Continuing from the last NORWESCON post, I attended the following panels on Saturday: Future of Farming, She is a Starship, Japanese SF, XCOR Countdown to First Flight, Nanotech making Asteroid Resources Obsolete, and the last half of the Death*Star and first half of the Doubleclicks concert.
Future of Farming: A good overview on pros and cons of new farming techniques, crops to grow for space travel, habitats or after an apocalypse, and fears of what is happening and to come. I got a story idea for a book or RPG while I was there too.
She is a Starship: This panel had several experts talking about designs and propulsion a starship could use to travel to our nearest neighbours.
Japanese SF: A sub-par panel that was only redeemed with explanations on how the book industry works in Japan. Editor of VIZ's novel translation division was there.
XCOR: A private companies brief on past developments in engine and airframe construction and what the future hold for them. Possible launch of thier orbital craft due in Fall 2014. Awesome explanations, pictures and video.
Nanotech making Asteroid Resources Obsolete: Interesting talk on the resources that are rare on Earth now, what won't be rare once nanotech mining is possible, what we need to mine from asteroids in the future, and how to get there. There was many arguments and agreements between various panelists on what was plentiful on Earth and in space which made me realize how much we don't know, as thier credentials were credible.
Death*Star: These two geek rap artists were not awesome but thier attitude and humour were. Parental advisory warning.
Doubleclicks: This sister duo had clever and cute geek music.
In the evening my wife attended the Scotch off given by the Solar Federation. She has attended every year and always looks great in her formal dresses (probably a good reason why she gets repeat invitations). I do not like hard alcohol so I do other things...like gaming!
I presided over a Fiasco RPG game. Fisco is a gamemasterless role playing game that has multiple free playsets to act out and all end up badly while having fun. It also requires minimal dice rolling to concentrate on the role playing. We played the Rat Patrol playset where we are newly freed rats who were experimented on to grant encyclopedic knowledge and human level intelligence...who seek revenge. Very good fun was had by all.
Sunday was packing, breakfast at Denny's, a quick run through the dealers room, and the long drive home. BTW, Phil Foglio was there at his dealers table with lots of Girl Genius graphic novels and novel novels, amongst other things.
All in all an average convention for me and my wife. Outstanding events for her were the room parties and the Michael Moorcock Q&A. My outstanding events were the Catherine Plesko talk on asteroid impacts, XCOR panel and the deal I got in the dealers room.
Next year's writer is George RR Martin (of Game of Thrones fame), science gueast of honor is Amy Mainzer, and artist guests of honor are Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell. Should be a crowded convention!
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