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Despite the existential threats facing humanity today, celebrated author Ian McEwan believes the future remains firmly within our control. Recently, at their home in the Cotswolds, McEwan and his wife Annalena experimented with the AI program Soniva Music. They asked it to transform Philip Larkin’s well-known poem ‘This Be The Verse’ into a country music piece. The result, McEwan reveals, was surprisingly beautiful. Annalena then had the AI perform GK Chesterton’s poem ‘The Rolling English Road’ in the style of Frank Sinatra, complete with orchestral accompaniment and a convincing Sinatra-like voice. While impressed by the sophistication, McEwan confesses a mix of awe and unease about the path AI developments might lead us down. He half-jokingly adds that if AI can produce two great works of fiction every week rather than one in half a century, perhaps we have something to feel lucky about.
McEwan’s concerns extend beyond AI-generated art to a broader vision of an uncertain future shaped by climate change and global upheaval. His latest novel, *What We Can Know*, explores a world where humanity has endured vast population declines, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss. The narrative shifts between time periods, centering on Tom Metcalfe, an academic in 2119, who studies Francis Blundy—a poet and climate change skeptic remembered mostly for reciting an epic poem, ‘Corona For Vivien,’ at a private dinner in 2014. Metcalfe’s quest to uncover the poem’s significance drives the story and allows McEwan to reflect on current realities through the lens of a speculative future.
While McEwan acknowledges the daunting challenges ahead, he remains cautiously optimistic about humanity’s ability to create change. Speaking with his grandchildren present, he emphasizes that the climate crisis has moved from a distant, science-fiction-like worry to an undeniable fact of everyday life. “We know what to do,” he insists. Transitioning to an electric-based economy and ending fossil fuel dependence is straightforward, he says. He points to recent reading about Bill McKibben’s book *Here Comes the Sun*, praising McKibben’s perspective on the unnoticed shift happening largely in China, while other countries, like the United States, have missed opportunities to lead in clean energy. This realization brought McEwan a hopeful shift in mindset.
In addition, McEwan draws encouragement from conservation efforts such as Scotland’s Community of Arran Seabed Trust, where the absence of fishing has led to remarkable ecological recovery. He highlights similar examples, including the flourishing biodiversity around Chernobyl after human absence. “Nature really pushes back,” McEwan notes, underscoring the inherent resilience of ecosystems. He also reflects on personal experiences, like installing solar panels near his home, which inspires real satisfaction. For McEwan, these isolated projects represent “points of light” around the world—individual and collective efforts that remain disconnected but offer hope that humanity can still make the right choices. “We just have to stop doing bad things and do good things,” he concludes.
*What We Can Know* by Ian McEwan is published by Jonathan Cape
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