So, I guess it is just as well that Can-Con was only three days, for as long as it has taken me to get to writing this post. (Sigh. Can-Con was in early September.)

(My posts on Day 1 and Day 2, if you missed them.)

Sunday morning! I was at the convention at 10am for “Designing Habitats for the Clouds of Venus” with Eric Choi, Jean-Louis Trudel, Gillian Clinton, and Brent Nichols, with Andrew Barton moderating. (There were a whole bunch of other people there, too.  It was very well attended for something so early.)

This was such a good discussion, with so much knowledge shared by the panelists. It began with Andrew posing the question of why Venus, given it’s hostile environment, and the attachment to Mars as a location for colonization. The discussion then moved on to the details of what a settlement for Venus might consider (NASA has concept work on this – High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) — available).

Next, I went to the panel on Bodies of Difference: Disability in Spec Fic with Rebecca Simkin, Hayden Trenholm, Ada Hoffmann, Cathy Hird, and Madona Skaff. Derek Newman-Stile was the moderator. There were a lot of interesting points raised in this discussion and the panelists all brought different perspectives to it and Derek did a wonderful job moderating.

Then there was another panel, this one called “Not All Antagonists Are Created Equal” moderated by Matt Moore, with Julie Czerneda, Erik Scott de Bie, Gregory A. Wilson, and Nina Munteanu. This was a winding, but intriguing discussion. Again, the panelists all had great contributions.

Following that was “Can Mathematics be the Basis for Hard Science Fiction?” with James Alan Gardner, Eric Choi, and Derek Künsken, with Shiela Williams moderating. This was awesome. So many ideas! Really fascinating possibilities and lots of added reading material after this.

And the final thing I went to was an absolutely awesome presentation by Dr Phillip Kaye on Terrestrial and Space-Borne Quantum Cryptography. I knew the basics of cryptography and quantum computing, but this added a great deal to my understanding.

So. That’s it! The whole conference was wonderful and I can’t wait for next year.