Kate and I will once again be attending Boskone in a couple of weeks, and for the second year running, I'll be on a handful of panels. I had a great time as a panelist last year, so I volunteered again, and I've been looking forward to finding out what I'll be on.
I got the preliminary schedule yesterday, and it seems I'm moderating a panel with the slightly alarming title "Is Science Fiction Necessary?" (There's no further description, other than a list of panelists (Tobias Buckell, Rosemary Kirstein, Karl Schroeder, Charles Stross), though that's apparently an oversight, and some more description should be on the way...)
More interesting than that is the final item on the list:
Sunday 2:00 pm: Weird Quantum Phenomenon
Chad Orzel
Leaving aside for the moment the apparent implication that I am a weird quantum phenomenon (which might be an even better title than "Slightly Annoyed Scientist"), I'm not entirely sure what this will be about. The fact that there's only one name seems to indicate that it's a 25-minute talk rather than a 55-minute panel, so I apparently need to carry this one all by myself.
(Granted, I brought this on myself-- I included "Weird quantum phenomena" on the list of topics I said I could talk about...)
I've got a few days to suggest changes (which presumably can include pluralizing the title, and adding some description). So, (he said, as scientists are wont to do), let me throw this one out to the audience: If you had twenty-five minutes to speak to an audience of science fiction fans on the topic of "Weird Quantum Phenomena," what would you talk about? Alternatively, if you were a SF fan going to a 25-minute talk on "Weird Quantum Phenomena," what would you like to hear about?
(I'm not totally without ideas-- if nothing else, I could print out a sheaf of old blog posts, and turn it into a reading-- but I have to admit, I didn't really have a coherent one-man show in mind when I put that on the list...)
(Also, as I've been earwormed with this all day, let me share my pain with the rest of the Sesame Street generation: "Phenomena." "Doo DOO de-doo-doo...")
Ms. Borshoff Cook, you have been entrusted with running a tour of one of the great pieces of literature of the written English language. Even more significantly *how* it is written is of great historical import. This document deserves to be shared beyond the confines of a small room in a basement of the San Francisco library. This document deserves to be shared with everyone online. They deserve to see the time worn type and corrections that Jack made to his document to get a sense of the historical uniqueness of it. Rather than allow the public an opportunity to share in this experience, you position weak copyright objections which don't hold up. Are not most books and documents in the San Francisco Public library copyrighted? In fact is not their own copy of the book "On the Road" back in their shelves copyrighted? And yet I see no sign there prohibiting me from taking photos of the actual book, or any other book in the San Francisco Public Library. 