CONvergence Schedule

[mmerriam]

Friday:

 Signing

Venue: Autograph Table
Start: 2:00 pm   End: 3:00 pm
About: Dana Baird, Michael Merriam and Joel Arnold
Panelist(s): Michael Merriam, Joel Arnold, Dana Baird

MinnSpec Meeting

Venue: Cabana 118
 Start: 5:00 pm   End: 6:00 pm
About: Come learn about this resource for local aspiring science ficiton and fantasy writers.
Panelist(s): Hilary Moon Murphy, Michael Merriam

 

Saturday:

 Reading

Venue: Vista Suite
Start: 11:00 am   End: 12:00 pm
About: The author of "Shimmers & Shadows" reads from of his work.
Panelist(s): Michael Merriam

Disabilities in Science Fiction

Venue: Cabana 118
Start: 12:30 pm   End: 1:30 pm
About: Looking at the disabled through the lens of science-fiction - or do handicapped Captains get better parking places in space dock? What will we consider to be a disability if blindness is cured ala La Forge's visor?
Panelist(s): Michael Merriam, Elise Matthesen, Betsy Lundsten
 

 

Sunday

Writing Workshop For Teens

Venue: Vista Suite
Start: 12:30 pm   End: 1:30 pm
About: Michael Merriam will give some tips and tricks for young writers just getting started. The focus will be on the basics of story and story construction with some time for Q & A. As the name suggests, this panel is meant for younger attendees.
Panelist(s): Michael Merriam (mod)
 

 The Twin Cities School

Venue: Atrium 8
Start: 3:30 pm   End: 4:30 pm
About: The Cities have produced a lot of professional writers. Is there something in the water? Is it the great fans and built-in audience? Is it Dreamhaven and Uncle Hugo's? The Loft? What? Join area writers as they talk about the local SF & F scene.
Panelist(s): Kelly McCullough, Hilary Moon Murphy, Michael Merriam, Ruth Bermam

Comments

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I'll have to bring that story up at the panel!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Should be out in 2010...

In the story, he has implants attached to his optic nerve (a small computer inside each eyeball) along with contact-lens-mounted cameras. This technology is only mundane SF, though, since it's actually been tested by a handful of people in Germany for short periods. (Not together, though--the contacts are newer than the implant.) The implants were tested with a glasses-mounted camera with a battery pack.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

We saw a documentary or something about the glasses-and-implant combo. At that time, the resulting image was just a series of dots, which formed shapes. The subject could "see" a line of dots, but they wouldn't know if that line represented the edge of a book or the edge of a building. The subjects were clearly disappointed, even though they had been warned that this was not going to be real vision, they had unrealistic hopes. It was a very interesting program.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Sadly, this technology is years away from being usable in humans, and from what I recall of the German tests, they were only left in for a month at a time....

It is a cool concept, though. They've now come out with contacts with the camera powered by a solar cell in the lens, which would cut down on the bulk of glasses and a battery pack.

The detective in my story can't see normally, and has a facial recognition program built into the implant that assists him in recognizing people. (They actually developed one over a decade ago to assist people who have short-term memory problems....it scrolls the person's identity constantly across the field of vision so that the wearer can remember to whom they're speaking)