Using the panel discussions of the most recent
World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City in August 2016 (to which I was
invited and had a friend pay my membership! [Thanks, Paul!] but was unable to
go (until I retire from education)), I will jump off, jump on, rail against,
and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the
Program Guide. This is NO event as the link is provided below appears to be
dead now…(How much would you like to bet that the title generates more hits than
I’ve ever gotten? The current record after “CHRISTIANITY: Anthropogenic or
Universal?” is “Conspiracy Revealed: Adolph…” with 979 hits…)
OMGosh! I’m going
to have to come up with some of my own ideas again!
So, in no
particular order, here I go:
YA science
fiction – where’s it going
now that the dystopian frenzy seems to be settling down?
Christianity
and science fiction – is there
really any problem…or is it more a “quality issue”?
Education in SF – why do SF writers insist that Americans have
somehow hit upon the “perfect” educational institution and how might the
union-stasis be having a negative effect on paradigm-shifting change? (See: “Gladly
Wolde He Learne” by Harry Turtledove -- http://turtledove.wikia.com/wiki/Gladly_Wolde_He_Lerne)
The future of
the Wild – why do we seem
to build cities over everything? Is “progress” REALLY our middle name?
The future of
Population – is “more
people” always better? (GRR Martin’s Tuf Voyaging stories, in particular, the
Suthlam ones)
AI – REALLY possible? REALLY desirable?: And do the proponents
realize that they TOO will be destroyed…or do they assume that because they
sing its praises, they’ll be accepted by our “robot overlords”?
Nature – what’s natural and what defines a “park”
and do us 21st Century types REALLY know what “nature” is?
Camping in the
Future – where? What? How might
it be…REALLY different?
Different
Societies – Will They Be As Leftists Expect Them To Be? (Historical Note: Left was Right, Right
was Left…the old GOP (anti-slavery) and DFL (pro-slavery)…)
Back to WHAT
Future? – What if the
Global Warming debacle led to a society that went ALL THE WAY backwards?
(Returning to pre-1800 levels of CO2, pollutants, emissions, etc…means
eliminating excess population…and a way to DO that may be to secretly boost the
anti-vaxxer movement.)
Fifty Solutions
To The Fermi Paradox – I’ll
comment on each one from this list! That should keep me going until the Program
for WorldCon in Helsinki is published! (www.astro.ufl.edu/~lebo/.../Fermi's%20Paradox%20-%20Stephen%20Webb.docx)
And For Yet
MORE Ideas – here you go: http://www.mikebrotherton.com/2008/09/08/ten-issues-for-hard-science-fiction/
So then, until
next time (‘cause I’m on vacation AND I don’t have any idea what to say about ANY
of these…well, that’s not exactly true, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to
it!), ponder these and then have at it whenever I post an entry!
Program Book: the
link appears to be no longer alive…
Image: https://www.portent.com/images/2013/08/iStock_000016093336Small.jpg
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