Millennicon: Convention Report
21 March 2011 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dime_novel_heroI don't think that my Accord has a particular problem. It has 205,000 miles on it, rust on the undercarriage means that it probably won't pass the inspection at the end of the year and the transmission has developed an unidentified and sporadic noise but it otherwise runs normally. It's been up on the rack and no issues have been identified with the transmission so there's no reason to think that it will spontaneously explode. Nonetheless,Euphorbia was unhappy at the prospect of driving it across Ohio to Cincinnati and we ended up in her new Subaru.
The League of Cincinatti Steampunks and the Airship Archon were represented and it was good to see some of those that I knew and meet some I did not. It would be even nicer if the group in Pittsburgh were active enough to organize outings like this. It's tough because there are no media cons here in Pittsburgh anymore. Tekkoshocon and Comicon are opportunities that have yet to reach their full steam potential for us. Cordelia is trying to get a steam music and art festival started but it's tough going creating such a thing from scratch.
The video room showed "Steamboy" on Friday night. How many times have I seen that film? Not so many that I won't stay up till 1:00 in the morning at a con to see it again.
We had lunch at Pappadeaux's with Twisty and Kerla on Saturday, always a pleasant experience and something that doesn't happen often enough now that the Klingon Assault Group has changed and I have grown older. They did us the honor of asking us to witness and sign the documents donating their bodies to science
The steampunk panels were, well, steampunk panels. At a general con, panels about steampunk tends to follow patterns and themes and I've gotten used to them. I go to them the lend my support but there's nothing for me to learn. If these things were going on in Western Pennsylvania and I was involved in the con I would be ON the panel instead of in the audience. Traveling to cons, it's tougher to get involved and be on the program. It helps to have a package, such at the "War of the Worlds" presentation that I did at TeslaCon or the "Mystery Airships" presentation I'm going to do at the International Steampunk City.
This is, of course, not to put down the panels. Most of the people in the audience have heard of steampunk and may know a bit about it, but are there to learn from the panelists. These Steampunk 101-style panels are wholly appropriate for the venue. At a steampunk dedicated con, everyone knows the basics and the panels and presentations can address much more specific topics within the genre, again, my airships presentation.
The best moment, I think, was when one attendee spoke of the "performance art" aspect of steampunk, pointing out Aloysius's accent as an example, not realizing that his accent was real and not a performance.
I also remember Aloysius saying something about steampunk being "an analog life in a digital world" or something to that effect. I wish I had written it down at the time to remember it precisely.
Even though I knew in advance that I wouldn't enjoy it, I felt compelled to attend the "Theology and Science: Conflict or Concert" panel. It seems that there were five Christians of various flavors on the panel with the token atheist sitting on the end. There was some hand waving about how various people don't find any conflict at all between science and religion. A lot of "why can't we all just get along." An attempt to bash atheists by one panelist who had a bad experience with one atheist , qualified with the, "but I'm not saying that they are all that way" dodge. And generally a lot of wash that I had heard before. There wasn't a lot of talk about science.
The most lively actions and reactions came about from panelist Gary Pierce. He had himself a copy of the Bible that he insisted was THE correct translation. That it was apparently based on documents written in 34 CE, and were thus likely first hand accounts of the life of Jesus when it is almost universally accepted by biblical scholars that even though the gospels were written near the very end of the 1st Century, 70 years after the purported death of Jesus, the oldest physical New Testament document is just a fragment from the mid 2nd Century. He claimed there were no contradictions in the Bible, only error in interpretation, which he had been able to eliminate by having a perfect translation without any interpretation. He did a lot a Bible quoting. He separated himself from those other, unpleasant, Christians who hate gays and promote violence as not being "True Christians," the combination of those thoughts implying that only he is a true Christian. He claimed that Genesis had scores of accurate descriptions of scientific principals such as the Earth being round. He claimed that he was once a non-believer and described his religious revelation with literal lightening bolts and witnesses to prove that it was God's divine enlightenment.
I know his name because afterwards he tracked me down in the hallway and engaged me in further conversation because I made the tactical mistake of making several comments during the panel. He tried to convince me in the truth of his faith. I challenged him to provide evidence to his claim and he quoted more of the Bible.
