139 Adaptations: Not Faithful Enough or Too Faithful
Day: Thu Time:1300
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206F
Description: The Lord of the Rings" has shown that fidelity to the original can successfully transport a complex fantasy to the screen.
Why has this not happened more frequently? Does it require only megabucks, a caring producer, and a reverent creative team?
And by
Panellists: Craig Engler, Craig Miller, Nick Sagan, Isaac Szpindel
Description: Increasingly, corporations and other organisations are looking at any and all vehicles to push their agenda (making money,
spreading a message, etc.). Is SF immune to this? If not, can something be done to stop it? Should SF somehow go on the offensive,
p
Panellists: Scott Bakker, Teresa Nielsen-Hayden, Stephen Pagel, Ann Zeddies
Description: Panelists, under the moderation of Guest of Honor Mike Glyer, attempt to come up with the most outrageous prevarications in
an ongoing quest to amuse the members and best their fellows.
Panellists: Deb Geisler, Mike Glyer, John Pomeranz, Howard Waldrop
Description: Science fiction and fantasy have become more respectable in recent years. Is sf&f now accepted within the academic community,
or merely tolerated as just another crackpot, fringe genre?
Panellists: Charles Brown, Justine Larbalestier, Lorna Toolis, Heather Urbanski, Allan Weiss
Description: The folk process morphs a traditional ballad through many small changes and continues to do so to reach the form in which
it reaches us. It happens in filk too. It's the process of the listeners making a song "their own".
Description: Some hands on play (supervised of course) with the gear. Find out how to connect it, how to power it, good things and bad
things to do with it. Why do things work the way they do?
Description: Humans are gregarious, cooperative, tribal, and omnivorous, among many other attributes. All of these are up for reassessment
in constructing fictional aliens and their societies. Let's try some and see how.
Panellists: Hal Clement, Julie Czerneda, Edward M. Lerner, G. David Nordley
Description: Even more than science fiction scribes, fantasists tend to put great effort into designing novel cultures, determining how
they work, and considering how they might interact with each other. Panellists will discuss their favourite exotic cultures
from fan
Panellists: Scott Bakker, P.C. Hodgell, Victoria McManus, Sean Mead, Josepha Sherman
Description: Translating images from the movies, television, anime, manga, book covers, etc. into costumes. Come and hear some of those
who have done it.
Panellists: Maral Agnerian, Pierre Pettinger, Dawn McKechnie
Description: Great stories, writing, characters, acting, effects, and direction made this deep-space action drama awe-inspiring, unique
-- and possibly the best that modern media science fiction has to offer. Why is it gone? Why can't other shows achieve this
quality?
Panellists: Sarah Elliott, Peter Knapp, Tara Oakes
758 Day Jobs for Writers -- Journalist, Freelance Technical/Science Writer or Professor Track?
Day: Thu Time:1500
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 201E
Description: Remember the good old days when you had to hide your SF/Fantasy from your English teacher? English teachers are now writing
the stuff. Is all that respectability squeezing the life out of SF? Is becoming a professor to support your SF habit like
cutting y
Panellists: Bridget Coila, Jonathan Cowie, John Scalzi, Edward Willett
Description: Where do you start? A simple introduction to Songwriting, beginning with how to structure a song and getting started on lyrics.learn
how to make something as simple as a rhythm egg into a cool accompaniment
Description: Will the advent of nanotechnology and other high technologies change the way we perceive beauty? Especially if nanotech can
quickly and painlessly change your appearance almost at whim.
Panellists: Stephanie Johanson, Anthony Lewis, Scott Westerfeld
Description: Does all good or great fantasy take root in the fairy tales of our or earlier peoples' youth? To the extent that a fantasy
work doesn’is censorship? Should the books carry a warning label that it is an edited or abridged version of another work?
Would you
Panellists: Kathryn Cramer, Dave Duncan, Sarah Elliott, P.C. Hodgell
Description: Whether it's writing, art or filk SF has issues around the protection of intellectual property. A discussion from several
angles, and hopefully from several countries.
Panellists: Terence Chua, J. Spencer Love, Gretchen Roper
189 Has Science Fiction Failed as a Fiction of Science?
Day: Thu Time:1700
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104CD
Description: After Vernor Vinge's "Across Realtime" saga popularized the notion, other science fiction writers looked into the Singularity
-- and blinked. To date, very few other authors have written stories that encompass the notion. Why? Is the idea simply out
of fa
Panellists: Hal Clement, John G. Hemry, Charlie Stross, Jean-Louis Trudel
Description: In literature and television, extraordinary subject matter is almost invariably met with disbelief. Yet in real life, experiences
of fairly odd things -- and reports of even odder ones -- are commonplace, raising barely an eyebrow in many circles. How
doe
Panellists: Marilyn "Mattie" Brahen, Chris Moriarty, Melinda Kimberly, Connie Willis
330 Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Sentience?
Day: Thu Time:1700
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104B
Description: AI or AS -- what's the difference? Can we have one without the other? Which would we prefer? Perhaps we should be questing
instead for Artificial Stupidity, the ability to get the expected result most of the time with limited resources...
Panellists: Andrew Burt, Charles Cohen, Julie Czerneda, Marcel Gagne, Bill Taylor
Description: Is fandom truly unique? Why do we distinguish ourselves from non-fans by calling them "mundane"? How do we differ from readers
of mysteries, westerns, romance novels? Once, reading SF/F set you apart. How have changes in the rest of the world collided
wit
Panellists: James Hay, Evelyn Leeper, Nicki Lynch, Andrew Porter, Ben Yalow
Description: Zulu Heart is Steven Barnes" latest novel, an alternate history story in which Egypt and Ethiopia colonized the New World
using European slave labour. Discuss Barnes" unique vision of an alternate Earth, in which African culture reigns supreme
Panellists: Stephen M. Stirling, Suzanne Allétirling, Carl Cipra, Amy Thomson
Description: Does humour have a place in science fiction and fantasy? Where? When? Is it ever inappropriate? When does it go too far? When
not far enough? (For example, where are all the political satires we used to see?) And since we're such a fun-loving bunch,
why i
Panellists: Esther Friesner, Tanya Huff, Mike Resnick, Steve Sawicki, Lorna Toolis
Description: Everyone who wants to participate will be given a tin sheet and a handful of random words (with 2 or three blanks) and let
the madness begin. This will require a host, a judge and cheesie prizes.
Description: Did the BDP (Best Dramatic Presentation) Hugo Split work the first time around? (In other words, will Buffy fans finally be
sated?) How about next year?
Panellists: Chris M. Barkley, Vincent Docherty, Daniel Kimmel, Peter Knapp, Guy Lillian
Description: Everything you want to know about Canada's alternative to the Sci-Fi Channel. As real North Americans already know, SPACE:
The Imagination Station is a national, 24-hour, English-language SF specialty channel that's the best part of many Canadian
cable pa
Description: Comfort, attention to detail, practicality, and Panache - there's a real art to designing and making a good hall costume,
It's one thing to look wonderful, it's another thing altogether when you can't easily use the elevator, the stairs, or for
that matte
Panellists: jan howard finder, Toni Lay, Kate Morgenstern, Andrew Trembley
Description: Our own genre extols the virtures of easily accessing electronic information, but the reality falls far short. What's missing?
What's needed? What are the roadblocks?
Panellists: John Bartley, Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, Cory Doctorow, Norma McPhee, Michael Ward
1438 Design: The Glue Holding Our Dreams to Our Reality
Day: Thu Time:1800
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 201ABCD
Description: Design, particularly as it pertains to future technology and products - is the means by which we turn our dreams into reality.
It extends from the pure arts to the intensively scientific. This talk will consider how design is more than just a kind of
know
335 Robots Learn to Shoot: The Use of Robots in a Military Role
Day: Thu Time:1900
Duration: 1 Room:RY: Manitoba
Description: Asimov's First Law is looking unlikelier by the day. Soon automatons may well be given the ability to kill humans independently.
Should we pull this particular technosocialpolitical trigger? If so, can Colossus and Guardian, Joshua, Solo, or the T-3000
Panellists: Greg D. Armstrong, Paul Chafe, Charles Cohen
Description: What does it take to turn an idea into a successful TV show? pannelists dscuss their experiences in getting a new genre series
off the ground and on the air.
Panellists: Lyla Miklos, Melinda Snodgrass, Isaac Szpindel, Marc Zicree
Description: The commonest style in the Midwest. A free for all, where anyone can jump in. There may be a host or filk ghod/dess to ensure
fair play. We’nt hosts a circle presenting Stan's music.
Description: Join fellow con-goers as we welcome our guests of honour and officially open Torcon3. Reception will be followed by a concert
by Canada's own inimitable Spider Robinson (concert starts at approximately 10:00pm).(Light refreshments and cash bar)
Description: Many fans have experience in real-world technology research and development, yet somehow this aspect of a fantasy world is
almost universally neglected. In most models, new magic must come from somewhere and there must logically be a process behind
it. Wo
Panellists: Rob Chilson, James Alan Gardner, Ed Greenwood, Steven Lopata, Elizabeth Moon
Description: For your Thursday evening entertainment, a group of poets, storytellers and musicians entertain in a casual environment. Hosts:
Judith Hayman and Carolyn Clink
Panellists: Carolyn Clink, Judith Hayman, Richard Chwedyk, David Clink, Scott Green, Sandra Kasturi
Description: The members of this panel are scientists and authors eager to tackle any topic no matter how difficult or impossible in creative
and often humorous ways. The audience will have the opportunity to broach topics or ask questions after which an interactive
a
Panellists: Julie Czerneda, Catherine Asaro, Jordan Raddick, Isaac Szpindel, Peter Watts
Description: The commonest style in the Midwest. A free for all, where anyone can jump in. There may be a host or filk ghod/dess to ensure
fair play. We’nt hosts a circle presenting Stan's music.
Description: Ideas born of science fiction were once considered "fringe," but are now much closer to the mainstream. Does SF/F really make
us explore social taboos and become more open to technology? How has the study of SF/F changed social appreciation of the
topic?
Description: Beading and bead weaving. Glitz is the name of the game for a number of costumers, and non-costumers. Necklaces, bracelets,
hair accessories; beading a costume. Come, see, and learn.
