We are back in Niskayuna now, where SteelyKid is using her new powers of bipedal locomotion to help me burn off some of the excess calories from the weekend in Montreal. She’s only been walking for a couple of weeks, but she can really move. I’m pretty fried, even after napping for two hours earlier… Continue reading Worldcon Wrap-Up
Category: SF
Hooray for Tom Doherty
Tor Books founder and publisher Tom Doherty is one of the several Guests of Honor Who Aren’t Neil Gaiman at this year’s worldcon, and as such there was a panel titled “Locus interviews Tom Doherty.” Which might better have been titled “Tom Doherty Tells Cool Stories About His Career in Publishing, with Occasional Prompting from… Continue reading Hooray for Tom Doherty
Worldcon Miscellany
The “Philosophy of Science” panel I moderated was surprisingly well-attended, and got some decent discussion going. Kate took notes, at least for a while, and I’ll post a link if she writes it up on LiveJournal. The “Knights who Say Fuck” panel was in a very remote room that was much too small to contain… Continue reading Worldcon Miscellany
Worldcon Talk: How to Effectively Talk About Science to Non-Scientists
My talk was Friday morning at 10am, on the title given above. This wasn’t my choice– when I volunteered to be on programming, I said some general areas that I’d be willing to talk about, and left it at that. Somebody else made up the title and description for the talk, which made it very… Continue reading Worldcon Talk: How to Effectively Talk About Science to Non-Scientists
Where I’ll Be at Worldcon
The Worldcon program has been posted, but only as a giant, confusing PDF. I was getting cross-eyed trying to figure things out, so I ended up creating my own blank grid sheets, and making notes on those. The following is a by-no-means comprehensive list of things I think look interesting enough to attend. There are… Continue reading Where I’ll Be at Worldcon
The arXiv: When You Can’t Plot Well Enough for Analog
There’s another paper about the Fermi Paradox highlighted on the arXiv blog today. This one describes extensive numerical simulations which purport to show that no more than 1,000 spacefaring civilizations can be exploring the galaxy with non-replicating slower-than-light robotic probes. Of course, this is highly contingent on a bunch of assumptions about the behavior of… Continue reading The arXiv: When You Can’t Plot Well Enough for Analog
Philosophy of Science (Fiction)
As previously noted, I will be on programming at the upcoming Worldcon in Montreal, including moderating a panel at 10am Saturday with the following title and description: The Philosophy of Science To what extent does SF explore the meaning of science for scientists and create the ideas that our culture has of science? Panelists: Greer… Continue reading Philosophy of Science (Fiction)
Make the Hugos Better
Worldcon is less than two weeks off, which means that it’s time once again for the SF part of blogdom to explode with complaints about the quality of the nominees. There are some reasonable reactions, but it’s mostly slightly over-the-top broadsides. It’s worth emphasizing again that the source of the problem is also the solution… Continue reading Make the Hugos Better
Antici– (wait for it)– pation Schedule
Kate and I will both be on programming at Anticipation, the upcoming Worldcon in Montreal. The official program should be up on the web soonish, but I got my schedule by email, and figured I would post it here for those who care:
Infinite Recurrence
I’m something like 100 pages ahead of the Infinite Summer spoiler line (page 283 as of last night), meaning that a lot of the stuff I’d like to discuss or see discussed isn’t fair game yet. I’m still greatly enjoying the re-read of Infinite Jest, though. As I’ve said before, this is a dangerous book… Continue reading Infinite Recurrence