A single medium-sized asteroid can contain more gold and platinum than all of Earth. How do we keep the first giant hunk of space gold from crashing the world’s commodities markets? How might speculative technologies lead to creation of markets for asteroid resources?
Two academic talks: Bradford Lyau: Robert A. Heinlein: Radical Moderate and the Enlightenment Analyzing Robert A. Heinlein in light of recent revisions of the Enlightenment and studies analyzing Heinlein works. The different, often conflicting ideological slants used to describe Heinlein’s politics could be explained in part by this analysis. I will use Jonathan Israel’s recent… Continue reading Heinlein & Enlightenment; Asian Food Futures
Space law is a real, existing field of law, but it’s only beginning to touch on the complexity of property rights in space. The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies is the international treaty that addresses these issues,… Continue reading Real Estate in Space
Conflict and peacemaking, setting or altering territorial boundaries, regulating trade, resolving disputes of all kinds, the protection of citizens abroad, protection of investments and protection from exploitation, promises of cooperation and mutual assistance—most forms of diplomacy (and even the need for diplomacy at all) are predicated on close contact and rapid communication. How do you… Continue reading Sublight Diplomacy
Science fiction prototyping is a promising way of thinking about future societies in the VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) era. SF prototyping creates scenarios using workshops to activate the knowledge of multiple persons in a company, and to discuss how society should be by backcasting from a future image. We welcome distinguished researchers from… Continue reading Round Table on Business Innovation
Two academic talks: Hirotaka Osawa: SF Prototyping for Business Innovation SF prototyping is a business thinking method for utilizing science fiction narrative for making innovative ideas when considering the design of future societies. The method is getting famous in the US, China, and Japan. We compared it with conventional scenario planning in 9 groups, and… Continue reading The Future is Creating/Stealing Your Job
Practical barriers for creatives on the African continent include travel costs, visas, payment methods, conversation rates—not to mention failing electricity, high data costs, and PayPal not always working. Distinguished writers from the continent talk about the impact of practical problems, and if it gets better when you move to the West.
Legally speaking, whether you can buy or sell body parts in the U.S. is an extremely gray area. You can’t sell a human kidney… unless it’s pickled in a jar, in which case you can. Sort of. Sometimes. How do you convey this kind of semi-legality in your imagined world? This panel will discuss worldbuilding… Continue reading Writing “Gray” Markets
How can you, as a writer, effectively build a spacefaring civilization into your work? What parts of space empires can be directly extrapolated from world history, and what elements will you need that are unique to interstellar commerce, diplomacy, warfare, and lifestyles?
In the colonies of the future, who will be responsible for planning what the city looks like and how it develops? Is this a job for engineers, for the civil service, or someone else? What factors should be considered?