Description: Editors talk about what NOT to mention in the cover letter with your manuscript. Why it's a mistake to include such vital
information as "I took a creative writing course," or "My grandmother liked it," or "It's just like the last Harlan ... only
differen
Panellists: Joshua Bilmes, Scott Edelman, Gordon Van Gelder, James Minz
Description: Shotokan Karate Workshop. This will be an ACTIVE workshop for beginners and intermediates. No prior experience required. Fans
will be asked to participate. Attendees will learn simple martial arts moves, some martial arts secrets, will slowly perform
a ba
Description: Write a Haiku by noon, or start that Pantoum. Our wonderful instructors will teach a specific poetic form and you get to try
it out. No experience necessary! Today's Class: Darrell Schweitzer will teach Limerick.
Description: Are the two types of media even comparable? Given the advances in media, can CD-based literary efforts really be compared
to more traditional literature?
Panellists: Janice Eisen, Paul Levinson, Elizabeth Miller, Patrick Nielsen-Hayden, Melinda Snodgrass
Description: Research in designer drugs is only just beginning. What are the prospects for the construction of drugs or beverages that
place you into well-defined psychological states, whether happiness, sexual arousal, receptiveness to learning or cosmic awareness?
R
Panellists: George Flentke, Susan Smith, Isaac Szpindel, Eric M. Van, Fran Van Cleave
Description: A slide show and visual trip down Memory Lane. See what costuming was like is the beginning; how it grew; and find inspiration
for your place in its future.
Panellists: Jack Krolak, Suford Lewis, C. D. Mami, Charles Mohapel, Lenny J. Provenzano
Description: Your costume is perfect. It can be seen from the back of the stage; but you can't. Get tips and suggestions from those that
have been doing this successfully, for years.
Description: Is it the idealized scientific method that makes science successful? Or is it the meat-grinder of peer review and backstabbing
that's responsible for the loftier heights of scientific achievement? Well, what's the last experiment YOU conducted using
only
Panellists: Catherine Asaro, Kenn Bates, Howard Davidson, James Killus
Description: Anime surrounds us. It is one of the major media forces around us. More and more people join the ranks of Anime fandom every
day. Interested in this art form, but uncertain where to start? Come and find out where and how.
Panellists: Brett Achorn, Anna Hui, Eric Langlois, Michelle West, Emru Townsend
Description: It's not enough to write a great story; now you have to find someone to publish it. This panel is for beginning writers who
want to learn about the process of submitting their work to editors and agents, and making that first sale. Panellists will
share
Panellists: Patricia Bray, Nick DiChario, Dale L. Sproule, Liz Williams, Eleanor Wood
1086 The Flight of Buran - The Russian Space Shuttle
Day: Fri Time:1100
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 201ABCD
Description: The Flight Of Buran - The Russian Space Shuttle A behind the scenes look at the previously secret planning, development and
testing of the Soviet Space Shuttle Buran and the Energia Rocket, including rare footage of atmospheric tests with strapped
on afte
Description: The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a prized and juried award. Panellists discuss how to enter,
and what it means when you win.
Panellists: John Clute, Candas Jane Dorsey, Mici Gold, Terence Green, Peter Halasz, Nalo Hopkinson
30 Should Parents of an Unborn Child have the Right to Refuse Fetal Improvement
Day: Fri Time:1200
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 205B
Description: In the near future, it will be possible to screen the unborn for undesirable traits, and perhaps modify such traits in the
womb. Do the parents of an "abnormal" or "maladjusted" child have the right to refuse this modification? What about when the
state i
Description: The recent Columbia tragedy has focused attention yet again on whether space travel is safe. What are the hazards of travelling
to or from space? Is simply traversing the area outside of Earth's atmosphere itself a hazard? What is necessary to protect
aga
Panellists: Hugh S. Gregory, Geoffrey Landis, Henry Spencer, David Stephenson, John Strickland
Description: So here you are in Toronto; can you use the trip to stimulate your work? What are the ups and downs of tourism-as-research?
What do you miss? What does it add?
Panellists: Melinda Kimberly, Samantha Ling, Elizabeth Moon, Mike Resnick, Josepha Sherman
434 So, You're Gonna Enter Your First Worldcon Masquerade?
Day: Fri Time:1200
Duration: 1 Room:RY: Manitoba
Description: You've competed at small local conventions and the regionals. Are you ready for the Big Time? Come and find out how to make
certain that you are. This covers things like Registration, Green Room, and Tech.
Panellists: Byron Connell, Penny Lipman, C. D. Mami, Carole Parker, Roberta Rogow
Description: Fandom comprises dozens of subgroups. While wandering the halls or even perusing this guide, you may note references to "gay
fen," "Furry fans," "gamers," "filkers," "costumers," "fanzine fans," or "SMOFs." Are these identifications sometimes made
in a ma
Panellists: Janice Gelb, Peter Knapp, Ron Oakes, Alex von Thorn
507 Creating Believable Aliens in Believeable Worlds: What to Consider
Day: Fri Time:1200
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 201ABCD
Description: How can we construct a non-human being with real character? What authors particularly "give good alien"? Is it the case that
the closer we get to a true alien, the more incomprehensible -- and often the more uninteresting -- it becomes to most readers?
B
Panellists: Hal Clement, Walter H. Hunt, Robert Reed, Kathryn Sullivan, Frank Wu
Description: For those of you with an interest in tech. A workshop/demo/discussion on getting the lights to light and stay lit...or how
to get them to blink on and off and on and off and on and...
Description: Computer Technology changes so rapidly, even the experts must work to keep pace. Come hear about the new, the exciting and
where all of this could lead.
Panellists: Charles Cohen, Daniel Dern, Marcel Gagne, Daniel Grotta, Mark Van Name
Description: The collaborative process is difficult enough when it involves two friends. Is it any easier when the collaborators share
every aspect of each other’the members and best their fellows.
Panellists: Kelly Freas, Laura Freas, Sharon Lee, Steve Miller, Jeanne Robinson, Spider Robinson
Description: Dynastic presidencies; homeland so-called security; suspension of constitutional rights whenever the word "war" is invoked
-- the war on some drugs, the war on terror ... Where is American society headed, and how can it be stopped from getting there?
A wh
Panellists: Mark Bernstein, Beth Hilgartner, David Hartwell, Stephen M. Stirling, Fran Van Cleave
Description: Certain thinkers look forward to a sudden, radical change in human reality, occurring within a human lifespan, caused by progress
in artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and related fields. What are they talking about? Why has it been called the Singu
Panellists: Russell Blackford, Andrew Burt, Simon Smith, Eliezer Yudkowsky
Description: 1953 yielded a bumber crop of science fiction, including Asimov's Second Foundation, Clarke's Childhood's End, Bester's The
Demolished Man, Bradbury's Farenheit 451, Pohl and Kornbluth's The Space Merchants and Sturgeon's More than Human. This is
also the
Panellists: Tom Doherty, David Kyle, Fred Lerner, Robert Silverberg
659 Taking Fabric Where It Has Never Gone Before: Manipulating Fabrics For Fun, Not Profit
Day: Fri Time:1300
Duration: 2 Room:CC: 206F
Description: Master Costumer Jacqui Ward gives you a hands on presentation on how to make something one dimensional (fabric) into 3-D designs.
Quilting, applique, beading, embroidery, and layering are just a few of the techniques used.
Description: Without fandom, there would be no Worldcon, no Hugo Awards. While you may be able to be a successful SF or fantasy writer
without any contact with fandom, once you immerse yourself in this milieu there are definite do's and don'ts -- particularly
if you'd
Panellists: Suford Lewis, Craig Miller, John Pomeranz, Dick Smith
733 Gender Biases Among SF Magazine Editors, Publishers and Reviewers
Day: Fri Time:1300
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206B
Description: A recent article in the SFWA Bulletin asks the question: Since the US population is 50.9% women, according to the 2000 Census,
why was the percentage of short stories by women in the Big Three (Asimov',F & SF and Analog) no more than 29% in 2001?
How
Panellists: Mary Anne Mohanraj, Gordon van Gelder, Scott Edelman, Karen Traviss, Ellen Datlow
755 The Heinlein Society -- Annual Corporate Meeting
Day: Fri Time:1300
Duration: 1 Room:RY: Manitoba
Description: Annual corporate meeting, with reports of the board of directors and officers to the membership. The meeting is open to members
of the Society as well as to any interested members of the public.
Description: All the same instruments we hated in rhythm band, come to a new life when they accompany something as fun as filk. Meet some
new instruments and learn how to make something as simple as a rhythm egg into a cool accompaniment.
Description: The Worldcon business meeting can be intimidating for newcomers. the panels provides an introduction to why the business meeting
is important and how it works. We'll also talk about some of the topics that will be covered at the meeting.
Panellists: Stephen Boucher, Bob MacIntosh, Linda Ross-Mansfield, Ben Yalow, Kevin Standlee
Description: A workshop in which the "panellists" introduce participants (not more than 20) to principles of creating alien languages for
use in science fiction.
Description: What is the concept of "classic" ? Who defines it? And how does it apply to SF/F? Does it apply? Is there "classic" mass media
sf? How did this concept evolve into what it has become today?
Panellists: John Clute, Mark Olson, Toni Weisskopf, Andrew Wheeler, Sheila Williams
Description: If squids were furry, lived on land, and made a happy trilling sound, would they make good pets? We'll soon be in a position
to find out, and this raises many social and ethical questions. We already produce tailless and hairless cats, as well as
dogs ran
Panellists: George Flentke, Nancy Kress, Judy Lazar, Larry Niven, Richard Chwedyk
Description: How to get started in Anime Costuming, known to its dedicated fans as Cosplay. Learn about Anime costuming and how it is influenced
by Japanese culture.
Panellists: Maral Agnerian, Caroline Julian, Dawn McKechnie, Barb Schofield
Description: The Gaylactic Network is an affiliation of clubs for LGBT fans and their friends. Come find out more about this organization,
its affiliate clubs and its activities, as well as how to form an LGBT fan club in your own hometown.
Description: In days gone by, a lady was considered naked if she was not wearing a hat. For most costumers, it's the same. From Captain
Hook to Gandalf the Grey, everyone needs a hat. Discover how easy it is to make a classy hat.
