New book sees a 'New Possible' emerging from 2020's tumult

SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — In pop culture, 2020 has been understandably reviled as the “hell year.” It tormented us with a lethal pandemic spiraling out of control, thousands of shuttered businesses, violent protests over racial injustice, raging wildfires and political extremism and lies that underpinned January's harrowing coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol.

But what if all that tumult actually laid the foundation for societal revival? That's the premise offered by an eclectic group of writers, academics, scientists, environmentalists, and technology engineers in “The New Possible," a collection of essays that explore what and how the world might rebuild from the rubble of the past year.

The group behind the book doesn't lack for ambition. People from science fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson to Buddhist monk Jack Kornfield suggest ways to reshape technology, the economy, the environment, the food supply, government and community in hopes that people can eventually look back at 2020 as a reawakening and not a death rattle.

“People can tell our systems are broken, and not just in a subtle way, not just like we need to tweak a few things or throw a few bad apples out," said Justin Rosenstein, a former Google and Facebook engineer who contributed an essay on building a “democratic economy.” “The rules of the system are rigged against us. They are not designed to serve the interests of humanity, they are not designed to serve the interests of nature.”

Rosenstein was one of the driving forces behind the book, which was released last week. Some critics may see him as part of the problem, given that he invented the Facebook “Like" button that helped propel the success of a social network that has become a massive funnel of misinformation that has become a source of consternation and regret for him and...