Boskone - Saturday 15th Feb
No hotel breakfast for the room crasher, so I went out to the food court in the Prudential Mall for something, then back for the morning programme.
11:00am: Uplifting Biology Judith Berman, Tom Easton, Jeff Hecht, Shariann Lewitt, Robert J. Sawyer. The discussion was more around psychology than physical features as I’d expected. Shariann Lewitt had to physically move the microphone away from Rob
Sawyer to get a word in on a couple of occasions.
Afterwards I went down to the registration desk and relieved Adina Adler, and met Dave Cantor and Debbie King, who were working there.
I always like Registration as it gives me a chance to meet fans coming in, although I wasn’t used to how segregated the pre-reg and at-the-door registration desks were: separate rooms. Since I was working the at-the-door desk, I didn’t get my usual chance to spot familiar fans whose names I knew but whose faces I recognised, as the a-t-d members were more likely to be from outside fandom as we now it. OTOH that’s the other it of working reg that I like: the opportunity to be some neofan’s very first impression, and (I hope) a positive one.
That said, I would have liked to do Green Room as well, but didn’t get around to it. I must do that one of these days.
3:00pm The Renaissance of Hard SF David Hartwell, Peter Weston, Ellen Asher, Kathryn Cramer. There was some disagreement on definitions of hard SF, David Hartwell taking a historical approach based on self-identification by the writers, and Peter preferring his definition regardless of what the writers thought they were writing.
4:00pm Extra-Solar Planets Hal Clement
Went to see Hal Clement talk about Extra Solar Planets. Met Terry Kepner who sells his reference guides no nearby stars and planets.
5:00pm Physics and Astronomy: The Year in Review Mark Olson, Ctein, Jeff Hecht Talk on Year’s news in Astronomy and Physics. Among the topics discussed were:
- Pluto turns out to be getting warmer after perihelion. Is it geothermal heat? greenhouse effect? Or what?
- The age of universe has now been nailed down. It’s a little under 14 billion years old. It’s made of 4% “ordinary” matter, 23% dark matter, and 73% “dark energy”, whatever that is (no-one knows)
- A new fluid dynamic simulation of the collapse of molecular clouds has given new insights into the formation of stars and brown dwarfs (you can see the movie here)
In the evening I went back to the bar where Peter Weston and Martin were waiting with Susan M, who introduced me to Selina Lovett and pickledginger. David Brin was also there, holding court.
8:30pm Guest of Honor Talk: Will SF Die Out? David Brin. Brin harangued the assembled fans on their failure to reach out to young people and encourage them to join fandom, which irritated the audience at several points.
Went to the Charlotte, NC NASFiC bid party, met Marlon May. I liked the chocolate Zen garden in a tray with the chocolate cat Buddha, broken chocolate rocks and cocoa “gravel”, and a rake for making relaxing patterns in the cocoa.
Then on to the Tor party, where I met thomasyan, kate_nepveu, and orzelc. I said hi to Ctein, and we talked a bit about the Physics and Astronomy panel. He’s a pretty cool guy, and remembered me from the CONTACT mailing list.
(Incidentally, my apologies to Elisabeth Riba for mistaking her for Elizabeth Viau and burbling about CONTACT... no wonder she hadn’t a clue what I was talking about. I knew the name was familiar, but my brain made the wrong connection)
Victor Gonzalez and Sheila Lightsey kindly invited me back to Cambridge to stay on their sofa, so we went back across the Charles River by taxi, where I met their cats Cassie, Art and Trouble.
11:00am: Uplifting Biology Judith Berman, Tom Easton, Jeff Hecht, Shariann Lewitt, Robert J. Sawyer. The discussion was more around psychology than physical features as I’d expected. Shariann Lewitt had to physically move the microphone away from Rob
Sawyer to get a word in on a couple of occasions.
Afterwards I went down to the registration desk and relieved Adina Adler, and met Dave Cantor and Debbie King, who were working there.
I always like Registration as it gives me a chance to meet fans coming in, although I wasn’t used to how segregated the pre-reg and at-the-door registration desks were: separate rooms. Since I was working the at-the-door desk, I didn’t get my usual chance to spot familiar fans whose names I knew but whose faces I recognised, as the a-t-d members were more likely to be from outside fandom as we now it. OTOH that’s the other it of working reg that I like: the opportunity to be some neofan’s very first impression, and (I hope) a positive one.
That said, I would have liked to do Green Room as well, but didn’t get around to it. I must do that one of these days.
3:00pm The Renaissance of Hard SF David Hartwell, Peter Weston, Ellen Asher, Kathryn Cramer. There was some disagreement on definitions of hard SF, David Hartwell taking a historical approach based on self-identification by the writers, and Peter preferring his definition regardless of what the writers thought they were writing.
4:00pm Extra-Solar Planets Hal Clement
Went to see Hal Clement talk about Extra Solar Planets. Met Terry Kepner who sells his reference guides no nearby stars and planets.
5:00pm Physics and Astronomy: The Year in Review Mark Olson, Ctein, Jeff Hecht Talk on Year’s news in Astronomy and Physics. Among the topics discussed were:
- Pluto turns out to be getting warmer after perihelion. Is it geothermal heat? greenhouse effect? Or what?
- The age of universe has now been nailed down. It’s a little under 14 billion years old. It’s made of 4% “ordinary” matter, 23% dark matter, and 73% “dark energy”, whatever that is (no-one knows)
- A new fluid dynamic simulation of the collapse of molecular clouds has given new insights into the formation of stars and brown dwarfs (you can see the movie here)
In the evening I went back to the bar where Peter Weston and Martin were waiting with Susan M, who introduced me to Selina Lovett and pickledginger. David Brin was also there, holding court.
8:30pm Guest of Honor Talk: Will SF Die Out? David Brin. Brin harangued the assembled fans on their failure to reach out to young people and encourage them to join fandom, which irritated the audience at several points.
Went to the Charlotte, NC NASFiC bid party, met Marlon May. I liked the chocolate Zen garden in a tray with the chocolate cat Buddha, broken chocolate rocks and cocoa “gravel”, and a rake for making relaxing patterns in the cocoa.
Then on to the Tor party, where I met thomasyan, kate_nepveu, and orzelc. I said hi to Ctein, and we talked a bit about the Physics and Astronomy panel. He’s a pretty cool guy, and remembered me from the CONTACT mailing list.
(Incidentally, my apologies to Elisabeth Riba for mistaking her for Elizabeth Viau and burbling about CONTACT... no wonder she hadn’t a clue what I was talking about. I knew the name was familiar, but my brain made the wrong connection)
Victor Gonzalez and Sheila Lightsey kindly invited me back to Cambridge to stay on their sofa, so we went back across the Charles River by taxi, where I met their cats Cassie, Art and Trouble.