Description: Some fantasy relies on a historical base to give it the right feel, some on established myth, some on durable and evolved
private mythology, and some on trappings cut from new cloth. Different kinds of stories seem to differ in their adaptability
to each
Panellists: Ellen Asher, James Barclay, Carol Berg, Daniel Grotta, Caitlin Sweet
Description: How much of your Worldcon trip expenses is deductible? How much of the other money you spend is considered an expense in the
eyes of your local tax collector? Find out how to get the most out of your writing income.
Panellists: Daniel Dern, Sharon Lee, Andrew Porter, Ramona Winkelbauer
724 Heinlein 101 - All you ever wanted to know about Heinlein but were afraid to ask"
Day: Fri Time:1400
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 205B
Description: An omnibus overview and survey of the themes, writing techniques, literary forms and character types of Heinlein's works.
The who, when, where, what and, most important, why of reading Robert A. Heinlein. General introduction to Heinlein's writing
coverin
Panellists: Robert James, Bradford Lyau, Bill Patterson, David Silver
Description: SF fandom exists because we so love the literature that reading is not enough; we need to discuss it with other fans. When
the fan is also artist, the discussion takes the form of another artistic expression; a painting, book cover, movie or a kind
of mus
Panellists: Jack L. Chalker, Tanya Huff, Connie Willis
Description: Panellist will demonstrate how to draw celtic knots and instruct the basics to the audience. The audience will be given opportunities
to practice techniques.
Description: Mike Glyer chaired the Los Angeles Worldcon in 1996. Twenty years earlier, Ken Keller chaired the Worldcon in Kansas City.
These two friends talk about how chairing a Worldcon changed over two decades and may even engage in a discussion of the current
s
Description: Remember those glorious visions of giant space habitats, compete with lakes and forests? Whatever happened to that idea? Where
has the dream gone?
Panellists: Mike Brotherton, Geoffrey Landis, G. David Nordley, Donald Simmons, John Strickland
Description: You're a writer. It's what you do. The words have to get out of you somehow, and the ideas need to keep flowing. But are there
specific habits that all writers can share to make the process easier? When is organization, structure, constancy useful,
and wh
Description: All Anime is not the same. As with all things are different genres with Anime. Fantasy. Science Fiction. The single hero.
The quest. Groups. The future. The past. High tech. Find out exactly what some of these genres are and which games typify
e
Panellists: Alice Bentley, Allen Garvey, Derwin Mak, Frederick Patten, Kent Wong
Description: The Spectrum Awards are given out annually by the Gaylactic Network. Come find out which works of 2002 have been recognized
for their excellence in presenting LGBT themes and characters.
Description: How close were dinosaurs to intelligence? Shoud we expect to see the saurian form elsewhere? Is there a typical treatment
of saurian intelligence and is it justified?
Panellists: Michael Brett-Surman, Harry Harrison, Robert J. Sawyer
1,160 Baen Travelling Slide Show (with Door Prizes!)
Day: Fri Time:1500
Duration: 1 Room:CC: Summit
Description: I present a selection of the best of Baen upcoming cover art and discuss books and artwork while entertaining questions from
the audience.
Description: All the same instruments we hated in rhythm band, come to a new life when they accompany something as fun as filk. Meet some
new instruments and learn how to make something as simple as a rhythm egg into a cool accompaniment.
Description: What are the moral, ecological and economic implications of monoclonal agriculture, cloning, and transgenic technology? How
can we derive the benefits of these techniques while limiting our exposure to their pitfalls?
Panellists: Jonathan Cowie, George Flentke, James Hay, Susan Smith, Karen Traviss
Description: Economists might insist that fantasy economics should follow the same principles as any other economics. (Not for nothing
is it called the Dismal Science.) But the impact of a cornucopia, a Midas, or a simple unionised talking horse would surely
cause som
Panellists: James Barclay, Carol Berg, Ed Greenwood, Bill Fawcett, Cheryl Morgan
Description: Notions of what are and are not likely shapes for solar systems have changed throughout the history of science and science
fiction, and never more rapidly than at the present as empirical data finally arrive on the satellites of nearby stars. Panellists
w
Panellists: Larry Niven, Jean-Louis Trudel, Wil McCarthy, Jordan Raddick, Donna Young
Description: A photograph of your costume lives forever. Come and learn how to help the photographers give your costume a taste of immortality.
A Must Attend panel for both costumers and photographers BEFORE the Masquerade.
Panellists: Jack Krolak, Charles Mohapel, Sandy Pettinger, Lenny J. Provenzano, Julie Zetterberg
Description: Kurt Vonnegut would certainly be recognized as one of the most popular living science fiction writers -- if he called his
work SF. Where do "The Sirens of Titan", "Slaughterhouse-Five", "Cat's Cradle", "Galapagos", and other items in the Vonnegutian
oeuv
Panellists: Russell Blackford, David Hartwell, Mark A. Rayner, Andrew Weiner
744 Genre-Bending: The Rise of the Crossover Novel
Day: Fri Time:1600
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 205B
Description: A number of the most successful SF works of the past decade have been genre-mixing crossover novels: creations that blend
SF themes and settings with elements from spy thrillers, murder mysteries, romances, and other genres outside the realm of
traditiona
Description: An audience participation event. With the guidance of a moderator, audience members come up with the ideas for what they breath,
how many eyes, and the rest of the details and our panel of artists will see if they can figure out what it looks like.
Panellists: Mike Brotherton, Kelly Brown, Walter H. Hunt
Description: Although those within fandom had long known of Bloch's genius, he was discovered outside the field in 1960 when a minor filmmaker
named Hitchcock turned his novel, Psycho, into a film. Panellists discuss how success, however major or brief, outside the
fi
Panellists: Paul Barnett, Dr. Robert Blackwood, Bob Devney, Don Hutchinson, Daniel Kimmel
Description: This inaugural Annual Heinlein Awards Dinner will be held at Badali's Restaurant, 156 Front Street West (one block from Torcon3).
This judged presentation is made for excellence in writing science fact or fiction. A cocktail reception commences at 6 PM,
s
Description: he route to take in order to be a professional artist. Where do you start? What sources should an artist begin with? How does
one begin down that path to fame, glory and riches? What art sells (for the artist), and why? Can a "non-commercial" piece
ever b
Panellists: Lee Gilliland, Geoffrey Surrette, Jean-Pierre Normand, Frank Wu
16 What if: Canada had a Different Neighbour than the USA?
Day: Fri Time:1700
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104CD
Description: If Canada had a neighbour that was NOT the United States, would Canada be any different? Richer, more powerful, more listened
to? Is our proximity to the United States a blessing in disguise? Or would Canada's socialist economy work better without
the con
Panellists: John Dupuis, Nalo Hopkinson, Ben Jeapes, Pat McMurray, Connie Willis
Description: Learn what everyone should know before submitting that first manuscript. Aimed at beginning writers, panellists will answer
questions about writing and marketing your work.
Panellists: Ginjer Buchanan, Dave Creek, Jay Lake, Mandy Slater, Wen Spencer
Description: Some people claim that there are no heroines in Anime; that the females are there simply as eye candy, in need of recusing?
Is this true? Or are there female Anime heroes capable of kicking ass on an equal footing with the guys?
Panellists: Brian Chu, Anna Hui, Winnie Hui, Kimberly Ann Kindya, Kent Wong
Description: Not only did H.P. Lovecraft influence our GoHst of Honor, but he also had a direct influence, and correspondence, with numerous
other authors who went on to make a name for themselves in horror, fantasy, and science fiction. What set Lovecraft apart
from
Panellists: Alan Beatts, Marvin Kaye, Darrell Schweitzer, Andrew Wheeler
274 The Earth is Big and We are Small. Should We Be Afraid?
Day: Fri Time:1800
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104A
Description: Proponents of the Gaea hypothesis have been heard to contend that the earth takes care of itself, and therefore is capable
of healing what ecological damage humans might do. This fails to account for the very real possibility that the healing process
invo
Panellists: Jonathan Cowie, Harry Harrison, China Mieville, Jonathon Sullivan, Karen Traviss
Description: Wiring ourselves by direct linkage of our existing neural structures to the computing infrastructure is a staple of Cyberpunk
literature. When and how should we do this? Is it even wise or safe? Is it really all it's cracked up to be?
Panellists: Jack L. Chalker, Howard Davidson, Matthew Jarpe, Eric M. Van
Description: In the twenty-first century media permeates our lives and culture. We cannot escape it. Anime is a large part of this. It
saturates our lives; from video games to television to comic books to clothing, Anime is a major influence on how we view
things;
Panellists: Brett Achorn, Brian Chu, Allen Garvey, Eric Langlois, Emru Townsend
Description: Broad Universe describes itself as "a group of women and men dedicated to celebrating and promoting the work of women writers
of science fiction, fantasy, and horror." Ten group members read short selections from their current and forthcoming fiction
in t
Panellists: Naomi Bilodeau, Suzy Charnas, Anne Harris, Ellen Klages, Louise Marley, Victoria McManus
754 Science Fiction Film Literacy in One Easy Panel
Day: Fri Time:1800
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 203B
Description: The panellists will examine the history of Sci-Fi film from beginning to end, including the creamy middle. Each panellist
should come up with a list of ten "Must Sees" before hand to be given to the audience.
Panellists: Dr. Robert Blackwood, Dr. John Flynn, Kathi Overton, Craig Miller, Robert Vogel
821 The Integration of Science and Religion in SF&F
Day: Fri Time:1800
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104CD
Description: Science Fiction is often seen as the literature of the humanist, the rationalist and the skeptic. Yet as we look at the underpinnings
of the physical universe, even theoratical physicists can see the possibility of the hand of God underlying out physical
Panellists: Scott Bakker, Paul Fayter, Phyllis Gotlieb, Beth Hilgartner, Paul Levinson
936 From the Ground Up: Building Fantastic Ecosystems
Day: Fri Time:1800
Duration: 1 Room:CC: Summit
Description: What kind of world would produce a gryphon? How about giant killer plants? How would you go about designing a plausible landscape
and other lifeforms for your alien or fantastic creatures?
