Penguicon 4.0 Schedule

Tomorrow I’m off to Penguicon 4.0, that mash up of science fiction and open source, in convention form. For those who are going, or are not going but just like to know what I’m doing at all times, here’s my panel schedule:

Friday:
No events scheduled. Which, you know, is groovy with me.

Saturday:

1:00 pm
Worldbuilding
Steve Miller, Karl Schroeder, Nancy Atwell, John Scalzi
Some worlds you believe in, and some interfere with the story. How to build and portray your fictional world.

4:00 pm
Warfare in SF
Jeff Beeler, John Scalzi, Barbara Trumpinski-Roberts
Which authors, past and present, do the best job of looking at warfare in a science fiction context? What’s most important: that it is convincing, that it is plausible, or something else entirely?

8:00 pm
Why Didn’t Science Fiction Predict That?
Frank Hayes, Karl Schroeder, John Scalzi
SF predicted moon colonies by 2001 and computers so big they’d mostly exist in hyperspace. That wrongheadedness has something to say about predictions we’re making today. And why DIDN’T SF predict Frogurt instead of yeast cigarettes, anyhow?

Sunday:

11:00 am
Blogging for Life
The Ferrett, John Scalzi, David Klecha
News pages. Online journals. Web logs. A lot of people are using them. What are the tools available, and what are the best ways to use them?

12:00 pm
Best SF Books of 2005
Jeff Beeler, John Scalzi, Tobias Buckell, Karl Schroeder
What were the outstanding works of 2005? What are the titles to look for, and who are the authors to watch?

The rest of the time I’m sure to be floating about, so if you see me, feel free to come over and say hello or whatever.

9 Comments on “Penguicon 4.0 Schedule”

  1. “Why Didn’t SF Predict That?” should be an interesting one. That’s something I’ve often thought about. I subjected myself to a re-viewing of “Johnny Mnemonic” the other night (I don’t know why, either), and I was struck that Johnny’s supposedly massive internal memory capacity in 2021 was all of 80 gigs–20 gigs more than a 2006 iPod. Barring that collapse of society we keep hearing about, I imagine data-storage technology will leap rather more impressively than that. Still no moon colonies, though.

  2. “Why Didn’t SF Predict That?” should be an interesting one. That’s something I’ve often thought about. I subjected myself to a re-viewing of “Johnny Mnemonic” the other night (I don’t know why, either), and I was struck that Johnny’s supposedly massive internal memory capacity in 2021 was all of 80 gigs–20 gigs more than a 2006 iPod. Barring that collapse of society we keep hearing about, I imagine data-storage technology will leap rather more impressively than that. Still no moon colonies, though.

  3. “Why Didn’t SF Predict That?” should be an interesting one. That’s something I’ve often thought about. I subjected myself to a re-viewing of “Johnny Mnemonic” the other night (I don’t know why, either), and I was struck that Johnny’s supposedly massive internal memory capacity in 2021 was all of 80 gigs–20 gigs more than a 2006 iPod. Barring that collapse of society we keep hearing about, I imagine data-storage technology will leap rather more impressively than that. Still no moon colonies, though.

  4. For those of us unable to make Penguicon 4.0 and are fascinated by what you might have to say about Warfare in SF, in particular who you think does the best job, would you be so kind as to provide a bibliography/suggested readings? You don’t have to fill us in before you participate in the panel, wouldn’t want you to loose your thunder. Thanks a ton.

  5. John E., I TiVoed ol’ “Johnny” when it was on during a free view weekend recently. It really was awful, wasn’t it? And that whole scene where he installs the high-tech version of MS Disk Doubler…

    I hope there’ll be transcripts or podcasts from that panel, Mr. Scalzi.

  6. John E., I TiVoed ol’ “Johnny” when it was on during a free view weekend recently. It really was awful, wasn’t it? And that whole scene where he installs the high-tech version of MS Disk Doubler…

    I hope there’ll be transcripts or podcasts from that panel, Mr. Scalzi.

%d bloggers like this: