What I'm Doing at Boskone

Boskone, the Boston-area SF convention that Kate and I go to every year, is the weekend after next. Once again, I'll be doing a few panels and one talk. For those who might be attending, or who care about this for some reason, here's my preliminary schedule:

Saturday10am Physics: What We Don't Understand

Geoffrey A. Landis

Mark L. Olson

Chad Orzel

Karl Schroeder

Ian Tregillis

In 1999 John Cramer wrote a column in Analog describing seven big
unsolved problems in physics (including the nature of dark matter,
the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, and the origin of the
arrow of time). Today, in 2008, three of these problems have been
solved. We'll talk about the seven problems, the three which have
been solved, our current understanding of the rest, and perhaps add
some new problems to the list.

Saturday11am Quantum Physics: Many Worlds?

Chad Orzel

Sunday 11am Is Science Addicted to Randomness?

Greg Bear (M)

Jeff Hecht

Geoffrey A. Landis

Chad Orzel

Well, is it? If so, why? And when is "random" not so??

Sunday 12noon Global Warming: Facts and Myths, (and all that jazz)

Vince Docherty

James Morrow

Mark L. Olson

Chad Orzel (M)

Last year the sea ice grew, reversing a trend. Global warming is
proven, but how bad can it be, really? And would it be so terrible
to someday have no snow for Boskone?

This seems like a pretty fun slate of stuff. The Saturday morning talk is meant to be a quickie version of the recent discussions here, about what Many-Worlds really says, and how it's been (mis)used in science fiction. I'd give a more precise description, but I have yet to make one up...

So, anyway, that's my preliminary schedule. Comments and suggestions are welcome (I'll probably put up a separate thread asking for global warming information, because it's not my usual thing.)