Panellists: Hal Clement, Julie Czerneda, Will McDermott, Robert Reed
Description: 1953 yielded a bumber crop of science fiction, including Asimov's Second Foundation, Clarke's Childhood's End, Bester's The
Demolished Man, Bradbury's Farenheit 451, Pohl and Kornbluth's The Space Merchants and Sturgeon's More than Human. This is
also the
Description: Thog's Masterclass is the department of Dave Langford's sf newsletter "Ansible" which showcases "differently good" lines from
sf and fantasy -- the literary equivalent of a blooper reel. Dave's solo "Live Thog" presentation has brought fear, loathing
and
Description: The feminist movement is, arguably, no longer the force it was in the 1970s. Do we still need science fiction that identifies
itself as feminist? Has society progressed to the point where it is outdated? How would some of the feminist classics be received
Description: Recent developments in carbon fibres have opened up the realistic possibility that we could actually build a space elevator
with current technology. Is this for real?
Panellists: Catherine Asaro, Jordin Kare, Karl Schroeder, Tim Smith, John Strickland
Description: Hollywood possess an excruciatingly annoying habit of changing otherwise perfect comic book plots into an amalgamation for
the movie. Why can't they just shot the old plot? Of if they choose to create a whole new story, why must they, well, Hollywoodize
t
Panellists: Brett Achorn, Keith DeCandido, Colleen Hillerup, Isaac Szpindel
Description: A discussion about the radio show Faster Than Light, and/or about science fiction and fantasy on radio in general (or lack
thereof!) We could play clips from classic radio shows in the past, and from Faster Than Light.
Description: Mankind may be on the verge of creating new types of life not seen before on the planet. What are the implications? Should
these life-forms be treated differently from "natural" life? Can life now be patented?
Panellists: Dave Creek, Sean Mead, Robert J. Sawyer, Susan Smith
192 Race In SF: Black, White, Asian Or Just Human?
Day: Fri Time:2000
Duration: 1 Room:RY: Quebec
Description: What is the point in depicting humans as belonging to one or another of what today's society classifies as races? Shouldn't
SF writers strive, in the neutral case, to make all of their human characters just that - members of the human race - without
refer
Panellists: Stephen Pagel, Derwin Mak, Antonio Ruffini, Michael Z. Williamson
Description: An alternate-history stage drama about science, "Copenhagen", won the 2000 Tony Award. New works and adaptations of fantasy
and SF are appearing more and more on stages in New York, Chicago, and London. Which are especially worth attending or reading?
How
Panellists: Suzy Charnas, Alexis Gilliland, Leah Zeldes Smith, Lori Ann White, Alan Ziebarth
Description: Queer characters in television tend to be restricted to the world of sitcoms and soap operas. With the exception of Willow,
Tara and Ivanova, LGBT characters in science fiction are almost unheard of. We have been clamouring for years for a gay character
o
Panellists: Alan Siler, Lyla Miklos, Kimberly Ann Kindya, Andrew Trembley
Description: Filk didn't start in the 90's or 80's but way back before we ever even thought about recording it. A few folks who were there
in the fifties and sixties talk about their experiences.
Description: Filk is not just a North American phenomenon but enjoined around the world. There are filk communities in the UK, Australia
and Germany, and filkers from just about everywhere. Songs with an international flair.
Panellists: Philip Allcock, Andrew Barton, Kate Soley Barton
50 Born or Bitten: Biological vs. Supernatural Vampires
Day: Fri Time:2100
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206F
Description: In folklore, it's a transmissible curse...but some vampire fiction puts biology in the clothing of the fantastic, featuring
a separate species at the top of the food chain. (George R.R. Martin's "Fevre Dream" is one such work.) With most assumptions
of va
Panellists: Lisa DuMond, E.E. Knight, Elizabeth Miller, Peter Watts
Description: Joss Whedon's Mutant Enemy Television has spawned two very successful shows ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel"), but
his latest creative effort, the Western-in-space called "Firefly", has just been declared extinct. What is it about the Angel/Buffy-v
Panellists: Christopher Garcia, Colleen Hillerup, Christine Mak, Robert Vogel
685 Big Girls and Boys' Toys: women in post-cyberpunk hard and military sf
Day: Fri Time:2100
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104A
Description: One of the major trends in contemporary sf is the presence of women writers who have been visibly influenced by the cyberpunk
movement. These writers are mixing and matching traditionally masculine genres (hard sf, hardboiled detective fiction, military
s
Panellists: Elizabeth Moon, Chris Moriarty, Kristine Smith, Wen Spencer
Description: more of a mixer than a panel, since the audience will be encouraged to get up and mingle. I have buttons from Sff.net and
hopefully some other items to share. It's a great and growing community.
Description: A memorial for a lost ship and crew. A celebration of our belief in the space program and its contribution to humanity. We’e
fan is also artist, the discussion takes the form of another artistic expression; a painting, book cover, movie or a kind
of mus
Description: Does black leather turn you on? Did you really like Mrs. Peel's leather jumpsuits? What about simple things like leather gauntlets
and harness? Whatever your interest in costuming with leather, stop by; learn a few things; exchange leather dreams.
Description: The last ten years has seen less manned exploration of space than the first 3 years did of its history. A recent report stated
that NASA funding levels kept at 1960s levels would be $100b, not the humble (many say pathetic) $15b it currently gets. Is
this
Panellists: Dave Creek, Henry Spencer, David Stephenson, John Strickland
Description: One of the most respected of Canadian musicians, Stan's music is always popular in the filk community. Our own "Decadent"
Dave Clement hosts a circle presenting Stan's music.
Description: The commonest style in the Midwest. A free for all, where anyone can jump in. There may be a host or filk ghod/dess to ensure
fair play. We’nt hosts a circle presenting Stan's music.
Description: The commonest style in the Midwest. A free for all, where anyone can jump in. There may be a host or filk ghod/dess to ensure
fair play. We’filkers from just about everywhere. Songs with an international flair.
Description: What is sentience? What is its relationship to intelligence, to free will? Is it in any sense an objective phenomenon, or
is it an article of faith?
Panellists: David Brin, John Hertz, Robert J. Sawyer, Peter Watts, Eliezer Yudkowsky
Description: The process of evolution involves convolving carefully husbanded diversity with a chaotically and opportunistically explored
environment, with the added complication that the environment is itself no less malleable to the gene than the physical carrier
we
Panellists: George Flentke, Karl Johanson, G. David Nordley, John Wilson
Description: Carving a 6" block of foam into a costume is one method, but does not allow for errors. Come learn a different approach by
building up layers of foam, then carving out the details.
488 Meet the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer Finalists
Day: Sat Time:1000
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 201ABCD
Description: The five finalists for the JWC award and a moderate. This is a discussion of how the finalists for the JWC award made their
professional debuts. What kind of backgrounds do they have? Where did they submit work? To what do they attribute their success?
Th
Panellists: Charles Coleman Finlay, David Levine, Karin Lowachee, Wen Spencer, Ken Wharton
Description: The popular concept of Globalization is commonly of homogenization of many facets of life: choice of music, food, clothing
are increasingly become less varied, and seemingly more American. Is anti-AMericanism an outgrowth of the growing tide of
Anti-Globa
Panellists: Russell Blackford, Harry Harrison, Justine Larbalestier, Paul Levinson, Mike Moscoe
Description: Shotokan Karate Workshop. This will be an ACTIVE workshop for beginners and intermediates. No prior experience required. Fans
will be asked to participate. Attendees will learn simple martial arts moves, some martial arts secrets, will slowly perform
a ba
Description: Write a Haiku by noon, or start that Pantoum. Our wonderful instructors will teach a specific poetic form and you get to try
it out. No experience necessary! Today's Class: Susan Manchester will teach Sestina.
Description: Finance, industry, the military (soon to include authorization to pull the metaphorical trigger). Car engines, voting machines
(don't get us started), watches, artificial limbs, scooters, vacuum cleaners. Does rampant computerization ever stop? And
if not
Panellists: John Bartley, Charles Cohen, Karl Schroeder, Mark Van Name
Description: It's a fairly well-known fact that the Wild Cards universe started as a superhero role-playing campaign. Then it spawned "GURPS:
Wild Cards", coming full circle. Authors who've been through the experience discuss making books out of gaming (such as Stephe
Panellists: Paul Barnett, Lori Cole, Bill Fawcett, Ed Greenwood, Janna Silverstein
444 What Do You Mean, You Don't Stock The Staff Of Saruman?
Day: Sat Time:1100
Duration: 1 Room:RY: Manitoba
Description: Most costumes need props of one type or another, whether it's fans, guns, picture frames, or magic mirrors. Not every store
sells them, and you need to customize them even if you can buy them. Find out tips on turning your $5.00 axe into the "real"
thing.
Panellists: Maral Agnerian, Dawn McKechnie, Kate Morgenstern
Description: The folklore of Canada seems to surface only rarely in fiction, though there is a wealth of traditions - and a healthy menagerie
of fantastical beings - to be found here. What material is there, and how does it interrelate? What is most relevant to the
Ca
Panellists: Celu Amberston, Alison Baird, Derryl Murphy, Guy Gavriel Kay, Jean-Louis Trudel
Description: It's over a hundred years since "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1900) was written, and even longer for "Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland" (1865). But we still seem to be coming up with new adaptations and interpretations for both. What explains their
last
Panellists: Edward Einhorn, Esther Friesner, W. Randy Hoffman, Suford Lewis, Roberta Rogow
Description: Is your child forever playing dress-up with your fabric collection? Come to our discussion of what to do next to create and
show off your enwst costume. How about the local Masquerade?
Description: Science fiction is a gold mine for language arts teachers, from its building blocks of imaginative storytelling and the communication
of ideas, to the way SF explores societal issues and concerns of relevance to students. Join this panel of editors, autho
Panellists: Betsy Mitchell, Pat York, Bonnie Kunzel, Cathy Palmer-Lister, Terence Green, Robert James
Description: Science fiction can do so much more than provide examples of bad science from the movies. It can reveal how real science happens,
who is involved, who might be affected, and turn what can seem a block of unfathomable knowledge into a vibrant, human activi
Panellists: David DeGraff, Donna Young, Jordan Raddick, Jeanne Cavelos, Hal Clement
Description: Though their pursuits are not mutually exclusive, religion and speculative fiction are almost complete anathema to one another.
