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TeslaCon 4: Convention Report
9 November 2013 05:32 pmMy initial expectation was to drive up to Madison on Thursday but, with the situation as it is, it turned out that we could take an extra day and leave on Wednesday. That made the drive not so arduous by our staying with my brother-in-law outside of Chicago and then with only a 2+ hour drive the next day so that we missed absolutely nothing of the con.
As we stopped for gas at an Illinois turnpike rest stop, I noticed the guy getting out of the car to fill his talk behind me had a quite spectacular mustache. I admit that I twirled my own stache to draw attention to it, suspecting that it might be appreciated by another aficionado. I was expecting that he would see me and we would exchange “the manly nod” of acknowledgement. Instead, his wife got out of the car to actually talk to me.
It turned out that they were vendors Steampunk Works from New Jersey on their way to TeslaCon.
Having dinner with my brother-in-law, we talked about a steampunk revisioning of Captain America. Setting Steve Rogers in the context of the Civil War doesn’t significantly change the character, merely places slave holding confederates in place of Nazis and also gives a lot of opportunity to address both the issues of the day and comment on modern interpretations. I recall a story line where the Red Skull is resurrected by Arnim Zola into the cloned body of Steve Rogers and the Skull thanks Cap for the perfect Aryan body. A very powerful transposition of the blond-haired, blue eyed, all-American hero being also the perfect Nazi body type. A plot line that would not necessarily translate into the American Civil War, though race issues would definitely be at the fore. Perhaps having the super-soldier serum coming from the research of Dr. Henry Jekyll, though not racially based, would add a similar gravitas to the character.
When I checked into the hote at noontime on Thursdayl, one of the desk attendants, Ryan, recognized me from last year. Or rather, he recognized my stache. He had affected an accent. He secretly bundled our wireless access because we had asked about it. He ran up stairs to the room when he forgot to return my credit card at the desk. Good job, Ryan. You are one of the people that help make TeslaCon what it is.
Uncle Hyena gave a presentation on airship physics and I attended to see how other people were covering a topic that I covered in my presentations. He was pretty new to this whole presenting thing and said that he was prepared to have me come up and take over because my mentioning that I also gave such presentations was enough convince him I knew what I was doing. I admit that I have occasionally stepped on the toes of presenters as I have stepped in, knowing more or thinking I knew more than they did. I have moderated that sort of behavior significantly and don't want to take over. I will offer insight when asked and may occasionally challenge misinformation but I don't need to take over their time slot when I often enough have a time slot of my own.
I liked very much that he was able to tell a story of his own experience with an airship. That can make an academic subject like formulas for buoyancy less offputing.
This year's opening ceremony was something less cinematic than last years. Not surprising as it is presenting a diplomatic conference rather than a rocket ship to the moon. I think that may also feed into why the story that ran through the convention had less impact and relevance than in past years. The immersion that TeslaCon has become famous for was a bit light because of it.
Next year we go to the center of the Earth, so this lapse of dramatic narrative will be forgotten.
I stopped in on Lord Bobbins' history of TeslaCon where he brought people up to speed on the narrative threads of previous years. In that he mentioned going to the center of the Earth and going to the Arctic to get there and I asked about the holes at the poles. The way he didn't answer the specifics made me think that he didn't know much of the 19th Century foundations of the hollow Earth theory beyond Doug McClure and Peter Cushing in "At the Earth's Core." I talked to him later in the weekend and confirmed that. He didn't know about Edmond Halley's theory of concentric spheres within the Earth to account for the magnetic pole not being aligned with the rotational pole. He didn't know about John Cleves Symmes convincing President John Quincey Adams to fund an expecition to the pole to find the access to the Earth's interior. He didn't know of Cyrus Teed's cellular cosmology that places us on a concave Earth, with the sun at the center and us living on the interrior surface.
I will need to read up and boil it down so I can bring him quickly up to speed and he can incorperate some of that into next year's narrative. I will also turn it into a full presentation to share with all.
