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Concussion: Eastercon 2006
The 57th British National Science Fiction Convention
14--17 April 2006, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow
GoHs:
M. John Harrison
Brian
Froud Elizabeth Hand
Justina
Robson
Ian Sorensen.
Back to Glasgow (and the same, but now renamed, Moat House Hotel, the
main hotel of the
Glasgow Worldcon
), next to, but
not in, the Armadillo. An excellent con, with many new varied,
interesting, mainly on-topic, panels, good lectures, and great GoHs.
Programme highlights
Panel
How do New Things Happen?
Peter Weston, Eddie Cochrane, Dave O'Neill, Phil Bradley
What is the process by which gadgets get into the real world?
-
EC: I trained as a materials scientist, and have been a software
developer since 1982
-
DO'N: I trained as a mechanical engineer, but moved into sales
-
PB: I'm an Internet consultant
-
PW: I'm a "metal basher" -- marketing industrial products
-
Charles
Parsons, turn of the century, invented the steam turbine for marine
propulsion -- made ships go a lot faster -- couldn't get anyone
interested -- fitted out a yacht [
Turbinia
], waited for 1897
Fleet Review at Spithead -- steamed up and down at 30 knots in front of
all the paraded battle fleet, and German fleet -- noone could catch him!
-- Brits
still
not interested, but Germans were. [
The
turbine driven destroyer HMS Viper was launched two years later
]
-
he was actually trying to develop it for electrical generation --
such a tiny market, wasn't considered important -- but it was new,
so actually easier to break into -- harder to move a new product
into an established market
-
first time propeller "cavitation" problem seen --
needed to be redesigned
-
needed lots of innovations to get benefit of steam turbine
-
there are kids today who've never seen a CD -- used up an entire
technology in 20 years
-
photography is going the same way
-
in certain industries it's very different -- aircraft haven't
changed much since 1950s, in terms of speed/ceiling -- the industry
is outrageously resistant to change
-
there will be 2bn mobile phones soon -- 1.2bn GSN phone users now
-
there are factors needed for new tech to work: cheap to make, make a
lot of money, make life easier, governments can use it to kill people,
have porn applications -- if it has at least two or three of these, it
will work
-
Whittle, gas turbine -- again, the Germans were flying it first
-
need someone who really believes in the tech
-
LCDs developed because CRTs were too expensive
-
people used to expect no change during their lifetimes -- are now
looking for change
-
technology used to be for a purpose -- now change is the paradigm --
disruptive
-
Voice Over IP (VOIP) -- people are stopping using conventional
phones -- changes the way we
think
about phones -- pay by
minute will go
-
next big change -- the way people watch TV -- no longer scheduled
TV
-
Arthur C Clarke's
Profiles
of the Future
-- comms satellites -- predicted that every
Indian village will have one 10' satellite dish, and will get
programmes on crop management -- now, it's only 1', hundreds of
channels, none on crop management!
-
in Europe, there's pretty much 100% penetration of mobiles --
Africa/Asia can't lay cables -- and if you do, they will be stolen
-- so mobiles are ideal
-
we are only 20 years from when the monthly phone bill was a
significant household expense
-
can try to block VOIP with Digit Rights Management -- it's a
losing battle -- will have to change business models
-
I'm surprised PDAs haven't taken off in the same way
-
I've had PDAs, but then I got a mobile phone -- carrying 2 bricks
that don't talk to each other is a pain -- now they've
merged/converged -- but not as good as just phones, because of
battery life, etc
-
Web 2.0 applications -- easy to set up, eg photo sharing, shared
calendar -- hope to make money by advertising, or being bought by
Google/Yahoo -- most will go out of business in ~18 months
-
manufacturers like to stay with their current products -- eg, steel
car bumpers
-
even happens in IT -- punched cards to start batch jobs -- we had
a 1930s Hollerith and a 1960s ICT hand card punch -- they were part
compatible
-
most new products bomb -- Interactive CD, Laser Video discs
-
Motorola were saved by RAZR -- one product that worked out of
100s that didn't
-
Gestetner -- they weren't just making copying machines for
fandom! -- every office had a Gestetner
-
in 1961, they were approached by an unknown company, Xerox,
with a new technology -- rebuffed, by everyone -- made an
agreement with Rank, not in the copying business, hence
Rank-Xerox
-
lots of examples where the best tech crashes and burns -- Betamax --
currently, the Blu-ray DVD format is another Betamax, losing out to
HD-DVD
-
people used to expect things to last for years and years -- now,
expect to last a few years, then buy a new one -- quite happy with
built-in obsolescence -- encourages new gadgets
-
I had a Saturday job in Rumbelows, in 1984 we sold three video
recorders (units, not models!) -- you paid £550 for a long play, 14
day timer model -- I bought a new VCR for £32 a few years ago --
DVD player for £19
-
in the 1980s, CD-ROM drives, single speed, cost more than £500
-
in late 1980s, CD-ROMs were being used to distribute everything,
monthly updates, with annual subscriptions of ~£25000
-
San Jose Computer Museum has a Cray supercomputer -- state of the
art not that long ago!