When religion is depicted in SF, more often than not it is ridiculed as superstition, derided as a pursuit of less advanced
min
Panellists: William Dietz, Phyllis Gotlieb, John G. Hemry, David Honigsberg, Patrick McGuire
Description: A workshop illustrating some of the common questions that your website should cover, and some of the deisgn and navigation
issues you need to consider.
Description: The Science Fiction Oral History Association (SFOHA) is a non-profit organization that maintains an archive of audio and video
recordings of historic people and events related to science fiction. Come hear what they're about.
Panellists: Michael W. Gardiner, Anne KG Murphy, Dick Smith
1420 SFC: Fiction from the Science Writing Workshop
Day: Sat Time:1200
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206A
Description: Learn how to guide students through their own science fictional exploration of the world starting from scientific concepts,
current issues, and even illustrations. Warning: wonder is likely.
Panellists: Diane Turnshek, Herb Kauderer, Kristen Britain, Caitlin Sweet
Description: To solve the problem posed in a science fiction short story, participants will design, build, and test a working prototype
vehicle. All materials and testing equipment will be supplied. Caution: fun is inevitable!
Panellists: Tony Czerneda, Sarah Elliott, Rocky Persaud, Marcel Gagne
Description: Writers must know what they are writing about: or do they? How much research is enough? Must you know and identify your target
audience (hard science/trek/fantasy) first? Is there a minimum amount of science an sf author needs to know.
Panellists: William Dietz, John Dupuis, Terry Pratchett, Sheila Williams, Connie Willis
Description: Frequently, alien sex is depicted as being exactly the same as human sex, with differences in superficial biology only. But
what if the Venerians are not just us with bad haircuts and bigger, say, ears? How might truly alien beings enjoy sex? Assuming
"en
Panellists: Bridget Coila, Glenn Grant, Lawrence Schoen, Robert Silverberg, Amy Thomson
Description: Attrition warfare with men and machines is fast becoming as obsolete as smokestack industry. If the ultimate goal of war is
to destroy your enemy's will to resist, what shall we have at our disposal to wage war in the future?
Panellists: Paul Chafe, Charles Cohen, Joe Haldeman, Andrea B. Novin
381 Alternative Currencies and Trading Systems: The Future of Money
Day: Sat Time:1300
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206F
Description: With the near future advent of quick, simple and portable encryption systems many of the technical barriers to a full electronic
consumer economy will be eliminated. How will this affect our future? Can a non-electronic economy trade with an electronic
on
Panellists: Andrew Burt, Richard Lynch, China Mieville, Douglas Smith, Ramona Winkelbauer
Description: What's upcoming at Del Rey, including exciting new projects from Harry Turtledove, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter, Elizabeth
Moon, Alan Dean Foster, Peter Hamilton, Howard Hendrix, China Mieville, and Greg Bear.
Panellists: Steve Saffel, Betsy Mitchell, Chris Schulep
Description: The pros work at performance to make it look that relaxed and easy -- and interesting. You can do it too. Here are some ideas
to really sell that song..
Description: How will children's literature evolve? What will kids be reading in 10 years? In 25 years? In 100? What specific works will
endure? What new trends will ripen? Will the usual needs for structure and excitement, moral lessons and anarchy, serious
informati
Panellists: Justine Larbalestier, Lisa Ragsdale, Scott Westerfeld, Andrew Wheeler, Ann Zeddies
1422 SFC: Wrap-up panel: Where do you go from here?
Day: Sat Time:1300
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206A
Description: A panel of publishers, librarians, and educators discuss how to find good SF resources (print, film, people), how to get them
into schools, and how to promote their use. There will be an opportunity for question/answer from both tracks.
Description: A recurring science-fictional (and indeed fantastic) idea is that of the death of personality while the body endures -- whether
as punishment or by accident or choice. This contrasts with both extropian ideas of immortality through personality upload,
and
Panellists: Suzy Charnas, John Hertz, Robert J. Sawyer, Shane Tourtellotte, Eliezer Yudkowsky
Description: How long will it be till we see pictures of a blue/green planet orbiting a distant star? What techniques are currently being
used to find planets? What will we be using soon? What do the planets we've found so far tell us about the universe?
Panellists: Mike Brotherton, Guy Consolmagno, Jordin Kare, Diane Turnshek, Donna Young
Description: Costume presentations are getting larger; more people; bigger props. This is leading to a number of concerns. Do large presentations
have an unfair advantage over single costumes? Do larger presentations mean smaller Masquerades? This will be a "debate",
Description: Your song from the heart needs a little buffing. Come work with a master songwriter to remove the trite and introduce the
small touches that make your lyrics unique.
1091 Klingon Foreheads, Dog Faces, And Magma Demons, Oh My!
Day: Sat Time:1400
Duration: 2 Room:RY: Quebec
Description: Prosthetic makeup can be as simple as Elf and Vulcan ears, and Klingon foreheads, or as complex as complete transformations.
Come and see how it's done. WARNING: LATEX ALLERGY ALERT!!!(
Description: Find out from those who lived through the early days of pulp fiction magazines what that colorful period meant to the world.
And now what impact this still has on today's world in movies and in its literature.
Panellists: Hal Clement, Dr. John Flynn, J. K. Klein, William J. Widder
Description: Scientifically speaking the ecological debate is far from clear cut. There is general agreement that the ecology is being
damaged, but to what extent and by what practices is highly debatable. Panellists will examine the science expounded by both
sides of
Panellists: Jonathan Cowie, Karl Johanson, Larry Niven, John Strickland, Chris Moriarty
Description: Centuries of dog breeding have produced countless non-viables (pit bulls with breathing troubles, golden retrievers and German
shepherds with bad hips, etc.). A little-regarded news story a few weeks back predicted that, for similar reasons, bananas
will
Panellists: Bridget Coila, George Flentke, Matthew Jarpe, Susan Smith, John Wilson
Description: Walk into a roomful of authors and say "synopsis". See how many of even the most experienced writers cringe at the thought
of this most hated of literary tasks. And if it scares them, what about the rest of us? How DO you whittle down a 400 page
(100K wor
Description: Sure, your troops look cool with 30 kg of gatling gun and pistols that will stop a rhino. But are these things really useful
in a story context? And what exactly do you call these things?
Panellists: Alan Beatts, John G. Hemry, Steven Lopata, Toni Weisskopf, Michael Z. Williamson
Description: The annual meeting of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. This is not a closed meeting, but is open to all interested
in learning more about the SFPA.
Description: A (mostly) serious discussion about the art of writing and performing comedy by filkers who having mastered the art of being
humorous, funny, hilarious.
Panellists: Mark Bernstein, Bill Roper, Gretchen Roper
Description: Harry Warner, Jr. chronicled the early history of science fiction fandom in his books All Our Yesterdays and A Wealth of Fable.
He was more than just a chronicler, however, he was also a fan, active in fanzines and letter columns. Despite being somethin
Panellists: Mike Glyer, Jack Speer, Richard Lynch, Lloyd Penney, John Hertz
223 The Multiple Implications of Teleportation on Society
Day: Sat Time:1600
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206F
Description: In many models of teleportation, the transported individual is destroyed and reconstructed as part of the process. What are
the social, legal, and religious ramifications of this tempting technology? How would society deal with the possibility of
accident
Panellists: Ctein, Harry Harrison, Paul Levinson, Wil McCarthy, Mark Olson
Description: Many of us can't remember the days before the Motion Picture Association of America started rating films, or the Comics Code
Authority began doing the same to comics. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board now similarly vets video games. Do these
organi
Panellists: Morgan Brilliant, Tom Doherty, John G. Hemry, Kimberly Ann Kindya
Description: Classic science fiction often depicts ultratechnologies existing on a massive scale. But the closer they get to reality, the
smaller their manifestations seem to become. Does the future of humanity involve Dyson spheres and the reshaping of galaxies,
or w
Panellists: Howard Davidson, Gardner Dozois, Matthew Jarpe, Tim Smith, Allen M. Steele
Description: ...or at least give the impression of flight. Wings are a dream that almost every costumer has had at one time or another.
Come and learn from those that have "flown" before.
Description: Four Chicks In Chainmail anthologies have now been published, and a fifth will soon arrive in bookstores. Do these books set
the cause of feminist SF back, or does the fact that they are parodies excuse them from any obligation to feminism?
Panellists: Esther Friesner, Lee Martindale, Janet Stirling, Wen Spencer
500 Clash of Science Fiction and Fantasy in Canada
Day: Sat Time:1600
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206C
Description: Genre science fiction and fantasy are relatively new phenomena in French-speaking Canada. The initial popularity of science
fiction has given way to a resurgence of fantasy and horror, practiced by authors old and new. The past, present, and possible
futu
Panellists: Christian Sauve, Jean-Louis Trudel, Candas Jane Dorsey
728 Heinlein: Lost, Strayed, Misplaced, and Found Again
Day: Sat Time:1600
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 202ABCD
Description: From the author's even earlier efforts than the 'lost' novel, Heinlein's so-called opus no. 1, "For Us the Living --" through
obscurely published essays and addresses on science-fiction writing of the 1940s and 50s, the so-called 'stinkers,' stories
that
Panellists: Arthur M. Dula, Robert James, Bill Patterson, Eleanor Wood, Spider Robinson, David Silver
Description: From broadsheets to hypertext: the changing markets for speculative poetry. How to use the internet to research poetry markets.
The pros and cons of selling to webzines, selling to magazines, and giving the suckers away.
Panellists: David Clink, Scott Green, Sandra Kasturi, Herb Kauderer, Terry McGarry
Description: It's hard to deny that comic books have been the vehicles of serious art, both visual and verbal. Have they yet graduated
to the status of an art form in their own right? Or are they, like advertising, just a business that stands ready to exploit
whatever
Panellists: David Brin, Terence Chua, Colleen Hillerup, Tim Kirk, Isaac Szpindel
Description: When aliens finally land on Earth, will we treat them the way we have historically treated all minority groups throughout
history, driving them into ghettos and marginalizing them in society as depicted in the film and TV series "Alien Nation"?
Will we en
Panellists: David Honigsberg, Karen Traviss, Sean Mead, Robert J. Sawyer, Kristine Smith
446 57 Queen Amidalas, 101 Mr. Spocks, And 27 Harry Potters
Day: Sat Time:1700
Duration: 1 Room:RY: Manitoba
Description: Recreation costumes are usually well received but what happens when you're the 13th Dr. Who in the Masquerade? Learn what
to avoid and how to make your reproduction different.