Friday night brought the IAPS Evening of Respite and Reflection, party games, dramatic readings from The Pearl and no alcohol. I supplied two pony kegs of 1919 root beer which has in the past been highly appreciated.
The Prussians showed up with their "Party Pants." Sick and wrong.
After a few hours, with all the food and beverages expended and the attendees scattered, a few of us were sitting around talking about things and stuff. In talking to Ben, I mentioned that I have been going to science fiction conventions of one form or another for almost 30 years now and I have pretty much seen every presentation. Anymore I am more likely to go to a presentation based on who is giving the presentation more than what the presentation is about. Knowing that Oz or Ziggie or von Grelle are going to be giving a presentation gets me in the seat even if I've seen that presentation before because I know, with them involved, it's going to be a good time.
Ben, on behalf of the IAPS, said that they look at it sort of the same way, getting excited when they see ME in the audience.
It's humbling and also strokes my ego because this is the sort of recognition I have come to realize that I have been looking for.
A musical performer is often paid for their performance. People who make things often sell their wares in the dealer's room or on sites like Etsy. Writers will be published. Me? I do presentations and, aside from the polite applause that any presenter will get at the end of their presentation, what recognition can I expect?
Well, at this convention, more so than at any convention before, I had people not only coming up to me in the hallway complimenting me on presentations they had see me do at other conventions (I wasn’t scheduled at TeslaCon until Sunday morning) but, and this is what I really liked, they asked me questions.
In line for opening ceremonies, I talked to some guys about lifting gases and how important it is to know how the "science" in your stories work even if you don't actually include the details of that in the story itself. At the dance on Saturday, I spent a bunch of time talking to someone about airships in a clock-punk story she was writing.
Being engaged. That is my reward. That is the validation that I have done it right. That I have not merely done a presentation but have presented is
such a way as to get people to think. It makes me feel that I have actually earned the moniker of Professor Vitruvius. That I have actually earned what small celebrity I enjoy.
On Saturday afternoon, Lord Bobbins was to give a presentation titled "Defining Steampunk" and, in the lead up to that, he had generated excitement by saying he was going to announce something that had never been done before. He made a big deal about it and, honestly, I was a little dubious about it.
He started off by referencing the definition of steampunk as written by G. D. Falksen and posted on Evelyn Kriete's steampunk facebook page. Now, there's a lot of animosity in the relationship between the Falksen/Kriete faction and others within the steampunk community. Some of it is, I think, deserved, while much seems more based on simple bitterness and not on any substantive content. The opening of Lord Bobbin's speech seemed much for founded in the latter. Add to that the high minimalist podium and the Congress of Steam banner reminiscent of Soviet iconography, I might have expected Bobbins to pound his shoe on the podium for dramatic effect.
Falksen's definition of steampunk begins with three words: Victorian science fiction. It is overly simplistic, of course, and it is wrong, but not by much. Steampunk is modern science fiction set in a Victorian time. Verne, Wells and Shelly are not steampunk. They were writing science fiction in their own time. It is the modern themes set in the 19th Century context that is the punk in steampunk. This too, is a simplistic definition, and even Falksen's definition admits that by going on for the rest of the page qualifying it by pointing out that Victorian on set out a rough time period and style and is not to imply that only the British Empire qualifies as steampunk or that only the time during the reign of Victoria is steampunk. I tend to describe "modern science fiction set in a Victorian era" as the center of the sandbox that we call steampunk and that you can go very far afield and still call it steampunk.
Lord Bobbins hating on Falksen's definition was that; hating. It honestly wasn't relevant to what he was saying and was there merely to take a dig at a rival. I think it hurt his message.
Lord Bobbins did have some other things to point out that I think were somewhat off the mark. He described steampunk fandom as being unique in that we make it all ourselves and those other fandoms are required to adhere to strictures that are given to them. Star Trek and Star Wars fandoms were held up as specific examples in that, to be part of them you have to have your costume "just right" to be accepted.
