Somehow I managed to produce my last post in triplicate; serves me right for messing with the template, trying to contribute to the Technorati thread on Westercon.
Second day (yesterday) consisted of 3 panels sat on, none listened to, two books bought, one bank found, one old stamping ground revisited. The first panel was “Part time writer”, four writers, all from BC (does that says something about BC funding for the arts, BC writers, or simply about the networks) talking about writing when you have a full-time day-job (the basic condition of the majority of writers, since as Derryl Murphy pointed out, the mean annual income of SFWA members from their writing was in the $2000-$3000 range). The panelists were Derryl Murphy, whose first short story collection Wasps at the Speed of Sound is just out; Nina Munteanu; and Mark Anthony Brennan, and myself). Discussion ranged over how to make the switch from daytime work to nighttime work, how to recharge oneself, writing every day versus writing in bursts, how the daytime work fed into the nighttime work, Canada Council Grants, writer’s retreats, protecting time and space, the freedom to be noncommercial vs the risks of being noncommercial.
[Continued, August 21] The next panel was Earth as a Model for Other Planets, which went in unexpected directions. I should have read the panel description a touch more carefully, to realize that it specificially evoked prehistory as a model. I came prepared to look sideways; however co-panellists were Blair Peterson, James C. Glass and Larry Niven, and we got all the way down to the molecular, discussing the properties of water in supporting life, as well as back to Snowball Earth.
Making a Human Alien (third day) was another strong panel that covered a lot of ground. Memory’s a little foggy, but I think the roster was Danita, Blair, Kathryn Myronuk, and Hayden Trenholm, all of whom came with background in genetics, medicine, or policy, and all of whom came at the idea of human bioengineering from different directions – feasibility, vs. lack of feasibility, individual procreative choice vs. social good. Much of the discussion took on a technical feasibility vs. post-9/11 paranoia theme: Would the need to experiment and cull – acceptable in plants, unacceptable in humans – restrict the rapid implementation of these methods in humans, or would cheap and rapidly automated biotechnology land us in a scenario similar to what we are seeing today with the internet and computer viruses, with biohackers, bioterrorists, and garage virus engineers rampant?
On the Monday I managed to pause in my social whirl and attend two panels, the first being the future of Tor books, and the second the alternative energy panel. I made it in time to hear the last three paragraphs of Dave Duncan’s reading.