"If god is real and possessed of supernatural power, if prayer works and miracles happen, then those things are true without the Bible. To compare it to science: if evolution is true, we don't need Darwin or his book. Even if Darwin never wrote a word or even existed, if evolution is true there will be plenty of other evidence. And there is. Even without Darwin, there is plenty of evidence in the fossil record to prove the existence of evolution. Even if there were no fossils, there is ample evidence in genetics to prove evolution. Even if we couldn't sequence the DNA, there is ample evidence in contemporary observation in drug resistance by bacteria and viruses to prove evolution. Therefore, if God exists, performs miracles and answers prayers then the biblical narrative of floods and plagues and resurrections are unnecessary. The evidence should be all around us. Testable and repeatable. We should be able to have people get together to pray and have an actual, measurable effect on the world. These tests have actually been done, numerous times, and prayer has been shown not to work. No statistical difference was found between praying and not praying. There is simply no evidence for the existence of God."
He told me a story about how he himself had laid hands upon a deaf person and cured him of his deafness. He claimed that it was reproducible.
And that's when I knew I had him.
I asked if he had ever heard of James Randi's million dollar challenge. He had not. I explained that The Amazing Randi had an offer that if someone could prove the existence of supernatural powers they he would give them a million dollars. There would be a scientific test, third-party witnesses, measurements, double-blinding and whatever use was necessary to come to a definitive conclusion with terms and conditions agreed upon by the claimant before testing began so that the claimant could not then claim the test was biased or unfair. Pass your own test and win a million dollars. It is that simple.
The equivocations began almost immediately. He said that he wouldn't want the million dollars. "Fine," I said. "It's just an incentive. Give it away to charity. Tear up the check. Whatever you want. The test itself is the objective." He made a point of saying that he himself hadn't healed the person, that he was only acting as a conduit. "But you insisted that it was reproducible. If it can't be done again then there is no way to separate your claim from that of random chance." He quoted the bible some more.
Then he did something unexpected. He asked if there was anything wrong with my eyes. All weekend I was in one or another steampunk costume which included dark goggles. He wondered if I had some sort of light sensitivity because of the glasses and, even though he didn't say it outright, I believe that if I had some sort of vision disability that he was going to attempt a healing right then and there. Disappointingly, aside from needing some correction, I have perfectly healthy eyes. Maybe I should have challenged him to give me perfect vision. Divine Lasik.
In any case, he continued with asking if I lived in the area, as I saw it, his experiment was that he was going to have me come to his church for a month and his prayers would heal some family member of mine or some such. Either that or his constant evangelizing would turn me to his way of thinking. "No. I'm not going to come to your church. I am not a scientist and would likely be biased. I could not design a valid test. Go to James Randi. He has pros that will work it all out and do it right."
Even though he wrote it down, I don't expect Gary to actually contact The Amazing Randi and set up a challenge. As he is a regular, I expect to see him again next year. I wonder if he'll engage me then.
I was at one point harassed to enter the masquerade. I declined for a number of reasons. Firstly, I don't like doing the catwalk thing. Sure, I can get up on a stage in front of a crowd of people to do a presentation or to challenge some religious zealot or even sing in Klingon but there is something about the masquerade performance that makes me uncomfortable. It is a wholly unreasonable reaction. Secondly, I won two years ago and my impression of the judging is that everyone gets an award at Millennicon, even if they have to make up a category. And, with that, the first prize is also more likely to go to someone that hadn't won before. Thirdly, I don't think my costumes are really all that great. Sure, I get a lot of attention and every time I see Captain LaGrange he acts like what I do puts him to shame but most of what I do is off the rack. Some bits an pieces are made and they are combined to great effect but I don't make my costume as much as assemble it. I think a costume contest should reward those who truly make.
I only purchased two books. Mike Resnick's "The Buntline Special" which I had head reasonably good things about, and Mark Hodder's "The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack" which I had read a review of the night before that shared my disappointment in George Mann's "The Affinity Bridge." I didn't buy the Hodder's sequel "The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man" figuring I should read the first book first and actually decide if the second is worth it and also, the Dealer will be in Pittsburgh in July so I'm sure I'll be able to pick it up easily enough then.