I don't know what sort of fandom Lord Bobbins is used to seeing at large but he is wrong. Certainly, cosplay has a large component of accuracy in it. Many cosplayers want to have their costumes look as exactly like those presented in the movies or on television as possible. There are those groups that push for precision and authenticity. But it is not representative of fandom as a whole. My own experience with the Klingon fan groups bears no resemblance to the groups that Lord Bobbins holds up as beholden to Paramount's vision as exacting dopplegangers.
I will say that steampunk is different in that it comes out of an idea of steampunk and a broad variety of inputs rather than a point source like a movie, a television show or a specific literary series and, in that, people tend to come up with their own stories, their own characters. But this is not unique. This is not special. It puts steampunk on one end of a spectrum, not in a class all by itself.
After badmouthing G.D. Falksen, Evilyn Kriete, and science fiction fandom in general, Lord Bobbins finally got to his point that "The definition of steampink is you."
Really. That's it. We define steampunk the way we want to.
This isn't news. I've heard this dozens of times in discussions, panels and presentations at steampunk and general science fiction conventions for years.
Finally, Lord Bobbins got to the meat of the matter and what has, not surprisingly, come to be called "The Bobbins Initiative." Steampunk has been slowing. Even though it has hit the mainstream and everyone seems to know what it is, attendance at steampunk conventions has been slipping. The Airship Ambassador characterizes it as a plateau. To counter this, Lod Bobbins proposed that, in February, everyone find someone to introduce to steampunk. Then, in June, everyone plus their new friend each bring another new person into steampunk.
Someone in the audience yelled, "Pyramid scheme."
Indeed.
Steampunk is a very young fandom. Even though the word was invented in the 80s, it didn't start getting any traction as a fandom until the turn of the century and has seen the explosion that allows it to have scores of its own specialized conventions only in the past five years. And he's worried about things leveling off? Star Wars fandom has been around for 30+ years. Star Trek for nearly 50 years and you are worried about what has happened in only the last 5 and that things are slowing down?
This has me seeing things from the other side. Long before I was in steampunk fandom, I was in the more general science fiction fandom. That fandom has been around since the 30s and it shows. Science fiction conventions, most especially the big guns like World Con, are run and represented predominantly by old, white men. Science Fiction conventions that have been going on for decades are motering along in a steady state or declining into decrepitude because of the reticence of leadership to adapt, change, and welcome new fans.
In light of that, the Bobbins Initiative seems selfish and short sighted. What I think we really need to do as the new kids on the block is to reach out into the old fandom and give it the life that we have found. Steampunk is probably the most diverse of all the fandoms I have ever encountered; broadly welcoming of different ages, different races, different genders, and different orientations. We need to outreach to the general science fiction fandom to breathe new life into it.
It will be to our benefit as well. I notice that, since people come into steampunk from so many different directions, that a lot of people don't know where steampunk actually comes from. I think it embarrassing to talk to people in the steampunk community and have them quizzically raise their eyebrows when I talk about Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard.
Saving science fiction fandom in general is a much more difficult challenge that just "and they tell two friends, and so on" membership building exercise that is the Bobbins Initiative.
At the Grand Ball, I didn't dance (no surprise). Instead I spend several hours talking to people. While I talked to this one couple, their daughter came back from a walk around the dance floor collecting bits and pieces that had fallen off of people's costumes. With a piece of wood, she fashioned a sewing needle/knife with which she modified a piece of ribbon, attached a button and made a choker.
You, my dear, have won TeslaCon.
Sunday morning at 9am finally got to the programming I was scheduled for. When I submitted my list, I included a TED-style talk. The expectation was that in an hour tame slot there might be three presentations by different people on different topics. While not everyone can fill an our with stuff, many can come up with an interesting 10 or 15 minute introduction to a topic. But when the program went up, I saw that I had been given an entire time slot. I messaged Lord Bobbins and, when I finally got a hold of him, he explained that was the only way he could schedule things. He expected that I would do my presentation and then fill the rest with Q and A.
