Here's one last discussion panel topic from this year's WorldconGiven the time difference between Glasgow and Indianapolis, the con itself has probably long since wound up. At most there are still some dealers getting merchandise and store fixtures out, and maybe some people at the art show and other major areas packing away equipment and getting ( Read more... )

Here's another panel discussion topic from this year's WorldconAs we move from the initial exploration of space to settlement by large communities of people, how will we go about law enforcement, both at the individual level and in terms of the behavior of organizations such as commercial entities ( Read more... )

Here's another interesting panel discussion topic from this year's Worldcon

And from everything that blew up with the Dragon Awards this past week, it's obviously still a controversial topic ( Read more... )

Here's another interesting panel discussion topic from this year's WorldconThe idea has its roots in antiquity, in Plato's Cave and the Hindu idea of Maya, "illusion." However, it's only been with the rise of virtual reality technology that it's really taken off in its current form. Even in the late 70's and early 80's I came across sf stories in ( Read more... )

Here's an interesting panel from this year's Worldcon.

My first Worldcon was LAconIII in 1996 in Anaheim, California. It was also my one and only experience of taking a flight somewhere, rather than traveling overland ( Read more... )

Unlike AnimeIowa or GenCon, this year's Worldcon never really was on the table. So there's less of the wistfulness of "if only" coloring my thoughts as I look through the schedule ( Read more... )

Here's an old chestnut that we see revisited on a regular basis, both in the literature and in convention panel discussion ( Read more... )

Today is the first day of Chicon 8, this year's World Science Fiction Convention. I still remember how much I enjoyed Chicon 2000. Back in 2012, we wanted to go to Chicon 7, but we didn't own a car at the time, and trying to park our giant business van in downtown Chicago would've been unmanageable. This year we have a car -- but since the third ( Read more... )

Chengdu has won the bid for the 2023 World Science Fiction Convention -- after some controversy because a large number of the votes for it had only an e-mail address rather than a physical address. There was a motion to disallow them on the grounds that an e-mail address was insufficient (probably due to the ease of creating e-mail addresses ( Read more... )

I remember when Worldcon was the big convention, and when it was somewhere we could attend, we could look forward to massive sales in the dealer hall. I always looked forward to the multiple tracks of panels, the vast dealers' room, the giant art show. So much to see and do ( Read more... )