This year's Worldcon is virtual, so you can easily attend! Zip on over to the CoNZealand website to get registered and attend any or all of the events below. Particularly of note for me this year, you can come to my reading, attend my Kaffeeklatsch, or join the discussion on my idea of "thalience."

Future Laws

 Format: Panel

29 Jul 2020, Wednesday 10:00 - 10:50, Programme Room 1 (Webinar) (Programming)

Law changes when the world changes. When you can duplicate a person, who owns the house? Which one is married to the spouse? How do you define property when physical objects are almost worthless but computing power is in short supply? Is it ethical to genetically "correct" autism in the womb? We're going to have to decide.

 Format: Panel

29 Jul 2020, Wednesday 13:00 - 13:50, Programme Room 4 (Webinar) (Programming)

Will we ever fully disentangle from the physical? Blockchains, crytocurrency, differently organic sentinence. Will economic concepts of supply, demand, money, resources hold up? Evolve? Or be completely different?  And what might they look like?

Kaffeeklatsch: Karl Schroeder

Format: Kaffeeklatsch

31 Jul 2020, Friday 13:00 - 13:50, Kaffeklatch and Literary Beer Room (Programming)

Reading: Karl Schroeder

Format: Reading

 2 Aug 2020, Sunday 09:30 - 09:55, Reading Room 2 (Programming)

Format: Panel

 2 Aug 2020, Sunday 11:00 - 11:50, Programme Room 3 (Webinar) (Programming)

What are the challenges of SF set in the near future? What are good examples?

Thalience and Sentience

 2 Aug 2020, Sunday 13:00 - 13:50, Programme Room 4 (Webinar) (Programming)

Thalience and sentience. Is there really a difference? How do we tease it out?

About eight years ago, I sat down with Nikola to talk about all things Singularity--or, as it turned out, all the reasons I thought the Technological Singularity is an idea whose time has passed. Now, in spring 2020, we got to talk again, and we had a lot to catch up on. 

What might be most interesting about this interview, which ranges across many topics, is that we did it just pre-COVID-19. The disease was out and ravaging China and Iran, but it hadn't really established a presence in Canada yet. Nonetheless, what I wanted to talk about with Nikola was how we can remain optimistic when humanity's options and power seem increasingly constrained. The context of the discussion was global warming, but the ideas apply equally well to the pandemic.  Head on over to the Singularity Weblog, and hear for yourself.

• ·        Digital Dystopia, a talk with Cory Doctorow, at Toronto’s Word on the Street festival, Sept. 22.
• ·        Seeding Utopias and Resisting Dystopias, at Toronto Public Libraries starting Sept. 23.
• ·        I’ll be interviewed in the VR space Sansar by Draxtor on Friday, Sept. 27th 2:00 p.m. EST. Get a Sansar account and join us!
• Scintillation, October 11-13. I’ll be attending this small but intense literary SF convention, in Montreal.

July 20-August 14 I am blogging over at Charlie's Diary, Charlie Stross's weblog.  Each entry there will be mirrored here a few days later.

Just so you know.