-
British Nimrod -- airframe is a DeHavilland Comet, 1952 -- different
engines, avionics, control systems, same airframe
-
some of the 747s flying are over 20 years old
-
new Airbus are the only new designs in 20 years -- but still same
speed/ceiling!
-
guns
haven't changed significantly
-
1911 Colt 45 automatic pistol -- looks virtually identical to
modern version
-
AK47s do need pressed steel, but fairly wide tolerances
-
look at the Hitler, sorry,
History
, Channel -- by
every sensible metric, the AK47 wins over "better"
guns -- you can bury it in mud, use variable ammo, ...
-
influence of outsourcing to the Far East
-
now they are all tooled up, they will start doing design
-
not too worried -- need a global difference in cost, and the
price differential is eroding fast -- top Indian companies have some
salaries within 20% of UK
-
also, need a locked down spec, else you don't get what you want
-
trick is to be in the fashion industries
-
Koreans are scary -- the most aggressive, clever, hard working
people ever - don't believe in holidays, or sleep -- if we send a
support engineer, have to send 2 per day
-
but again, differentials eroding
-
China is the only place it's not eroding -- can afford bigger
teams -- not always an advantage!
-
an Indian sw company is subcontracting to Dublin, because it's
cheaper
-
Is this highly disposable culture going to be a problem?
-
people won't care
-
pay to buy, pay to dispose -- will end up dumping in China
-
communities in China that strip and recycle Western junk
computers
Panel
There Ain't No Such Thing as Free Speech. And a good
thing too!
John Jarrold,
Lisa Tuttle
, Peter
Harrow, Farah Mendlesohn
Just where should SF writers avoid going, and what are the consequences
when they go there anyway?
-
Stanley Fish.
There's No Such Thing as Free Speech: And It's a
Good Thing, Too
. OUP, 1994
-
speech costs money, and has consequences
-
as a publisher: can I get this through the company? will the book
trade take it? does it work as a story?
-
you can come up with weird, startling, offensive ideas that will make
people sit up or throw up -- but is that a good reason to do it? -- even
if it has a lot of impact, and "works"?
-
as a lawyer, I can say there is no such thing as free speech -- I
bill at £165/hour -- and High Court libel trials are
much
more expensive -- there is a social contract about what is said -- you
are permitted to say what you want to say, but you may need to bear the
consequences -- privacy laws are a new utopia, for lawyers!
-
most non-fiction books are read for libel, especially biographies --
fiction less so -- can't libel the dead, so historical fiction is safe,
and futuristic is usually safe -- never in 15 years have I sent a novel
to a lawyer
-
in general, SF is what you wrote when speech was
very
expensive, when you could end up in a Gulag
-
some do it just because you
can
write about really horrific
things
-
Clive Barker interview -- he said he embraces the dark side,
finds the most terrifying and unpleasant aspects of human nature,
and plays with it
-
in some places it's shut down, in others it's just popular
culture -- eg rap song lyrics, who cares?
-
there are Japanese chat rooms about suicide
-
these ideas become part of the culture -- intellectual authors
are having fun, but readers might not read it in the same light --
but you can't know what people will do -- can't not write just
because it might be read by mad people -- but you do have to ask "why
am I doing this?"
-
new Glorification of Terrorism laws
-
what about the new BBC adaptation of the Robin Hood mythos? --
V for Vendetta
?
-
artistic freedom versus a strict interpretation of the law --
Human Rights Act -- the judiciary tends to be protective of human
rights
-
self censorship -- the Hayes code to avoid legislation in the US film
industry -- went from lesbian sex in the 1920s to twin beds for married
couples
-
the point of laws is not to lock people up, but to stop them doing
the things that would get them jailed
-
the biggest threat is "hurt feelings" -- political
correctness
-
Connie Willis wrote a brilliant short story about
teaching Shakespeare after it had been self-censored -- there were
about four lines left ["Ado", collected in
Impossible
Things
]
-
to publish a book is expensive -- a best seller may cost
easily £1M in advances, printing, advertising -- we don't do this
if we expect a court case, unless it will sell a lot more copies! --
usually want the easiest route -- but can't legislate for individual's
response -- I
love
shooting things in games, but I've never
actually shot a human being -- just because one person does, do you ban
it for all? -- there's no black and white answer
-
in the US lately, giving money to political parties is
being equated with free speech -- the richer you are, the more free
speech you have! -- protecting the ability of rich people to buy
government
-
the Internet offers opportunities to oppose the
newspaper monopolies -- but there are people buying up bloggers!
