futurians

This introduction by Kim Stanley Robinson outlines the background and collaboration of Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl, two prominent science fiction writers and environmental advocates. It details their early association with the Futurians, their political leanings, and their shared concern about ecological crises culminating in their joint effort to write a comprehensive book addressing planetary environmental problems and solutions. The chapter emphasizes their complementary skills and commitment to using their writing to influence public awareness on climate change and biosphere crises.

The chapter recounts the narrator's deep involvement with the Young Communist League in 1936 Brooklyn, highlighting the organization's youthful, predominantly Jewish membership and their open political activism against fascism and for workers' rights. It contrasts the idealistic political engagement of the YCL with the ignored harsh realities of Soviet policies, and then shifts focus to the formation and dynamics of the Futurians, a science-fiction group characterized by intense collaboration, youthful arrogance, and social experimentation. The narrator reflects on the challenges of reconciling political idealism with reality, the complexities of group identity, and his personal educational decline as he prioritized writing and fandom.