I caught a cold and sore throat at the con. Thanks for sharing.
The League of Cincinatti Steampunks and the Airship Archon were represented and it was good to see some of those that I knew and meet some I did not. It would be even nicer if the group in Pittsburgh were active enough to organize outings like this. It's tough because there are no media cons here in Pittsburgh anymore. Tekkoshocon and Comicon are opportunities that have yet to reach their full steam potential for us. Cordelia is trying to get a steam music and art festival started but it's tough going creating such a thing from scratch.
The video room showed "Steamboy" on Friday night. How many times have I seen that film? Not so many that I won't stay up till 1:00 in the morning at a con to see it again.
We had lunch at Pappadeaux's with Twisty and Kerla on Saturday, always a pleasant experience and something that doesn't happen often enough now that the Klingon Assault Group has changed and I have grown older. They did us the honor of asking us to witness and sign the documents donating their bodies to science
The steampunk panels were, well, steampunk panels. At a general con, panels about steampunk tends to follow patterns and themes and I've gotten used to them. I go to them the lend my support but there's nothing for me to learn. If these things were going on in Western Pennsylvania and I was involved in the con I would be ON the panel instead of in the audience. Traveling to cons, it's tougher to get involved and be on the program. It helps to have a package, such at the "War of the Worlds" presentation that I did at TeslaCon or the "Mystery Airships" presentation I'm going to do at the International Steampunk City.
This is, of course, not to put down the panels. Most of the people in the audience have heard of steampunk and may know a bit about it, but are there to learn from the panelists. These Steampunk 101-style panels are wholly appropriate for the venue. At a steampunk dedicated con, everyone knows the basics and the panels and presentations can address much more specific topics within the genre, again, my airships presentation.
The best moment, I think, was when one attendee spoke of the "performance art" aspect of steampunk, pointing out Aloysius's accent as an example, not realizing that his accent was real and not a performance.
I also remember Aloysius saying something about steampunk being "an analog life in a digital world" or something to that effect. I wish I had written it down at the time to remember it precisely.
Even though I knew in advance that I wouldn't enjoy it, I felt compelled to attend the "Theology and Science: Conflict or Concert" panel. It seems that there were five Christians of various flavors on the panel with the token atheist sitting on the end. There was some hand waving about how various people don't find any conflict at all between science and religion. A lot of "why can't we all just get along." An attempt to bash atheists by one panelist who had a bad experience with one atheist , qualified with the, "but I'm not saying that they are all that way" dodge. And generally a lot of wash that I had heard before. There wasn't a lot of talk about science.
The most lively actions and reactions came about from panelist Gary Pierce. He had himself a copy of the Bible that he insisted was THE correct translation. That it was apparently based on documents written in 34 CE, and were thus likely first hand accounts of the life of Jesus when it is almost universally accepted by biblical scholars that even though the gospels were written near the very end of the 1st Century, 70 years after the purported death of Jesus, the oldest physical New Testament document is just a fragment from the mid 2nd Century. He claimed there were no contradictions in the Bible, only error in interpretation, which he had been able to eliminate by having a perfect translation without any interpretation. He did a lot a Bible quoting. He separated himself from those other, unpleasant, Christians who hate gays and promote violence as not being "True Christians," the combination of those thoughts implying that only he is a true Christian. He claimed that Genesis had scores of accurate descriptions of scientific principals such as the Earth being round. He claimed that he was once a non-believer and described his religious revelation with literal lightening bolts and witnesses to prove that it was God's divine enlightenment.
I know his name because afterwards he tracked me down in the hallway and engaged me in further conversation because I made the tactical mistake of making several comments during the panel. He tried to convince me in the truth of his faith. I challenged him to provide evidence to his claim and he quoted more of the Bible.
