Schedule: Higgins at Duckon 19
I'm planning to attend Duckon in Naperville, Illinois. Here's my schedule for next weekend, as seen on the Duckon 19 programming page.
Saturday 19 June
1 PM
Conference F
Geeks and Nerds
Bill Higgins
Are you offended by the way Geeks and Nerds are depicted on Big Bang? Or do you see yourself as a “Penny”?
As an avid viewer of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory and a student of the role of techies in society, I thought this was worth discussing. Disturbingly, the only panelist listed is me. I'm hoping the panel will be filled out with others, because I can't fill an hour on this topic by myself. (Not an interesting hour, anyway.)
Saturday 19 June
3 PM
Conference B
The Science of 2010 (The Movie, Not the Year)
Bill Higgins
The film 2010 , released in 1984, is a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, a movie that set a high standard for technical accuracy. In filming Arthur C. Clarke's novel, director and screenwriter Peter Hyams brought updated scientific ideas into an established universe. In the years since Stanley Kubrick's film, the Voyager spacecraft had revealed Jupiter and its satellites in immense detail. Io had volcanoes. Europa might have an ocean. The flow of Jupiter's atmosphere was better understood. Engineers were proposing aerocapture-- braking into orbit using friction with Jupiter's atmosphere. Moreover, the technology of filmmaking was changing swiftly, and 2010 is a significant milestone along its path. With Voyager data as the seed, one of the world's fastest computers created spectacular Jupiter sequences, precursors to the computer-generated imagery that would become routine for movies in decades to follow.
In 2009 I was on a panel with Jeffrey Liss about "The Science of 2001: A Space Odyssey." Jeffrey suggested that, since 2010 was coming, I cook up a talk about the sequel.
Sunday 20 June
2 PM
Conference B
Time Travel, can you really get a second chance?
Steven Silver, Bill Higgins
I have no further description for this one, so I'm wondering what it's supposed to be about. But I volunteered because it's always fun to talk to Steven Silver about science fiction for a while.
I see the Masters of Lightning will again be giving a Zeusaphone performance on Saturday evening in the parking lot-- around nightfall, I imagine-- weather permitting. If you haven't seen musical Tesla coils, catch this.
Saturday 19 June
1 PM
Conference F
Geeks and Nerds
Bill Higgins
Are you offended by the way Geeks and Nerds are depicted on Big Bang? Or do you see yourself as a “Penny”?
As an avid viewer of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory and a student of the role of techies in society, I thought this was worth discussing. Disturbingly, the only panelist listed is me. I'm hoping the panel will be filled out with others, because I can't fill an hour on this topic by myself. (Not an interesting hour, anyway.)
Saturday 19 June
3 PM
Conference B
The Science of 2010 (The Movie, Not the Year)
Bill Higgins
The film 2010 , released in 1984, is a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, a movie that set a high standard for technical accuracy. In filming Arthur C. Clarke's novel, director and screenwriter Peter Hyams brought updated scientific ideas into an established universe. In the years since Stanley Kubrick's film, the Voyager spacecraft had revealed Jupiter and its satellites in immense detail. Io had volcanoes. Europa might have an ocean. The flow of Jupiter's atmosphere was better understood. Engineers were proposing aerocapture-- braking into orbit using friction with Jupiter's atmosphere. Moreover, the technology of filmmaking was changing swiftly, and 2010 is a significant milestone along its path. With Voyager data as the seed, one of the world's fastest computers created spectacular Jupiter sequences, precursors to the computer-generated imagery that would become routine for movies in decades to follow.
In 2009 I was on a panel with Jeffrey Liss about "The Science of 2001: A Space Odyssey." Jeffrey suggested that, since 2010 was coming, I cook up a talk about the sequel.
Sunday 20 June
2 PM
Conference B
Time Travel, can you really get a second chance?
Steven Silver, Bill Higgins
I have no further description for this one, so I'm wondering what it's supposed to be about. But I volunteered because it's always fun to talk to Steven Silver about science fiction for a while.
I see the Masters of Lightning will again be giving a Zeusaphone performance on Saturday evening in the parking lot-- around nightfall, I imagine-- weather permitting. If you haven't seen musical Tesla coils, catch this.