I’ll be attending this year’s Worldcon in London, Loncon 3. If you happen to see me, say hi!
All my scheduled events are on the Friday, which has the advantage of making the rest of my convention fairly laid back. In addition to the panels, I plan to pop into the SFWA reception and I’ll be attending the Hugo Award ceremony.
Panel: The Pleasures of a Good, Long Info-Dump
Friday 11:00 – 12:00, Capital Suite 7+12 (ExCeL)
Arguably, the literature of ideas is not SF but the one emerging from the recent deluge of speculative nonfictional works. If we want to read about interesting ideas on the future of war, we don’t turn to SF with its rather pathetic, microwaved dystopic visions. We’re better off with books like John Mueller’s Capitalism, Democracy and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery or Max van Crevald’s Art of War. These are extended info dumps, in which the traditional problems of SF – weak characterization, plot centricity etc – have been eliminated. They don’t describe probable, moral or desirable futures, but remain densely speculative in a way most modern SF simply isn’t. Is it time to get rid of fiction from science fiction and focus on what its geeky readers have always enjoyed, the ideas part — the Info dump?
Panelists: Jack William Bell (Moderator), Cory Doctorow, Kim Stanley Robinson, M. Darusha Wehm
Panel: A Singularity for the Rest of Us
Friday 20:00 – 21:00, Capital Suite 8 (ExCeL)
Is posthumanism really as straight, white and Western as it often seems? How can science fiction talk about post-body identities without diminishing or dismissing embodied identity and experience? This panel will discuss the stories out there that complicate the uploaded experience.
Panelists: Russell Blackford (Moderator), Ibrahim Abbas, Lettie Prell, Hannu Rajaniemi, M. Darusha Wehm
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