That's not how a TED talk works and I find it hard to believe that he couldn't schedule it any other way.
Well, I wasn't about to do a talk and then stand around for 40 minutes trying to stretch it out. Instead I took two of my previous presentations (War of the Worlds and Mystery Airships) and boiled them down into shorter introductory presentations. Having talked for several hours the night before, yelling over the music at the Grand Ball, helped with my impersonation of Orson Welles and I think the whole thing went reasonably well.
I will need to talk to Bobbins about how to manage a proper series of TED talks.
After that, I gave my Victorian Spacecraft presentation.
With things beginning to clear out after the closing ceremonies, people from the Intrigue Factory came up to me and asked for my critique of their pseudoscience presentation. (Again, I am humbled by by own celebrity.) I had to admit that I noticed it was not as harsh on fake science as I should like or as I would be. This comes from their primarily being theatrically inclined rather than from a science background. They intentionally avoid controversy to be more entertaining.
I'm not.
Pseudo-science is one of my hot button issues. Most especially that pseudo-science that was discredited and disproved in its own day. I still intend to build such a presentation of my own and I am afraid that I will not pull punches. For example, homeopathy was introduced by Samuel Hahnemann in 1807. From the outset, the fledgling scientific community recognized that using lower doses of medicines did not have increasing effect and by 1865, the applications of Avogadro's number had proven that homeopathy could not work. And yet, belief in homeopathy persists to this day. I find that "thinking" to be exceptionally dangerous.
After the hotel had pretty much cleared out and I had hung out in the lobby saying my goodbyes to those leaving, a number of us went to Claddagh for dinner. Even at the end we were making new friends. After that, we spent a few more hours hanging out in the lobby again talking with Mr. Saturday about essentially what I had mentioned earlier concerning the Bobbins Initiative and what can be done to revitalize science fiction fandom.
I've already paid for next year's membership. Half of the available tickets were gone before the close of the convention. The hotel opens up for reservations in a few weeks and I will need to make sure I get signed up in the first few hours of availability before the hotel is booked solid.
As we stopped for gas at an Illinois turnpike rest stop, I noticed the guy getting out of the car to fill his talk behind me had a quite spectacular mustache. I admit that I twirled my own stache to draw attention to it, suspecting that it might be appreciated by another aficionado. I was expecting that he would see me and we would exchange “the manly nod” of acknowledgement. Instead, his wife got out of the car to actually talk to me.
It turned out that they were vendors Steampunk Works from New Jersey on their way to TeslaCon.
Having dinner with my brother-in-law, we talked about a steampunk revisioning of Captain America. Setting Steve Rogers in the context of the Civil War doesn’t significantly change the character, merely places slave holding confederates in place of Nazis and also gives a lot of opportunity to address both the issues of the day and comment on modern interpretations. I recall a story line where the Red Skull is resurrected by Arnim Zola into the cloned body of Steve Rogers and the Skull thanks Cap for the perfect Aryan body. A very powerful transposition of the blond-haired, blue eyed, all-American hero being also the perfect Nazi body type. A plot line that would not necessarily translate into the American Civil War, though race issues would definitely be at the fore. Perhaps having the super-soldier serum coming from the research of Dr. Henry Jekyll, though not racially based, would add a similar gravitas to the character.
When I checked into the hote at noontime on Thursdayl, one of the desk attendants, Ryan, recognized me from last year. Or rather, he recognized my stache. He had affected an accent. He secretly bundled our wireless access because we had asked about it. He ran up stairs to the room when he forgot to return my credit card at the desk. Good job, Ryan. You are one of the people that help make TeslaCon what it is.
