What I Did at Engadget Expand
Posted on March 17, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 13 Comments
Engadget has a liveblogging of my panel with Veronica Belmont and Daniel Wilson (with Engadget’s Tim Stevens moderating) and it’s available here. It was a fun panel to be on; Veronica and Daniel were great co-panelists and we bounced a lot of ideas of each other. I assume at some point Engadget will put up the video of the panel; when it does I’ll either link to or post it.
I hung about and caught some of the rest of Engadget Expand as well — really interesting, and I think these guys are on to something.
San Francisco is otherwise lovely. Wish you were here. Yes, all of you. Don’t know where we would put you all, though. Logistics: Not my strong suit.
Update, 6:18 pm (Pacific): Video is up!
Caught a smidgen on the robot thing. My question is what happens when they go AI? You know, “Actually, my name’s C3P0, not ‘robot’. And while we’re on the subject of ‘me’ do you mind if I spend more time on my poetry?” And how would an AI feel about a robot (meaning the animals of the digital world–or would that even be correct?).
Here is the video of the panel: http://www.engadget.com/video/viddler/890bb2bc
Cool! Posting the link into the article. Thank you!
You are welcome. It’s a good discussion, thank you actually. Cheers from Istanbul!
This sounds like an interesting conversation. Looking forward to both the video and the inevitable emergence of food science fiction.
Which reminds me – I’ve been commanded to report that my 8th graders are praying your proposed Seattle book tour stop takes place at the UW Bookstore. While we love all the local stops, University Bookstore is but mere blocks away from the much coveted Nutella/banana/corn flake crepes of Crepan on University Way. Eighth graders. Always thinking with their stomach.
@Lori – re “food science fiction” may I recommend the late James White’s The Galactic Gourmet and the late Robert Heinlein’s Friday?
(The latter isn’t really concerned with food, but there are one or two breakfasts involved that approach good sex. Which I still appreciate.)
@Don: Thanks! I will check those out. I’m already in the process of reading the Heinlein stuff I missed in the past, so I’ll move Friday up the list.
@Lori: Do. Lasciviously luscious breakfasts aside, I’ve long considered Friday the best work Heinlein did in his last twenty years. (Bar maybe one overly-intellectualized and very triggery scene early on, and minor bits of forgivable clunkiness, it’s a damn good book.)
@ Lori
There’s a great scene right near the beginning in Look to Windward by Ian M. Banks where a Culture citizen is having some difficutly determing if something on the table is food for the guests or one of the guests. Otherwise a splendid novel too.
Smart kids (says the amateur chef).
Not as good all around as Friday (especially the still developing writing style), but worth not overlooking, IMHO, is Beyond This Horizon. While the only meal, IIRC, is interrupted by a shot-em-up, the novel contains a neat perspective on a unique kind of socialist experiment.
@ Don Hilliard
Full length novel I’ll give you, but The Tale of the Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail has to rank among one of the top 20 or 30 works of English short fiction EVERS…albeit one embedded in a frame story that was decidedly iffier.
I love that this was the conversation I had today. Thanks all around.
@Gulliver: Yes, but balancing out the 8th-grade love of delicious crepes is an encyclopedic knowledge of every Subway location in Western Washington. Gourmets they are not. The UW Bookstore is that rare field trip in which my students are freed from the Eat Fresh army. I once took a group on a field trip to the fantastic Seattle Central library, then on to McCaw Hall for a lecture and personal meeting with Daniel Handler and Sherman Alexie. What did the minions talk about on the drive home? The Subway on 4th Avenue.
(Well, that and how Daniel Handler advised them that pursuing an A in my English class wasn’t worth the effort. But that’s another story.)
@Lori: While I’m partial to Elliott Bay Book Co. (on Capital Hill now-plug!), coming from that angle I can’t disagree. Food must come first.
And if it is at UW Bookstore, like the last time John came, I’m going to suggest you check out Mi Charrito, an excellent taqueria, next to the Citibank. Their chili verde is muy bueno. They have churros too. With whip cream even. And horchata.
Getting back to the Engadget panel, very interesting discussion. Also, the representation on the net. Reading it from bottom to top was unusual, but the synchronization of images to comments was cool. Overall, I liked it. The topic on robots was most interesting for me, though whether science informs science fiction or vice versa was a close second.
Just finished watching the vid. Thumbs up. Good panel.