Worldcon 2025: Valentine's Day.

Finally, it all successfully comes together for my quest to get a signature at Worldcon from science fiction legend Robert Silverberg. 

The autograph session is scheduled from 3:00 to 4:00. At 2:30 I leave a disappointing talk on the Europa Clipper mission by Space Guest of Honour Bridget Landry, who spent the first fifteen minutes of her allotted hour eating lunch and answering questions with her mouth full, and the next 15 minutes waiting for someone to run back to her hotel room and find the USB stick with her presentation slides, and hurriedly take the escalator down to the third floor autograph venue.

It makes me a little nervous to see that there's already a substantial lineup, and that one of the people in line has a dolly with a couple of storage boxes on it, presumably filled with copies of Silverberg's books.  I quickly get in line and do some math: there's about 30 people in front of me, the autograph session is scheduled for about an hour, hopefully most people don't take much more than a minute - I should be fine, provided that the 90-year-old man of the hour arrives on time and stays the course for the full sixty minutes.

A Worldcon volunteer makes their way along the line, offering Post-It™ notes for people to write out any personalized salutations in advance, and announcing that Mr. Silverberg will be signing a maximum of three books. (Presumably to the disappointment of Mr. Dolly.)  I'm good - I have the hard cover first edition of Lord Valentine's Castle that I ordered online and the paperback copy that I found in Vancouver, along with a trade paperback version of Science Fiction 101, his combined textbook/reminiscence/anthology.  I have other Silverberg books in my collection, but they were not in ideal condition, and I felt oddly embarrassed to show up with something the worse for wear for a signature.

The line begins to move - presumably someplace around the corner, Mr. Silverberg has made his arrival.  We move along at a decent pace, until he comes into view.  The person behind me in line comments that Silverberg looks to be in a good mood, an issue which hadn't occurred to me.  Apparently he was less friendly at the 2024 Glasgow Worldcon, due to a bad flight experience and time zone issues. 

Once my turn comes, there are no problems, and Silverberg is affable and cheerful, if a bit businesslike:  after all, he has a lot of signatures to get through.  He carefully signs my three books, and consents to a photo:

I give him my sincere thanks, leave the line, and return my books to their protective wrapping, hopefully I can get them home without any mishaps or damage.

And finally, the result:

Thanks again, Robert - I hope you continue to attend Worldcon for many years to come.

- Sid

Worldcon: Interlude.

"I am definitely gonna die up here ... if I have to listen to any more of Commander Lewis's god-awful disco music." 

Mark Watney, The Martian 

It's the end of Day 2 at Worldcon, and I'm relaxing in my VRBO rental unit.  Unlike a lot of the VRBO/AirBnb units I've stayed at, it actually has a decent sized TV, so I've hooked up my laptop (like any good geek I always pack an HDMI cable, just in case) and I'm watching The Martian.

One of the running gags in the plot is that castaway Mark Watney, the reluctant hero of the story, is forced to rely on his commander's terrible 70s media collection for entertainment: disco music and Happy Days. (If memory serves, in the book he also reads Johanssen's collection of mystery novels.)

But wait - where's Watney's personal media library?  I can't imagine that he left for a lengthy Mars mission* without something in terms of personal entertainment.  To help establish a baseline, I'm on a six day trip, and whereas I didn't add anything to my media, that's because I didn't need to.  I have most of my music collection on my iPhone: that's 5,871 songs, which, based on a three and a half minute average song length, works out to about 342 hours of music.  That's more or less 14 days of nonstop 24/7 listening.  I also have 453 e-books on my phone - including The Martian - and about 100 hours of video on my iPad and MacBook combined, based on different movie and TV program lengths.  

Digital storage is increasingly small and cheap - why would Watney not take every song he's ever enjoyed, every movie he's ever even thought about watching, and the contents of the Congressional Library in digital format?

I know, it's because it's funnier, but it's an unexpected plot hole considering the strict science of the rest of the storyline.

- Sid

*The book has the trip taking 124 days one-way with an ion drive propelling the Hermes.

Worldcon 2025: Better Living Through Science.

All the breakout spaces at the Summit Convention Centre are equipped with digital displays, presumably intended to inform attendees as to the programming taking place in the room.  

Is it ironic that a convention whose theme is the future has to resort to printed schedules posted outside the doors? 

- Sid