Uncle Hyena gave a presentation on airship physics and I attended to see how other people were covering a topic that I covered in my presentations. He was pretty new to this whole presenting thing and said that he was prepared to have me come up and take over because my mentioning that I also gave such presentations was enough convince him I knew what I was doing. I admit that I have occasionally stepped on the toes of presenters as I have stepped in, knowing more or thinking I knew more than they did. I have moderated that sort of behavior significantly and don't want to take over. I will offer insight when asked and may occasionally challenge misinformation but I don't need to take over their time slot when I often enough have a time slot of my own.
I liked very much that he was able to tell a story of his own experience with an airship. That can make an academic subject like formulas for buoyancy less offputing.
This year's opening ceremony was something less cinematic than last years. Not surprising as it is presenting a diplomatic conference rather than a rocket ship to the moon. I think that may also feed into why the story that ran through the convention had less impact and relevance than in past years. The immersion that TeslaCon has become famous for was a bit light because of it.
Next year we go to the center of the Earth, so this lapse of dramatic narrative will be forgotten.
I stopped in on Lord Bobbins' history of TeslaCon where he brought people up to speed on the narrative threads of previous years. In that he mentioned going to the center of the Earth and going to the Arctic to get there and I asked about the holes at the poles. The way he didn't answer the specifics made me think that he didn't know much of the 19th Century foundations of the hollow Earth theory beyond Doug McClure and Peter Cushing in "At the Earth's Core." I talked to him later in the weekend and confirmed that. He didn't know about Edmond Halley's theory of concentric spheres within the Earth to account for the magnetic pole not being aligned with the rotational pole. He didn't know about John Cleves Symmes convincing President John Quincey Adams to fund an expecition to the pole to find the access to the Earth's interior. He didn't know of Cyrus Teed's cellular cosmology that places us on a concave Earth, with the sun at the center and us living on the interrior surface.
I will need to read up and boil it down so I can bring him quickly up to speed and he can incorperate some of that into next year's narrative. I will also turn it into a full presentation to share with all.
Friday night brought the IAPS Evening of Respite and Reflection, party games, dramatic readings from The Pearl and no alcohol. I supplied two pony kegs of 1919 root beer which has in the past been highly appreciated.
The Prussians showed up with their "Party Pants." Sick and wrong.
After a few hours, with all the food and beverages expended and the attendees scattered, a few of us were sitting around talking about things and stuff. In talking to Ben, I mentioned that I have been going to science fiction conventions of one form or another for almost 30 years now and I have pretty much seen every presentation. Anymore I am more likely to go to a presentation based on who is giving the presentation more than what the presentation is about. Knowing that Oz or Ziggie or von Grelle are going to be giving a presentation gets me in the seat even if I've seen that presentation before because I know, with them involved, it's going to be a good time.
Ben, on behalf of the IAPS, said that they look at it sort of the same way, getting excited when they see ME in the audience.
It's humbling and also strokes my ego because this is the sort of recognition I have come to realize that I have been looking for.
A musical performer is often paid for their performance. People who make things often sell their wares in the dealer's room or on sites like Etsy. Writers will be published. Me? I do presentations and, aside from the polite applause that any presenter will get at the end of their presentation, what recognition can I expect?
Well, at this convention, more so than at any convention before, I had people not only coming up to me in the hallway complimenting me on presentations they had see me do at other conventions (I wasn’t scheduled at TeslaCon until Sunday morning) but, and this is what I really liked, they asked me questions.
In line for opening ceremonies, I talked to some guys about lifting gases and how important it is to know how the "science" in your stories work even if you don't actually include the details of that in the story itself. At the dance on Saturday, I spent a bunch of time talking to someone about airships in a clock-punk story she was writing.
Being engaged. That is my reward. That is the validation that I have done it right. That I have not merely done a presentation but have presented is
such a way as to get people to think. It makes me feel that I have actually earned the moniker of Professor Vitruvius. That I have actually earned what small celebrity I enjoy.