Panellists: jan howard finder, Jack Krolak, Kimberly Ann Kindya, Roberta Rogow
Description: Ceremony for the annual Student SF&F Awards Contest, co-sponsored by Torcon 3 and Baltimore Worldcon Inc. (the folks who gave
us the 1998 Worldcon, Bucconeer). Join us in honouring the best authors and artists of science fiction and fantasy's next
generat
Panellists: John Pomeranz, David Brin, Hal Clement
835 Worldbuilding: Worlds that Are, Worlds that Have Been and Worlds that May Yet Be
Day: Sat Time:1700
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206C
Description: Fantasy and science fiction are both genres in which writers create imaginary worlds so they can talk about our real world.
Worldbuilding techniques range from close extrapolation to alternate history to wild flights of fantasy, but the best F/SF
is alway
Panellists: Ed Greenwood, Daniel Grotta, Nick Sagan, Guy Gavriel Kay, Sarah Zettel
Description: Awards like the Sunburst and Tiptree require money to fund their prizes. This auction is a little bit of fundraising and a
lot of entertainment. Extreme Auctioneer, Ellen Klages, internationally notorious for her auctions, will be presiding. Anything
m
45 Schools of the 21st Century: What Schools Should Teach
Day: Sat Time:1800
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104A
Description: The core skill for future-proofing is learning itself. Do you agree or disagree with the following quotes? "The mind is not
a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." --Plutarch "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot
read a
Panellists: Charles Cohen, Jim Kelly, Paul Levinson, Hayden Trenholm, Pat York
Description: Your alien needs a pressure helmet. You need a gun that looks like a gun, but won't set off metal detectors, and costs less
than $5.00. Talk to the people who turned Recycling in to an art form.
Description: What do you get when you lock talented cartoonists in a room with World-con attendees? Come see and find out. Watch the cartoonists
jam to your suggestions. Call out a word, phrase or situation and watch the cartoonists turn it into an image worth keeping
Panellists: Adam-Troy Castro, Kurt Erichsen, Tim Kirk, Michele Laframboise, Gabriel Morrissette
Description: Nominees are in but do you know them? Are the same people nominated every year? How did you hear about that song/songwriter/performer?
Filk music's awards are changing with influences like the web and MP3's. Have your say, and hear what others think. Mod:
Panellists: Daniel Glasser, Trace Hagemann, Steven Macdonald
Description: The commonest style in the Midwest. A free for all, where anyone can jump in. There may be a host or filk ghod/dess to ensure
fair play. We’filkers from just about everywhere. Songs with an international flair.
Description: One of the most respected of Canadian musicians, Stan's music is always popular in the filk community. Our own "Decadent"
Dave Clement hosts a circle presenting Stan's music.
Description: Filk is not just a North American phenomenon but enjoined around the world. There are filk communities in the UK, Australia
and Germany, and filkers from just about everywhere. Songs with an international flair.
Description: The commonest style in the Midwest. A free for all, where anyone can jump in. There may be a host or filk ghod/dess to ensure
fair play. We’ the pure arts to the intensively scientific. This talk will consider how design is more than just a kind of
know
Panellists: Allison Durno, Jodi Krangle, Debbie Ohi
Description: Do you have the right to remain stupid, when the technology exists to "cure" you? Do you have the right to insist that your
offspring be no smarter than the vagaries of sex provide? Do you perhaps even have the right to modify the intelligence of
your off
Panellists: Genevieve Dazzo, Matthew Jarpe, Paul Levinson, Kristine Smith, Eric M. Van
Description: Are you starting to think about writing a novel? Are you stuck in the middle of one? Are you struggling to make the jump from
writing short stories to writing novels? Are you wondering if you have what it takes to finish your first novel ... or how
to fix
Panellists: Nick Sagan, John Scalzi, Amy Thomson, James Van Pelt, Michael Z. Williamson
Description: The first true moves to emulate the EU with a similar union (AU) in Africa have now been made. What is the long-term future
for a unified Africa? Will it aid the development of democracies, or will the influences of countries like Libya and Zimbabwe
bring
Panellists: William Dietz, Grant Kruger, Mike Resnick, Antonio Ruffini, Stephen M. Stirling
Description: Sometimes what seems like a brilliant idea really isn't, when the true cost of implementation is considered vs. other options.
This panel will try, once and for all, to drive a stake in the heart of the so-called "solar power satellite", but will also
dis
Panellists: Charles Cohen, Cory Doctorow, Tom Doherty, Richard Lynch
966 Jumping the Species Barrier: SARS and it's Implications
Day: Sun Time:1000
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104B
Description: Finance and markets are rarely deftly handled in SF. The field could use some education and thought in this area. This panel
will look at possible trends in gloal finance over the next fifty years.How will emerging technologies and current trends
in globa
Panellists: Bridget Coila, George Flentke, Perrianne Lurie, Howard Scrimgeour, Dr. Fran Terry
Description: Shotokan Karate Workshop. This will be an ACTIVE workshop for beginners and intermediates. No prior experience required. Fans
will be asked to participate. Attendees will learn simple martial arts moves, some martial arts secrets, will slowly perform
a ba
Description: Write a Haiku by noon, or start that Pantoum. Our wonderful instructors will teach a specific poetic form and you get to try
it out. No experience necessary! Today's Class: Barbara Chepaitis will teach Pantoum.
Description: Large segments of the readership may have trained themselves to suspend their disbelief in matters of science. They develop
subtle strategies: encountering an error in scientific reasoning or fact, they simply add it to their "Ignore" file. Or the
skilfu
Panellists: Dave Creek, James Killus, Nancy Kress, Robert Metzger, Stanley Schmidt
Description: The cranial jack is a standard of cyberpunk. But are direct interfaces really the way to go? On a physical level, what are
the pros and cons of having your brain directly connected to a computer? What are the issues involved with enduring cognitive
interf
Panellists: David Brin, Marcel Gagne, David Levine, Karl Schroeder, Pete Thomas
Description: Is it ever OK for a white author to write from the point of view of a black or Asian character? What about a male's writing
a female protagonist? Should gay writers dare to portray the way heterosexuals think? When is it ever, well, appropriate for
a writ
Panellists: Celu Amberston, Alma Hromic Deckert, Josepha Sherman, Glenn Sixbury, Caro Soles
1181 What To Expect When Attending Your First Worldcon Masquerade
Day: Sun Time:1100
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206A
Description: Come and find out from the experts how Worldcon Masquerades differ from your typical local and regional Masquerades and why
you need to line up early for a good seat.
Panellists: jan howard finder, John Hertz, Jack Krolak
Description: With Babylon 5 we saw, for the first time in North American television, a multi-year story arc, fully planned ahead and executed
with attention to details. Was it as successful as generally thought?
Panellists: Andrew Adams, Scott Edelman, Barb Galler-Smith, Daniel Kimmel, Marc Zicree
Description: Historical "feel" is a multidimensional thing, with cultural, social, psychological, linguistic, artistic, technical, and
geographic components. Writers who set their stories in the past can pursue multiple research techniques to produce a sense
of authen
Panellists: Guy Consolmagno, Rosemary Kirstein, Fred Pohl, Walter Jon Williams
Description: An artificial intelligence will not be human, so what does it mean for it to be sane? At the same time, if we are to turn
over any measure of control to a machine, sanity, not just intelligence, is likely to be high on the list of attributes we
require. P
Panellists: Scott Bakker, Kenn Bates, Robert J. Sawyer, Eric M. Van, Eliezer Yudkowsky
502 Online Writer's Groups -- What to Expect of Online Critique Forums
Day: Sun Time:1200
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 202C
Description: This panel would discuss the world of on-line writing workshops. What should be expected of an on-line workshop? What makes
an on-line group work effectively to help a writer improve? When should you join one and when should you avoid them? Discuss
the go
Panellists: Charles Coleman Finlay, Elizabeth Glover, Melinda Kimberly, Samantha Ling
Description: Why do some fans persist in doing things the old-fashioned way? Publishing fanzines on paper, maybe even using mimeographs,
instead of on the Web. Is there anything valuable in using obsolete technology to communicate in such a slow medium?
Panellists: Linnea Dodson, Colin Hinz, Fred Lerner, Steve Stiles, Taral Wayne
Description: This is to raise the profile of genre poetry with authors who should be able to fill chairs. [I don't know who among these
authors are coming to Torcon, but I'm hoping we could run 2 or 3 of these -- might fall under the jurisdiction of "readings"]
Panellists: Joe Haldeman, Geoffrey Landis, Kim Stanley Robinson
Description: Kids are teaching technology to their parents and grandparents. This trend is more and more outpacing the ability of educational
systems to invent, adapt, and adopt technology before those being educated have moved on to other inventions. Unless it can
re
Panellists: Bruce Burdick, Deb Geisler, Gay Haldeman, Dr. Elizabeth Anne Hull
Description: Mike Glyer hosts a retrospective look at his fanzine, File 770, including slides of his favorite covers, comments by the artists,
and articles which he views as high points of publishing.
Panellists: Chris M. Barkley, Mike Glyer, Joyce Scrivner
Description: Noreascon 4, the 2004 Worldcon, is planning a retrospective exhibit of the greatest and most memorable art from the period
1953 to 1975. Come and discuss what art we ought to be exhibiting and help us figure out where we might borrow it. You can
contrib
Description: This panel has been presented to rave reviews at other cons. Highly recommended as an easy but thorough introduction to the
how’arn how to make something as simple as a rhythm egg into a cool accompaniment
Description: One of the ST:TNG plots looked at an alien (but human-looking) culture whose communication was completely in metaphor, making
exact translation (without knowledge of the metaphorical meaning) impossible. Many SF/F authors have shown us worlds where
humans
Panellists: Colleen Anderson, Phyllis Gotlieb, Sandra Kasturi, Diane Turnshek, Mary A. Turzillo
Description: There will come a time when cancer, heart disease and even aging will no longer kill us. What sources of suffering will still
remain. Will they be biological in nature?
