Philcon 2023

     Friday, November 17, 2023: During this time of year, I went to the Philadelphia Science Fiction Conference (Philcon), Double Tree by Hilton, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Again, as in other years, I lived close enough to commute there for each of the three days. So I didn’t have to stay at the hotel. Therefore, after I registered, I visited 1) the Dealers’ Room. Here, over 50% of the dealers sold reading materials of books, magazines, comic books, and fanzines. The rest of the dealers sold other merchandise: jewelry, costumes, and other accessories, as well as t-shirts, tote bags, games, and so forth. Then, I visited 2) the Con Suite that supplied snack foods and soft drinks as well as chances to talk with other science fiction (SF) fans while overlooking the traffic down on Route 70. Soon it was time for me to get down to the mezzanine level and attend my first panel, 3) How the Heck Do I Do This? Diane Kovalcin and Alex Welsher ran this panel to help anyone who needed help with his or her costume. That night, they talked about quilting, hall costumes vs. masquerade costumes, what fabrics worked best, and advised someone about fixing her prop spear. Next door, 4) Money, Morals, and Financial AI included a panel of the following people: Ian Randal Strock, Jeff Warner, and Gil Cnaan. This panel asked: What should be regulated? What kind of AI could make us poorer? The panel did mention that there were still things that humans could do that AI couldn’t, especially in some forms of creativity. Meanwhile, according to some people in the field, the biggest fear we have had from AIs was the reactions humans had from getting false information and acting on it. Back down on the main floor, I listened in on 5) CisLunar Orbits and Lunar Bases: What’s Coming Next? where Bob Hranek, Ed the Engineer, Tobias Cabral, Earl Bennett, and Cosplay Joe defined CisLunar Orbits (the volume of space lying between the Earth and the Moon or the Moon’s orbit). Then they discussed going back to the Moon; about the costs of these space efforts by government and private companies; and about people living, working, and visiting in space as well as the Moon. This led to the next panel: 6) What Skills Do Space Explorers Need? These panelists, Tobias Cabral, Lawrence Kramer, Dr. Jim Prego, and LJ Cohan talked about how future astronauts would have to be multi-skilled. In addition to being skilled in piloting, different sciences, and engineering, those explorers would also have to know how to do ordinary repairs in the ship, certain medical skills, psychology, even the arts—for moral. They would also have to know farming, especially in hydroponics, for food. By the time the colonies in space, on the Moon, or on Mars became more established, other groups could be specialists in a lesser number of skills. 

     Saturday, November 18: In case anybody noticed, my favorite program tracks involved space science, costuming, art, and other subjects--in that order. On Philcon’s busiest day, I started by sitting in on this panel: 7) Nuclear Fusion: Stars in a Bottle. Here, the panel, Ed the Engineer, John Ashmead, and Earl Bennett, defined fusion, mentioned how failure could be a learning experience, the care & feeding of plasma, how the moon has plenty of Helium 3 for fuel, and other similar subjects. The next event had James L. Cambias covering this subject: 8) Designing for Inclusivity in Orbit and Beyond. This would be a very important subject because in addition to people who had disabilities before going into space, healthy people could also develop some health problems in space due to no gravity. Meanwhile, future astronauts may also have to learn to read in Braille—in case the lights on the space ship went out. Therefore, the labels in the ship and any instructions could also be in Braille. Sign language would be another needed skill in the event of the ship being too noisy to hear one another. Finally, we were reminded that all humans have been at a disadvantage in space because they needed oxygen up there and radiation shielding. Still in the subject of space, 9) Inge Heyer showed us updates on Space Science via her PowerPoint presentation. Much of it compared the two space telescopes: Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Besides comparing the two telescopes and their abilities, we also saw the pictures that the HST took of the cosmos compared with the much more detailed images that the JWST took. It was very impressive! Inge Heyer also talked about future missions and about the April 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. Before going to dinner, I attended one more event: 10) AI in Science Fiction, Before and After ChatGPT. Thus, Jon McGoran, Jennifer Povey, Storm Humbert, and Rebecca Robare mentioned that many SF stories had themes dealing with AIs, but how far have AIs advanced in the real world? How would this affect future SF stories? As for AI taking over, some people said, “Cut the power.” This panel also covered the recent script writers’ strike and of how people have already been disappointed with AI in other fields from the arts to self-checkout in stores. One of the advantages to AI: It could do simple jobs that would be long and boring for humans.

     Saturday night: I went to the 11) Art Show room where, as in other years, fantasy dominated over SF and space by about three-quarters, and the same percentage applied to paintings and drawings over other kinds of art: sculptures, jewelry, tote bags, holiday decorations, etc. Nevertheless, I came here to mainly see a Speed Painting Demo. Using acrylic paint, the artist Guest of Honor, Rob Carlos, first added some background colors to the canvas before he drew a sun on the background. He then drew a dragon as the main subject by first drawing an outline and shape of the dragon before adding details—and he did this within an hour. After this, I never tried to miss the next event: 12) the Masquerade. Although there were only 10 costume entries, two of them wore SF costumes: a boy as an astronaut, and a man as a Buzzard Ramjet. The two costumes that impressed me the most, however, were a woman in a light-blue lame gown and another woman in a mostly red and gold colored Empire-styled gown. I also stayed around to see some SF, fantasy, and horror film trailers before the judges awarded the costumers. Thus, the judges gave awards in different categories: young fan (under 13), novice (never won in a masquerade), journeymen (won a minor prize in a past masquerade), master (won three minor prizes or a major prize in past masquerades), and best of show (or best costume overall).  

     Sunday, November 19: Things started winding down on this day. Anyway, similar to the last few years, during this weekend, Philcon had a multi-track program of different subjects to listen in on, take part in, or just watch involving SF, fantasy, horror, and science, as well as readings by authors, gaming, anime videos, and parties. SF fans were free to be as active or inactive as they wanted. For this day, I chose to go to a panel called 13) Solarpunk and the Livable Future. Here, Ed the Engineer and John Monahan tried to find some positive stuff about the future despite the doom & gloom that others predicted. They mentioned SF stories that presented a better future, especially stories that described a more sustainable future. Someone quoted the popular saying “Think globally. Act locally.” Among the subjects these two men covered included energy saving, urban gardening, hybrid & electric cars, and that currently more people have been employed in wind and solar energy than in coal mining. There have been more LED lights and 3-D printers, but more needed to be done. The next panel 14) Generative “AI”: Limitations and Liabilities, Bob Hranek, Nate Hoffelder, John Ashmead, Neil Clarke, and Rebecca Robare discussed machine learning, what it could and couldn’t do, and that ChatGPT could only do one level of a story compared to a good human writer who could write on different levels. Somebody then suggested that if you gave an AI a “nonsense” question, it could destroy it. They also suspected that some humans would misuse AI no matter what. At my final panel, 15) This is How You Lose the Space Race, Cosplay Joe, Ed the Engineer, Tobias Cabral, and Earl Bennett talked about this week’s launch, things that went wrong with different launches in the past, why space centers have been in certain parts of the USA, about NASA and private space companies, and spaceships that landed up right “like God and Robert Heinlein intended spaceships to land.” Overall, we have not been losing the space race, we have been in an “inter race.” Anyway, the question has been—where do we go and how do we go to the Moon, Mars, and beyond? How do we define winning? Finally before going home, the 16) Feedback Session included some members of the Philcon staff who answered questions, listened to suggestions, comments, and complaints that SF fans told them. There were some things beyond the committee’s control, but what they could change for the better, they would.