On Saturday afternoon, Lord Bobbins was to give a presentation titled "Defining Steampunk" and, in the lead up to that, he had generated excitement by saying he was going to announce something that had never been done before. He made a big deal about it and, honestly, I was a little dubious about it.He started off by referencing the definition of steampunk as written by G. D. Falksen and posted on Evelyn Kriete's steampunk facebook page. Now, there's a lot of animosity in the relationship between the Falksen/Kriete faction and others within the steampunk community. Some of it is, I think, deserved, while much seems more based on simple bitterness and not on any substantive content. The opening of Lord Bobbin's speech seemed much for founded in the latter. Add to that the high minimalist podium and the Congress of Steam banner reminiscent of Soviet iconography, I might have expected Bobbins to pound his shoe on the podium for dramatic effect.
Falksen's definition of steampunk begins with three words: Victorian science fiction. It is overly simplistic, of course, and it is wrong, but not by much. Steampunk is modern science fiction set in a Victorian time. Verne, Wells and Shelly are not steampunk. They were writing science fiction in their own time. It is the modern themes set in the 19th Century context that is the punk in steampunk. This too, is a simplistic definition, and even Falksen's definition admits that by going on for the rest of the page qualifying it by pointing out that Victorian on set out a rough time period and style and is not to imply that only the British Empire qualifies as steampunk or that only the time during the reign of Victoria is steampunk. I tend to describe "modern science fiction set in a Victorian era" as the center of the sandbox that we call steampunk and that you can go very far afield and still call it steampunk.
Lord Bobbins hating on Falksen's definition was that; hating. It honestly wasn't relevant to what he was saying and was there merely to take a dig at a rival. I think it hurt his message.
Lord Bobbins did have some other things to point out that I think were somewhat off the mark. He described steampunk fandom as being unique in that we make it all ourselves and those other fandoms are required to adhere to strictures that are given to them. Star Trek and Star Wars fandoms were held up as specific examples in that, to be part of them you have to have your costume "just right" to be accepted.
I don't know what sort of fandom Lord Bobbins is used to seeing at large but he is wrong. Certainly, cosplay has a large component of accuracy in it. Many cosplayers want to have their costumes look as exactly like those presented in the movies or on television as possible. There are those groups that push for precision and authenticity. But it is not representative of fandom as a whole. My own experience with the Klingon fan groups bears no resemblance to the groups that Lord Bobbins holds up as beholden to Paramount's vision as exacting dopplegangers.
I will say that steampunk is different in that it comes out of an idea of steampunk and a broad variety of inputs rather than a point source like a movie, a television show or a specific literary series and, in that, people tend to come up with their own stories, their own characters. But this is not unique. This is not special. It puts steampunk on one end of a spectrum, not in a class all by itself.
After badmouthing G.D. Falksen, Evilyn Kriete, and science fiction fandom in general, Lord Bobbins finally got to his point that "The definition of steampink is you."
Really. That's it. We define steampunk the way we want to.
This isn't news. I've heard this dozens of times in discussions, panels and presentations at steampunk and general science fiction conventions for years.
Finally, Lord Bobbins got to the meat of the matter and what has, not surprisingly, come to be called "The Bobbins Initiative." Steampunk has been slowing. Even though it has hit the mainstream and everyone seems to know what it is, attendance at steampunk conventions has been slipping. The Airship Ambassador characterizes it as a plateau. To counter this, Lod Bobbins proposed that, in February, everyone find someone to introduce to steampunk. Then, in June, everyone plus their new friend each bring another new person into steampunk.
Someone in the audience yelled, "Pyramid scheme."
Indeed.
Steampunk is a very young fandom. Even though the word was invented in the 80s, it didn't start getting any traction as a fandom until the turn of the century and has seen the explosion that allows it to have scores of its own specialized conventions only in the past five years. And he's worried about things leveling off? Star Wars fandom has been around for 30+ years. Star Trek for nearly 50 years and you are worried about what has happened in only the last 5 and that things are slowing down?