-
you are only a target for libel in the UK if you are
rich -- if you have no money, no-one will sue you , so you can say what
you want! -- only need to worry about extra-legal direct action, eg
Salman Rushdie -- eg in US, against people speaking on Pro Choice
-
that's what we used to associate with small communities
-- free speech limited by reaction of neighbours -- but now applying to
much larger groups -- may be retreating from individualism
-
problem is lack of middle ground
-
I love living in a multicultural society -- I feel
so much safer, being a minority -- I feel much safer in London than
I did in York
-
not seeing a huge amount of of fiction about freedom of
expression -- depends on author -- mostly the story comes first, second,
third -- sometimes takes a while, maybe in 5 years time we'll see more
-
Eastern European SF -- a way of evading the censor
-
so, is repression a creative space?
-
if you can't speak out, funnel it into something
else -- but at a remove -- harder for us to see what they're doing
-
what are currently expensive things to write about?
-
religion -- is and has been
-
religion, religion, religion -- even more than
politics
-
religion -- I've had to serve an enforcement notice
to close down a mosque, I've annoyed a Buddhist temple, and a
Methodist chapel -- it felt worse for my personal safety than the
travellers' camp -- and I'm just doing my job
-
not allowed to write sex for fun -- only for love or
promiscuity
-
Mike Carey's first novel has two people just
having sex -- noting horrible happens to them because of it,
they don't fall in love, ...
-
do you ensure freedom by pushing boundaries?
-
no-one should force authors
-
I hope there will always be authors who want to do
this
-
a penniless author living outside the jurisdiction
has relatively little to fear -- can publish on the Internet -- but
if you are rich and live in the UK, may think twice -- dissidents
often leave the original country to write about it -- it's one of
the worries about the Glorification of Terrorism law: one man's
terrorist is another's freedom fighter
-
Rob Latham: importance of pushing taboos of New Wave
-
what do you think about the way TV pulls programmes
when planes crash, etc?
-
I was watching UK Gold Dr Who, and it was the wrong
episode! It should have been the last of the Key to Time, where they
kill the princess -- but Princess Di has just been killed
-
we play a game -- what's the most ridiculous thing
they'll pull?
-
Spycatcher
on the Internet -- censorship here
didn't work -- but in the US, a Californian website might offend under
Kansas law and be prosecuted there -- beginning to happen
internationally
-
US has a long history of extraterritoriality,
including tax laws -- even the UK is looking to this -- eg, that
person shot in Gaza, there are calls to prosecute under UK law --
current libel case in France between Telegraph and Times --
jurisdiction shopping -- virtually everything published will offend
someone somewhere, they'll have to look for it, but they'll find it,
and be offended
-
with mass communications, there are more people to
offend
-
also opportunities to break laws you didn't even
know existed -- it's a global society, but we haven't worked out how
to live in it
-
most people affected don't see the need for global
rules, just
their
rules
-
can now be extradited to the US without right to
examine evidence, and for crimes that don't exist here
-
what about burning the US flag in London?
-
price of free speech
-
Body Shop sold to Loreal, co-owned by Nestle --
sales plummeted
-
Ratners ceased to exist as a high street name
-
boycott of Danish products -- a wholly legal way of
reacting
-
in fiction -- what works for an individual author --
cost is selling/not selling, being stabbed/not, being taken
seriously/not -- we still don't know how to deal with the global
village -- "let's just love one another" [
sarcastically,
to laughter
]
-
I measure my words more carefully these days --
people get very quickly "hurt" on the Internet -- and it's
out there for a very long time -- people you would never imagine
come across it
-
have to be aware of everything you say -- everyone
will have to become their own lawyer!
Panel
To Infinity and Beyond
Gus McAllister, Jack Deighton,
Stephen
Baxter
, Huw Walters
How does a writer get across a sense of scale? Do you always want to?
-
the sense of scale goes both ways -- huge, or nanotech
-
Clute, in his streams of verbiage, comes out with little gems: the
key technique is scale
changes
"
-
eg, James Blish, "Suface Trension" (novella from
The
Seedling Stars
-- modified humans, here microscopic,
living in puddles -- final zoom out to a 2" spacecraft
-
I'm a big
Schild's
Ladder