io9: conference

Exploring the Literary Implications of Dr. Manhattan's Glowing Blue Junk

Lauren Davis — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:30:00 PDT

Do you spend hours analyzing the moral philosophy of Watchmen, the multicultural occultism of Promethea, or what Lost Girls says about storytelling and human sexuality? Consider submitting a paper to an upcoming academic conference on the work of Alan Moore.

Nathan Wiseman-Trowse, Senior Lecturer in Popular Culture at the University of Northampton, is currently soliciting papers for the conference "Magus: Transdisciplinary Approaches to the Work of Alan Moore." In his call for papers, Wiseman-Trowse asserts that academic explorations of Moore's works have thus far been fragmentary, and that the conference will be the first academic event dedicated to discussing Moore's literary and cultural contributions. Topics he is looking to cover include:

* Comic revisionism and the graphic novel
* Comics and literature
* The political philosophy of Moore's canon
* Moore's relationship to the mainstream comic industry
* Adaptations of Moore's work to screen and other media
* Psychogeography and place in Moore's work
* Magick and spirituality
* Site-specific events
* Pornography and erotica in Moore's work
* Fandom and reception
* The underground press
* Collaborations and networks
* Music and musical collaborations
* Intertextuality and referentiality

If you've got an insight on Moore you're dying to share, submit an abstract of 300 words or less to Nathan Wiseman-Trowse by December 4th. The conference itself will be held at the University of Northampton on May 28th and 29th, 2010.

Call for Papers: Magus: Transdisciplinary Approaches to the Work of Alan Moore [via Forbidden Planet]

The Science of Explosions

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:30:00 PDT

Want to know why a car bomb leaves behind a unique signature in the damage it inflicts? You can learn that and more at O'Reilly's Etech Conference, starting today in San Jose.

Etech stands for Emerging Technology, and every year tech publisher O'Reilly brings together an amazing and startling collection of speakers who represent the cutting edge of science and tech innovation. Even explosion innovation: Chemistry researcher Christa Hockensmith will be visiting from New Mexico Tech's Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (AKA the Explosion Lab) to talk about the latest breakthroughs in explosion science. There will also be talks from synthetic biologist Drew Endy, game theorist Jane McGonigal, scifi author Maureen McHugh, hacker David Molnar, and io9 co-conspirator Lisa Katayama.

I was on the programming committee for Etech this year, which is partly why I'm pimping it: I've looked over all the talks and after-hours goodies and I know it's going to be a rip-roaring geek time. io9 readers get a special 10% discount off the cost of the conference if you use this special code: et09io9. And if you can't afford the cost of the conference, there are evening events that are open to the public.

Hope to see you at Etech, and if you can't make it, I'll write about some of it here so you can get the scoop.

Etech Conference

Image by Paul Shambroom.

Science Fiction, Technology, and Porn in San Francisco, Starting Tomorrow

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:26:16 PDT

Well, pretty much every day in San Francisco is filled with scifi, tech and porn, but this weekend is special. Arse Elektronika, the notorious techno-porn event imported from pervvy Vienna, is starting tomorrow night with a bang. This year, the conference theme is "Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep?" I'll be a host for the opening night techno-porno award ceremony tomorrow at CELLSpace (doors at 7; show at 8). I'll be teaching you the dos and don'ts of science fiction sex — with video illustrations, of course.

And on Friday and Saturday, there are all-day events devoted to analyzing (yes, analyzing) the crossovers between sex, science, and science fiction. Featuring luminaries like Rudy Rucker, Carol Queen, Richard Kadrey, Constance Penley, and more! Come Thursday night to mingle and party. Come Friday and Saturday to grow a new brain in your pants. [Arse Elektronika]

Last Chance to Submit Ideas to the Etech Conference!

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:00:00 PDT

Every year, geeky idea factory O'Reilly puts on a great conference called Emerging Technology, fondly known as Etech. There you'll hear from scientists, engineers, futurists, investors, writers and artists about what's coming next for humans living in an increasingly high-tech world. The theme of this year's conference is "abundance and constraints," which could be interpreted a lot of ways — everything from creating sci/tech that works within environmental constraints, to building networks in places without power. And much more. The deadline to submit proposals and ideas to conference organizers is tomorrow at midnight. I'm on the planning committee for Etech this year, so I encourage all you visionaries, inventors, mad scientists, and sci/tech pundits to submit an idea to us! Etech takes place in March 2009, in Silicon Valley. [Submit to Etech!]

We Are Tracking Your Every Movement, But In a Fun Way

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:34:08 PDT

Want to find out when your gadgets will start following you around, and how easy it will be for you to do "reality mining" to find your friends by tracking their cell signals on Google maps? Then head out to Burlingame, CA today and tomorrow for O'Reilly's annual Where 2.0 conference. I've been to this conference several years in a row, and it's always packed with weird futuristic technologies for tracking locations and creating awesome maps. Basically, it's about turning the real world into something you can access online in real time. Conference organizer Brady Forrest says, "I think that you can find a scifi angle in almost every segment of the conference."

During the conference, Brady says two companies will be testing out their reality mining fu: Path Intelligence will be tracking people in sponsor sessions with their phones, and BlueBall will be tracking people with bluetooth. (OK how cool is it that there's something called BlueBall?) There will also be sessions on crowd simulation, virtual worlds, Eye-Fi (gadgets that know where you are), Earthscape's augmented reality display (with helicopter demo!), plus cool new world-mapping announcements from Google, Microsoft, Earthmine and Everyscape.

Can't make it down today? Stop by the Where Fair tonight. Lots of demos and friendly fun.

Where 2.0 [conference schedule]

Will We Hold Robots Accountable for War Crimes?

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:00:57 PST

Now that the military is using autonomous surveillance/combat robots created by iRobot, the company behind the Roomba robot vacuum, a strange question emerges: What do we do if a robot commits a war crime? This isn't idle speculation. An automated anti-aircraft cannon's friendly fire killed nine soldiers in South Africa last year, and computer scientists speculate that as more weapons (and aircraft) are robot-controlled that we'll need to develop new definitions of war crimes. In fact, the possibility of robot war crimes is the subject of a panel at an upcoming conference at Stanford.

The conference, called Technology in Wartime (caveat: I'm helping to organize it), will feature a panel of expert roboticists and ethicists dealing with what happens when mobile, autonomous robots become soldiers — and have the potential to malfunction catastrophically. Ronald Arkin from Georgia Tech's mobile robots lab will be speaking, as well as Rutgers techno-ethicist Peter Asaro.

Other panels at the conference will deal with recent government research into cyberterrorism, as well as ways that human rights and civil liberties workers are using sneaky software to aid dissidents in war-torn countries. Featured speakers include computer security hero Bruce Schneier, EFF's legal director Cindy Cohn, e-voting expert and former ACM president Barbara Simons, human rights software crusader Patrick Ball, National Academy of Science's Herb Lin, Danger Room's Noah Shachtman, and sly computer security expert (and Sarah Connor Chronicles hater) Kevin Poulsen.

The conference is open to the public (entrance fee gets you free lunch, a t-shirt, and serves as a donation to nonprofit Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility). Students get in cheap! There's still time to register if you want to come. Technology in Wartime [conference site]