This has me seeing things from the other side. Long before I was in steampunk fandom, I was in the more general science fiction fandom. That fandom has been around since the 30s and it shows. Science fiction conventions, most especially the big guns like World Con, are run and represented predominantly by old, white men. Science Fiction conventions that have been going on for decades are motering along in a steady state or declining into decrepitude because of the reticence of leadership to adapt, change, and welcome new fans.
In light of that, the Bobbins Initiative seems selfish and short sighted. What I think we really need to do as the new kids on the block is to reach out into the old fandom and give it the life that we have found. Steampunk is probably the most diverse of all the fandoms I have ever encountered; broadly welcoming of different ages, different races, different genders, and different orientations. We need to outreach to the general science fiction fandom to breathe new life into it.
It will be to our benefit as well. I notice that, since people come into steampunk from so many different directions, that a lot of people don't know where steampunk actually comes from. I think it embarrassing to talk to people in the steampunk community and have them quizzically raise their eyebrows when I talk about Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard.
Saving science fiction fandom in general is a much more difficult challenge that just "and they tell two friends, and so on" membership building exercise that is the Bobbins Initiative.
At the Grand Ball, I didn't dance (no surprise). Instead I spend several hours talking to people. While I talked to this one couple, their daughter came back from a walk around the dance floor collecting bits and pieces that had fallen off of people's costumes. With a piece of wood, she fashioned a sewing needle/knife with which she modified a piece of ribbon, attached a button and made a choker.
You, my dear, have won TeslaCon.
Sunday morning at 9am finally got to the programming I was scheduled for. When I submitted my list, I included a TED-style talk. The expectation was that in an hour tame slot there might be three presentations by different people on different topics. While not everyone can fill an our with stuff, many can come up with an interesting 10 or 15 minute introduction to a topic. But when the program went up, I saw that I had been given an entire time slot. I messaged Lord Bobbins and, when I finally got a hold of him, he explained that was the only way he could schedule things. He expected that I would do my presentation and then fill the rest with Q and A.
That's not how a TED talk works and I find it hard to believe that he couldn't schedule it any other way.
Well, I wasn't about to do a talk and then stand around for 40 minutes trying to stretch it out. Instead I took two of my previous presentations (War of the Worlds and Mystery Airships) and boiled them down into shorter introductory presentations. Having talked for several hours the night before, yelling over the music at the Grand Ball, helped with my impersonation of Orson Welles and I think the whole thing went reasonably well.
I will need to talk to Bobbins about how to manage a proper series of TED talks.
After that, I gave my Victorian Spacecraft presentation.
With things beginning to clear out after the closing ceremonies, people from the Intrigue Factory came up to me and asked for my critique of their pseudoscience presentation. (Again, I am humbled by by own celebrity.) I had to admit that I noticed it was not as harsh on fake science as I should like or as I would be. This comes from their primarily being theatrically inclined rather than from a science background. They intentionally avoid controversy to be more entertaining.
I'm not.
Pseudo-science is one of my hot button issues. Most especially that pseudo-science that was discredited and disproved in its own day. I still intend to build such a presentation of my own and I am afraid that I will not pull punches. For example, homeopathy was introduced by Samuel Hahnemann in 1807. From the outset, the fledgling scientific community recognized that using lower doses of medicines did not have increasing effect and by 1865, the applications of Avogadro's number had proven that homeopathy could not work. And yet, belief in homeopathy persists to this day. I find that "thinking" to be exceptionally dangerous.
After the hotel had pretty much cleared out and I had hung out in the lobby saying my goodbyes to those leaving, a number of us went to Claddagh for dinner. Even at the end we were making new friends. After that, we spent a few more hours hanging out in the lobby again talking with Mr. Saturday about essentially what I had mentioned earlier concerning the Bobbins Initiative and what can be done to revitalize science fiction fandom.
I've already paid for next year's membership. Half of the available tickets were gone before the close of the convention. The hotel opens up for reservations in a few weeks and I will need to make sure I get signed up in the first few hours of availability before the hotel is booked solid.
