public panels
Oct 06, 2010
My SFCOntario schedule
The convention happens November 19-21st. Here's what I'll be doing
Friday 7:00 PM - Gardenview
How to write a synopsis. A synopsis is an important part of the submission package you will use to sell your novel. But what is a synopsis and how is it developed and polished? Is there an ideal length? How much detail should it include?
Panelists discuss common problems and errors. (Erik Buchanan, Michael Martineck(M), Stephen B Pearl, Karl Schroeder)
Saturday 11:00 AM
Kaffeeklatsch
Saturday 1:00 PM - Ballroom A
The Decline of the Written Empire. With e-books, 3000 channel television, web casts, and kindle, is the “book” on its way out? And how do you get an author’s signature on a IBook? (Alison Baird, Beverley Bambury(M), Ed Greenwood, Sandra Katsuri, Karl Schroeder)
Saturday 8:00 PM - Courtyard
Rewilding the Human Species. Rewilding is the process of returning species, habitats and landscapes to a natural state, as they would be without the intervention of humans, including the return of captive animals to the wild. But what about rewilding the human species? (Just me so far, though I may bring some others on board)
For more information about the convention, visit the SFCOntario website.
Jul 13, 2010
My Polaris schedule
This Friday to Sunday, I'll be at Polaris 24 in Richmond Hill. Here's how to find me
This weekend is the annual media-oriented con in Toronto, Polaris. I'll be there, and you can catch me at panels, a reading, or a signing, at these times:
- Where's My Rocket Car? Friday 09:00 PM
- Reading - Karl Schroeder Saturday 11:00 AM
- Trashing Other Planets Saturday 04:00 PM
- Avatar: The Theory of Pandora Saturday 05:00 PM
- Signing - Karl Schroeder Sunday 10:00 AM
- Bigger Guns Or Better Stories? Sunday 03:00 PM
Hope to see you there!
Mar 22, 2010
My Ad Astra schedule
April 9, 10, and 11 I can be found at the Crowne Plaza Hotel for this year's annual Toronto SF convention
Fri 9:00 PM:
Same Old Settings
What settings are overused and underused in SF, fantasy, and horror works? What would you like to see more of, and what have you seen enough of? If you are looking for more creative ideas for settings, where should you go? What works do you think have the most original settings?
Rick Wilber, Karina Sumner-Smith, Gregory A. Wilson, Karl Schroeder, Derek Kunsken
Sat 6:00 PM:
Putting the Science Into Science Fiction
How can authors effectively use cutting-edge science in their SF works?
Chris A. Jackson (m), Derek Kunsken, Peter Watts, Karl Schroeder,
Sat 7:00 PM:
Body and Person in SF
How SF has treated the connection between the body and the personality, from completely disconnected to very integrated.
J. Keeping, Peter Watts, Karl Schroeder
Sun 10:00 AM:
Writing the Future
How do you create a credible near future (up to 50 years from now)? What things are likely to change and what will stay the same? Technological and scientific changes aren’t the whole story. How do you incorporate probable or possible changes in the environment, economy and politics, culture and social mores into a believable future?
Hayden Trenholm, Karl Schroeder, Rebecca Simkin
Sun 2:00 PM:
Intersection Between SF and Contemporary Issues
Does an average 14-year-old understand that The Forever War is really about Vietnam? Are such allusions wasted effort? Does a writer limit his or her shelf-life by tying work too closely to the present day?