Panellists: George Flentke, Paul Levinson, Jonathon Sullivan, Dr. Fran Terry, Ann Zeddies
Description: Are traditional illustration media still a viable option? Or are they being replaced on magazine and book covers by a tide
of digital art, to conform to publishers' production requirements? Let's asses the current state of the (SF/F/H) art as we
fight the
Panellists: Paul Barnett, Alan Beck, Karen Haber, Stephanie Johanson, Dale L. Sproule
581 Good Plot or Good Science: Don't Make Me Choose!
Day: Sun Time:1300
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104CD
Description: Let's discuss why books and movies with revolutionary scientific ideas often offer stock plots and cardboard characters ...
while works that are fun to read or watch too often make critical science errors. How can we get storytellers and moviemakers
to ch
Panellists: Ellen Datlow, Bill Fawcett, Laura Anne Gilman, Joseph Martino, Beth Zipser
Description: SWhat happens after your manuscript has been accepted by a publishing company?How your words go from manuscript to bound book.
What an author can do (and shouldn't do) to help make the end product worthy of his/her byline
Panellists: Anthony Lewis, James Minz, Janna Silverstein, Sheila Williams, Eleanor Wood
Description: Electronic devices are rapidly shrinking to the nanometer scale, where quantum mechanics dominates and particles become waves.
Here, the distinction between chemistry, mechanics, and electronics begins to blur. Case in point: the quantum dot, a device
cap
Description: Fantasy, unlike science fiction, tends to focus on psychological rather than merely physiological notions of alienness. Traditional
descriptions of the Fey mindset, for example, diverge markedly from the human norm. But given stories positing the quotidia
Panellists: Sarah Elliott, Will McDermott, Sean Mead, China Mieville, Sarah Zettel
543 John Clute's Encyclopedia of SF is 10 years old.
Day: Sun Time:1400
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104A
Description: John Clute and Peter Nicholls' work " The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction" has passed its first decade as arguably the field's
most important reference work. How have its accuracy, judgment, and usefulness held up? Will it ever be surpassed? (Or has
it be
Panellists: Mary Cannings, John Clute, Paul Barnett, David Hartwell, Eric M. Van
592 Jungledesertcitywaterforestworld: A Cautionary Tale for Worldbuilders
Day: Sun Time:1400
Duration: 1 Room:CC: Summit
Description: A slide lecture designed as an antidote for the tendency of some writers to depict homogeneous "jungle worlds" or "desert
worlds." Despite what you see in Harry Harrison or Frank Herbert or that author you read last week, to the best of our (theoretical)
597 Does Alternate History need a Science Fiction Element?
Day: Sun Time:1400
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206C
Description: Is an alternate history most effective when it involves a science fictional element -- e.g., giving automatic weapons to the
Confederates, or scheduling an alien invasion at a pivotal point in time -- or is it just as interesting to craft an alternate
his
Panellists: Charlie Stross, Scott Mackay, Alexis Gilliland, Robert Silverberg, Mark Rayner
Description: Genetic engineering. Cyborg implants. Surgery and developmental modification. All these and more can alter the human form
-- and consequent capabilities -- almost beyond recognition. What will humans be like as the next four centuries progress?
What will
Panellists: Jack L. Chalker, Jonathan Cowie, Matthew Jarpe, Scott Parker, Simon Smith
Description: What goes into bidding for a worldcon? How does the bidding process and voting work? Come hear explanations and horror stories
from recent and current bid members.
Panellists: Margene Bahm, Vincent Docherty, Jill Eastlake, Craig Miller, Tom Veal
Description: Right alongside the buzz about "nanotechnology" is the field of "spintronics", dedicated to harnessing the spin of the electron
instead of merely its charge. Unlike some of the fantastic claims made for nanotech, spintronics is actually a working technolo
Description: Where do you start? A simple introduction to Songwriting, beginning with how to structure a song and getting started on lyrics.learn
how to make something as simple as a rhythm egg into a cool accompaniment
Description: John Hertz, fandom's inimitable expert on the Regency era, will once again host the Regency Ball. Everyone is invited to join
John as he shows you how to dance Regency-style! This is a participatory event - so feel free to join in, two left feet and
all!
Description: Even people who don't watch the show know about her anti-evil activities. The show has definitely attained a niche in the
popular culture. But some feel that Buffy's a lot better than that. Let's talk about what makes our Sunnyvale Slayer an epic
characte
Panellists: Ginjer Buchanan, James Killus, Jean Lorrah, Bradford Lyau, Josepha Sherman
Description: In science fiction TV, aliens typically resemble humans with rubber face masks and behavioural patterns less bizarre than
some members of your own family. In extreme cases, we may be presented with creatures that, while not human, are clearly inspired
by
Panellists: Ctein, Rob Chilson, Peter Watts, Stanley Schmidt, John Wilson
Description: Over the decades since SF has come into its own, the percentage of really funny books is quite low in relation to the overall
total of new titles. What is it that makes writing humor so very difficult? Why is it easier to evoke the darker emotions
of the
Panellists: Esther Friesner, Karen Haber, Mike Resnick, Terry Pratchett, Connie Willis
Description: Devoted to a genre obsessed with the future, we are rooted in our past. Our knowledge (and our joy) is in the minutiae --
but we risk losing memories only the earliest fans possess, as First Fandom departs for the Grey Havens ... How may we preserve
the w
Panellists: Anthony Lewis, Pat McMurray, Lloyd Penney, Dick Smith, Jack Speer
Description: The reality of interstellar travel versus the fiction we all love will be discussed by SF authors and the manager of NASA"s
In-Space Propulsion Technologies Project (whose job is to develop new propulsion technologies for exploration of the solar
system a
Panellists: Hal Clement, Jordin Kare, Geoffrey Landis, G. David Nordley
Description: A presentation of filk songs based on some aspect of SF or space, followed by discussion of the science fact within the song,
from a scientist’s.
Description: A presentation describing Odyssey, one of the top SF/F/H workshops in North America. Director Jeanne Cavelos, a former senior
editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell and winner of the World Fantasy Award, explains the workings of the program, and the pros
and con
Description: Your song from the heart needs a little buffing. Come work with a master songwriter to remove the trite and introduce the
small touches that make your lyrics unique.
Panellists: Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, W. Randy Hoffman, Graham Leathers
Description: Why not a story where magic is discovered in 1925? Is there a reason why fantasy novels must take place in a medieval English
countryside?
Panellists: Ellen Asher, James Barclay, Alma Hromic Deckert, Esther Friesner, Daniel Grotta
Description: If time travel will ever be invented, why haven't we noticed yet? Did the shortage of recognizable tempotourists at the Apollo
11 launch, the Kennedy assasination, or the first Hugo banquet suggest the thing's impossible, or merely that there are strictur
Panellists: Walter H. Hunt, Ben Jeapes, Mark Olson, Fred Pohl
Description: Do you dread reading the reportage of your hometown paper or TV station about a local science fiction convention? Do they
interview the distinguished author of a new work of insightful, challenging speculative fiction -- or just the guy who lives
in his
Panellists: Lee Gilliland, Andrew Gurudata, Nicki Lynch, Eric Mansfield, Leah Zeldes Smith
Description: We've all seen the young recruit who doesn't know why he's fighting, and the general who loves war. But do they really exist?
And why do we so love Exploding Spaceships?
Panellists: Paul Chafe, Harry Harrison, John G. Hemry, Michael Z. Williamson
Description: There are things that are done and things that are not done. If you're new and wonder how to get a turn, or experienced and
want to teach, join us for a discussion about being a polite participant in a filk circle.
Panellists: Paula Lieberman, Steven Macdonald, Lee Martindale
Description: Is cross-genre reading all that popular? Can an author of one genre rightly expect his/her readers to follow when the author
switches genres?
Panellists: Ginjer Buchanan, Todd Dashoff, Andrew Wheeler, Rick Wilber
1323 The Frank Kelly Freas Retrospective Slide Show With Commentary
Day: Sun Time:1600
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 201ABCD
Description: This slideshow spotlights the five decade career if artist Frank Kelly Freas with commentary by Kelly, other artists, and
authors whose work has been graced by Kelly’best their fellows.
Panellists: Kelly Freas, Joe Haldeman, Mike Resnick, Howard Waldrop
Description: There are more scientists today than there have ever been before, and they have given us the greatest civilisation that we've
yet been able to detect. Why, then, the apparent rise of pseudo-science? Panellists will look at various pseudo-sciences and
pseu
Description: Writing SF/F for children. How does this differ, and how should it be different? Is Lemmony Snicket the future or should we
stick to the popular omtimistic view of Harry Potter? What lessons can we impart in children's literature without making it
adult?
Panellists: Hilari Bell, Nicole Luiken, Terry Pratchett, Edward Willett
727 Heinlein's Take on Law and Lawyers: The Year We Hanged All the Lawyers
Day: Sun Time:1700
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 206B
Description: An audience participation survey of the themes, roles and character types, their purpose and impact relating to lawyers and
law used in Heinlein's works. Law, legal beagles, and trials pop up over and over in Heinlein's fiction. Is he fascinated
with the
Panellists: Arthur M. Dula, L. N. Collier, Samuel M. Kramer, David Silver, Fran Van Cleave
760 Protein Chauvinism: Refusing to Recognise Computer Viruses as a Valid Lifeform?
Day: Sun Time:1700
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 201ABCD
Description: There seems to be a 'protein chauvinism' amongst people; willing to concede life to protein viruses but not to computer viruses,
nor to robots with better 'situational intelligence' than several parasitic wasps.
Panellists: Paul Levinson, Eric Raymond, Robert J. Sawyer, Peter Watts, Ben Yalow
Description: Over the years, authors have often chosen to write their stories as science fiction or fantasy in order to hide subversive
ideas which would otherwise never see print. Today"s readers and audiences are, however, a lot more educated - or are they?
Is it st
Panellists: Morgan Brilliant, Aynjel Kaye, Victoria McManus, Heather Urbanski, Ken Wharton
503 Is it Censorship When You Clean Up a Book for Children?
Day: Sun Time:1800
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 205B
Description: There is a trend to clean all potentially upsetting material from books and republish them for children and young adult readers.