"If god is real and possessed of supernatural power, if prayer works and miracles happen, then those things are true without the Bible. To compare it to science: if evolution is true, we don't need Darwin or his book. Even if Darwin never wrote a word or even existed, if evolution is true there will be plenty of other evidence. And there is. Even without Darwin, there is plenty of evidence in the fossil record to prove the existence of evolution. Even if there were no fossils, there is ample evidence in genetics to prove evolution. Even if we couldn't sequence the DNA, there is ample evidence in contemporary observation in drug resistance by bacteria and viruses to prove evolution. Therefore, if God exists, performs miracles and answers prayers then the biblical narrative of floods and plagues and resurrections are unnecessary. The evidence should be all around us. Testable and repeatable. We should be able to have people get together to pray and have an actual, measurable effect on the world. These tests have actually been done, numerous times, and prayer has been shown not to work. No statistical difference was found between praying and not praying. There is simply no evidence for the existence of God."
He told me a story about how he himself had laid hands upon a deaf person and cured him of his deafness. He claimed that it was reproducible.
And that's when I knew I had him.
I asked if he had ever heard of James Randi's million dollar challenge. He had not. I explained that The Amazing Randi had an offer that if someone could prove the existence of supernatural powers they he would give them a million dollars. There would be a scientific test, third-party witnesses, measurements, double-blinding and whatever use was necessary to come to a definitive conclusion with terms and conditions agreed upon by the claimant before testing began so that the claimant could not then claim the test was biased or unfair. Pass your own test and win a million dollars. It is that simple.
The equivocations began almost immediately. He said that he wouldn't want the million dollars. "Fine," I said. "It's just an incentive. Give it away to charity. Tear up the check. Whatever you want. The test itself is the objective." He made a point of saying that he himself hadn't healed the person, that he was only acting as a conduit. "But you insisted that it was reproducible. If it can't be done again then there is no way to separate your claim from that of random chance." He quoted the bible some more.
Then he did something unexpected. He asked if there was anything wrong with my eyes. All weekend I was in one or another steampunk costume which included dark goggles. He wondered if I had some sort of light sensitivity because of the glasses and, even though he didn't say it outright, I believe that if I had some sort of vision disability that he was going to attempt a healing right then and there. Disappointingly, aside from needing some correction, I have perfectly healthy eyes. Maybe I should have challenged him to give me perfect vision. Divine Lasik.
In any case, he continued with asking if I lived in the area, as I saw it, his experiment was that he was going to have me come to his church for a month and his prayers would heal some family member of mine or some such. Either that or his constant evangelizing would turn me to his way of thinking. "No. I'm not going to come to your church. I am not a scientist and would likely be biased. I could not design a valid test. Go to James Randi. He has pros that will work it all out and do it right."
Even though he wrote it down, I don't expect Gary to actually contact The Amazing Randi and set up a challenge. As he is a regular, I expect to see him again next year. I wonder if he'll engage me then.
I was at one point harassed to enter the masquerade. I declined for a number of reasons. Firstly, I don't like doing the catwalk thing. Sure, I can get up on a stage in front of a crowd of people to do a presentation or to challenge some religious zealot or even sing in Klingon but there is something about the masquerade performance that makes me uncomfortable. It is a wholly unreasonable reaction. Secondly, I won two years ago and my impression of the judging is that everyone gets an award at Millennicon, even if they have to make up a category. And, with that, the first prize is also more likely to go to someone that hadn't won before. Thirdly, I don't think my costumes are really all that great. Sure, I get a lot of attention and every time I see Captain LaGrange he acts like what I do puts him to shame but most of what I do is off the rack. Some bits an pieces are made and they are combined to great effect but I don't make my costume as much as assemble it. I think a costume contest should reward those who truly make.
I only purchased two books. Mike Resnick's "The Buntline Special" which I had head reasonably good things about, and Mark Hodder's "The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack" which I had read a review of the night before that shared my disappointment in George Mann's "The Affinity Bridge." I didn't buy the Hodder's sequel "The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man" figuring I should read the first book first and actually decide if the second is worth it and also, the Dealer will be in Pittsburgh in July so I'm sure I'll be able to pick it up easily enough then.
I caught a cold and sore throat at the con. Thanks for sharing.