Robert J. Sawyer, Rick Wilber, Karl Schroeder, Ira Nayman, J.M. Frey
Sun 3:00 PM:
A.I. in SF
A.I. is a staple in SF. This panel discusses the current reality and probable future of artificial intelligence research
J. Keeping, Robert J. Sawyer, Karl Schroeder
Mar 01, 2010
Flavours of Penguicon
A little sampler of what the convention's panels are like
I'll be author Guest of Honour at Penguicon, April 30 to May 2, 2010. Penguicon is not a science fiction convention, though there's a lot of overlap among the attendees; it's an open source con, dedicated to all things linuxy and open. I hope this year to have the chance to talk about some of the research I did last year into open source biotech. Meanwhile, however, if you're wondering what the con is like, I've managed to dig up a couple of podcasts of panels I was on at the 2007 convention:
- Cutting-edge SF author Karl Schroeder joins Ron Hale-Evans, author of Mind Performance Hacks, and Dr. Jonathon Sullivan MD PhD in neurology, to consider "The brain is a computer, the mind is software." That's been the ruling metaphor of cognitive science, neurology and AI studies for decades. The software of thought is supposed to operate much like that of a computer, going from discrete state to discrete state. However a new study from Cornell shows that our thoughts change continuously; the brain works "in shades of grey". And there are good reasons to think that the mind is not an artifact of the brain alone, but is extended into the environment as well.
- Christine Peterson, Jason Ahlquist, Karl Schroeder, and Ron Hale-Evans discuss the term 'posthuman'. The term "posthuman" seems to indicate a lack of humans. This is not what is meant, but itâs really bad marketing, and scares people. Even transhumanism is not a very friendly term. Names are important; perhaps it needs a new name the same way Free Software came to be known as Open Source Software?
If you're curious about Penguicon, give these a try.
Feb 16, 2010
Video of the Boskone Singularity panel
Courtesy of Michael Johnson
Here's the panel that Vernor Vinge, Charlie Stross, Aleister Reynolds, and I did at Boskone 47 on "The Technological Singularity: an Assessment." We critiqued the idea itself, its effect on science fiction writing, and its influence on our own works. You can watch it below; enjoy!
The Singularity: An Appraisal from Michael Johnson on Vimeo.
Feb 10, 2010
Digging into Boskone 47
Here's my schedule for this coming weekend in Boston -- provided I can find the city under the snow, that is
Friday 7pm The Singularity: An Appraisal
Karl Schroeder
Charles Stross
Vernor Vinge
Arguably the idea of the Singularity -- a period where change happens so quickly that life afterwards is incomprehensible to people who lived before it -- is one of the few entirely fresh ideas in SF in the last forty years. Perhaps it is time for an appraisal. Has the idea of the Singularity been a good thing for SF, providing fresh ideas and stimulating great writing or has the notion that the comprehensibility of the future has a sharp (and near-term) limit diminished possibilities? Has it been a good thing for *your* writing? How about the Singularity in reality -- after twenty years does it look more or less plausible that it is lurking in our own real-world future? Discuss the interplay between the idea of the Singularity in SF and actual scientific research. Where are the really exotic ideas coming from?
Friday 9pm The Place of Prediction in SF and Reality
Glenn Grant
Matthew Jarpe
Andrew Zimmerman Jones
Karl Schroeder
Allen M. Steele
Hugo Gernsback thought the purpose of SF was to educate. Others think the purpose of SF is to predict. What *is* the place of prediction in SF? Does it have any place at all, or is the occasional good prediction an accidental side-effect of writing stories? Can SF be about the future and *not* be making predictions? And let's not limit ourselves to technology -- if anything, SF may have a more distinguished history of predicting social changes. (Did the publication of 1984 actually help prevent that future?) Can foresight help us face the future? Finally, is SF better or worse in predicting the future than professional futurologists?
Saturday1pm Revamping Asimov's 3 Laws - and why that might be a good/ethical thing
Michael F. Flynn
Paul Levinson
Karl Schroeder
Charles Stross' *Saturn's Children* showed how Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics applied to an AI was nothing less than slavery of a particularly vile sort, since the chains of that slavery are made intrinsic to the nature of the robots and can naver be shaken off. Do you buy this argument? If so, are there alternatives to the Three Laws which might be less bad? (Remember that the Three Laws were constructed to deal with the Frankenstein Problem of our creations rising against us.) Is it even possible to imagine AIs existing where we neither their slaves nor their masters?
Saturday2pm Space is for Robots?
Geoffrey A. Landis
Karl Schroeder
Allen M. Steele
Is it such a bad thing that we haven't sent people to Mars, when those little rovers can do so much without risking a life? What's the right balance between machines and humans in space exploration and development?
Saturday3pm Literary Beer
Sunday 2pm Autographing