing The Power Of Imagination To Create The Future We Want in episode 87, I had to invite him to return to the show to dive into his new, eagerly awaited sequel: How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide To Changing The World.

To give you a bit of background, Rob is the co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and the Transition Network, he has authored several titles including The Transition Handbook, The Transition Companion, The Power of Just Doing Stuff, and 21 Stories of Transition , and he presents the podcast series From What If to What Next.

In 2012, he was voted one of the Independent’s top 100 environmentalists and was on Nesta and the Observer’s list of Britain’s 50 New Radicals. Rob has also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s “Four Thought” and “A Good Read”, in the French film phenomenon Demain and its sequel Après Demain, and has spoken at TEDGlobal and three TEDx events.

An Ashoka Fellow, Rob also holds a doctorate degree from the University of Plymouth and has received two honorary doctorates from the University of the West of England and the University of Namur. In November 2022 he was made an Honorary Citizen of Liège in Belgium by the Mayor of the city. Rob runs ‘Imagination Catalyst’ trainings for organisations as diverse as Balenciaga, London Marathon Group, local councils and Museum Booster, he’s collaborated with musician Mr Kit on a project called Field Recordings from the Future, due out in 2025, and he is a keen gardener and a director of Totnes Community Development Society, the group behind Atmos Totnes, an ambitious, community-led development project.

Now, this season has been focusing heavily on AI – its impact in the world, how we develop it, how we approach it, discerning fact from fiction, uncovering some of the more existential questions, and figuring out how to chart a path forward that gives us back our sense of agency, creativity, imagination, and collective power. And so for me it felt really fitting to land this series speaking to Rob about his extraordinary ways in which we can really breathe ourselves into a future that is flourishing, beautiful and just. And to take that as a starting place, the fertile ground, from which to anchor any imagination around what technology and other aspects of life, could bring.

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A brief note: When we recorded this episode, there were road-works being carried out in the street outside - and while we’ve done our best to reduce the noise, I’m including a note here to flag that the audio drop outs in my voice are not due to Caro C’s work, but are the result of pre-editing carried out by someone else. I hope you’ll enjoy the episode nonetheless!

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SUMMARY

In this conversation, Rob Hopkins and Nathalie Nahai explore the importance of imagination and longing in activism. They discuss the need for community, the skepticism towards AI, and the power of collective action in creating a flourishing future. Rob shares insights from his book, 'How to Fall in Love with the Future,' emphasizing the significance of storytelling and social technologies in shaping a better world. The dialogue highlights the necessity of nurturing imagination and the potential for human beings to enact extraordinary change.

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