Is this censorship? Should the books carry a warning label that it is an edited or abridged version of another work? Would
you
Panellists: Ellen Asher, Susan Casper, Ben Jeapes, Paula Johanson, Pat York
Description: Over centuries and millennia, humankind has grown steadily richer. Eventually we will be so rich we can have anything we want
for the asking. Or maybe not quite. How will this culture of plenty affect human motives and interactions? Are the motives
we see
Panellists: James Alan Gardner, Charlie Stross, Hayden Trenholm, Walter Jon Williams
Description: Most North Americans are familiar with the US Space Program, NASA,etc, but some, notably Candadians, have be come experts
in non-US Space Programs. Many Worldcon attendees have seen Hugh's Russian Space Program presentations in the past. On a recent
tour
Description: People have said this for centuries. But soon technology will exist that could potentially make this a lie. Can we agree on
what changes we should make? Should we do it at all? Can we avoid it?
Panellists: Bridget Coila, Karen Traviss, Eric M. Van, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Ann Zeddies
Description: Performers, songwriters, and recordings are all "raising the bar" on what filk is. Is commercialism an issue? Is it becoming
too main stream? A discussion of the trends that we are seeing.
Panellists: Barry Gold, Trace Hagemann, Judith Hayman
Description: Working in science isn't all cold and caculating. Sometimes things go wrong in the most dramatic and hilarious ways. Hear
the panellists stories, and then bring aloong your own.
Panellists: Jordin Kare, James Killus, Steven Lopata, Eric Raymond
739 Transparency and Privacy in an Era of Terrorism
Day: Sun Time:2000
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 104A
Description: In its "war on terrorism," the US government wants more and more information on everyone -- you and me and the man behind
the tree. Is a society where everyone can know everything about everybody else truly our best protection? Especially when
it's one wh
Panellists: Joe Haldeman, Derryl Murphy, Jonathon Sullivan, Karen Traviss
Description: Masquerade Competition, including a special feature presentation "A Salute to Canadian Costuming," and a special prize of
$500 donated by Bantam Dell Publishing Group for best costume inspired by the works of Torcon3 Guest of Honour George R. R.
Martin.
Description: Come and challenge our Iron Poets to create a poem (in full view) containing the secret ingredient. Audience participation
is encouraged! Host: 18088 Sandra (Kaga) Kasturi, Iron Poet Sonnet: 11387 Joe Haldeman, Iron Poet Heroic Couplet: 11866 Geoffrey
A.
Panellists: Sandra Kasturi, Mary A. Turzillo, Geoffrey Landis, Darrell Schweitzer, Richard Chwedyk
Description: The romance of philosophy and science may be lost on the layman, but never on the enthusiast - come hear fellow space afficiandos
speak about the things they love.
Description: Panellists compare and contrast their favourite sex scenes and erotic materials from the two genres in an attempt to establish
once and for all who has it best.
Panellists: Melanie Fletcher, Aynjel Kaye, Victoria McManus, Cecilia Tan, Liz Williams
Description: Come join the action as poets compete against one another in a brutal example of survival of the fittest. Well, maybe not
so brutal. Open to all comers! Get up on stage & show us what you've got! Warning: 90 minutes of full-frontal poetry!
Description: Join Spider and Jeanne Robinson for a Sing-a-Long in Torcon’, attempt to come up with the most outrageous prevarications in
an ongoing quest to amuse the members and best their fellows.
Description: The accolades for those whose achievements have lasting value to the filk community. What is the Hall of Fame and how to people
get into it? How to make a nomination, how the selection process works.
Panellists: Decadent Dave Clement, David Hayman, Sally J. Headford
Description: The commonest style in the Midwest. A free for all, where anyone can jump in. There may be a host or filk ghod/dess to ensure
fair play. We’and sixties talk about their experiences.
Description: The commonest style in the Midwest. A free for all, where anyone can jump in. There may be a host or filk ghod/dess to ensure
fair play. We’and sixties talk about their experiences.
Description: The commonest style in the Midwest. A free for all, where anyone can jump in. There may be a host or filk ghod/dess to ensure
fair play. We’ the pure arts to the intensively scientific. This talk will consider how design is more than just a kind of
know
Description: How did we do? What can we do better in the future? Come discuss last night's Masquerade with its (tired but we hope triumphant)
organizers.
Panellists: Richard Hill, Penny Lipman, C. D. Mami, Martin Miller
Description: A discussion of the work of Philip K. Dick (1928-1982). Dick was born in Chicago and lived most of his life in California.
Between 1952 and his 1982 death in Santa Ana, California, he wrote 36 novels and five short story collections.
Panellists: David Hartwell, Eric M. Van, Connie Willis, Michael Walsh
702 Jules Verne and the "Journey Through the Impossible"
Day: Mon Time:1000
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 201ABCD
Description: Lost for more than a century, le "Voyage a travers l'impossible" (the "Journey Through the Impossible") was the closest of
Jules Verne's books to science fiction as it is now recognised, and one of his most important works. This years sees the first
publi
Description: Are semiprozines and small presses leading the way in publishing works that are more interstitial than mainstream publishers
and magazines? They may not swamp the mass market, but what role do these zines and publishers play in developing trends among
tho
Panellists: Scott Green, Jay Lake, Anthony Lewis, Mark Rapacioli, Darrell Schweitzer
Description: Current and former Fan fund winners answer question like, how do you run as a Fan Fund candidate? What did they do on their
trips? What should they bring along? How to administer the funds? What is the best way to publish your report?
Panellists: Stephen Boucher, Lyndie Star Bright, Janice Gelb, Guy Lillian, Rose Lillian
Description: A behind the scenes look at the space program of the former Soviet Union, including some of their more notable successes and
their previous secret and hidden space disasters.
Description: Write a Haiku by noon, or start that Pantoum. Our wonderful instructors will teach a specific poetic form and you get to try
it out. No experience necessary! Today's Class: Richard Chwedyk will teach Odes.
Description: There are those who say that the Internet makes people stay indoors and not talk to their neighbours, and there are those
who say that it gives them the opportunity to talk to their neighbours even when they live thousands of miles away. Is there
a contra
Panellists: Adrian Bedford, Andrew Burt, Linnea Dodson, Janice Gelb
Description: An audience participation omnibus overview and survey of the themes, writing techniques, literary forms and character types,
their purpose and impact used in the juvenile stories of Heinlein's works, with discussion of their suitability for K-12 education
Panellists: David-Glenn Anderson, Joseph Major, Robert James, Bill Patterson, David Silver
Description: Fantasy often tells stories with a covert or overt moral agenda. For instance, you'd think absolute power would corrupt absolutely.
Yet mighty magicians are often portrayed as spreading sweetness and light rather than dark clouds of lordship. And fantasy
Panellists: Alison Baird, Marilyn "Mattie" Brahen, Tanya Huff, Elizabeth Moon, Terry Pratchett
Description: Join the organizers of filk in many places to talk about what YOU did or didn=t like and what we can do better or differently
in the future, so improve the filk tracks at Worldcon, regional cons and even filk cons.
Panellists: David Hayman, Judith Hayman, Trace Hagemann
Description: Future of forensics, what's new with the lab scandals in the US, will they affect other countries. What's new with the DNA
exonerations, fingerprint challenges, etc.
Panellists: Matthew Jarpe, Fred Lerner, Paul Levinson, Kathryn Sullivan
Description: Write a Haiku by noon, or start that Pantoum. Our wonderful instructors will teach a specific poetic form and you get to try
it out. No experience necessary! Today's Class: Alexandra Honigsberg will teach Terza Rima.
Description: Teaching through Science Fiction. What does SF/F literature have to offer? Is it a good way to detail and discuss social taboos?
What other methods might work better? When and how could SF/F be used as a teaching tool. What are the advantages and disadvan
Panellists: Karl Johanson, Robert James, Val Ontell, Allan Weiss, Pat York
Description: Money is a tool to ration limited wealth. With AI and robotics the potential exists for infinite wealth. How will this affect
the existence of money, and what sort of society might emerge as a result? What sort of society do we want to create? How
do we c
Panellists: Cory Doctorow, Sean Mead, Charlie Stross, Walter Jon Williams, Eliezer Yudkowsky
Description: It's not enough to simply please the audience; you have to please the judges! The audience is out there; the judges are close
enough to see your shoes. Find out what judges look for in a presentation.
Panellists: jan howard finder, Elaine Mami, Pierre Pettinger, Sandy Pettinger, Andrew Trembley, Jacqueline Ward
Description: The Care & Feeding of Costumers & Judges. The Masquerade Green Room is the place where costumers gather before going on stage.
This is a panel for those of you who wish to run Green Rooms or want to find out exactly what a Green Room is and why you
need t
Panellists: Byron Connell, Tina Connell, Penny Lipman
Description: Ursula K. LeGuins novel is one of the most-studied and analyzed novels in our genre. How does Gethan society relate to ours?
Is it a critique or a metaphor? Does it have any relevance to our world today? It has often been charged that this novel is
actual
Panellists: Russell Blackford, Chris Moriarty, Michelle West
Description: The Pegasus Nominations for best song, songwriters and performers in filk music have been released. Here's a presentation
of the nominated works.
940 Five Living Generations: The Social Effects of Longevity
Day: Mon Time:1200
Duration: 1 Room:CC: 201ABCD
Description: It's becoming more common for celebrities and elderly relatives to have a hundredth birthday, or for people to work for sixty
or seventy years. How does this affect families, retirement, marketing, economics, work, politics, etc. (This is not a panel
abou
Panellists: Elizabeth Moon, Donna McMahon, Karen Purcell, Robert J. Sawyer
Description: Characters are often depicted as having discriminatory beliefs; this is natural and normal as part of character-building.
However, discriminatory themes are generally regarded as having gone the way of the dodo. Is this, in fact, the case, or are
there st
Panellists: Rob Gates, Alma Hromic Deckert, G. David Nordley, Karen Traviss
Description: This is the question that strikes terror in to the hearts of many a costumer. You went out there and they liked you. Now,
you hear them asking you: "What are you doing next time?" Come and find out ways to get over your fears and get it done.
Panellists: Toni Lay, Elaine Mami, Kate Morgenstern
Description: A discussion of how the news of fandom is collected and dispersed. How has this changed from the time File 770 debuted in
1978 and its twentieth anniversary, especially with the advent of the internet? Is there still a need for print news-zines
or is th
Panellists: Mike Glyer, Richard Lynch, Andrew Porter, Dick Smith
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