bcholmes | WisCon panels

This year, at WisCon, I'm breaking out of the trans ghetto. I'm on two panels, neither of which is trans-related:

Food in a Post-Oil Economy:

In Danny Boyle's SF movie epic Sunshine, the spaceship crew dine on eggs and fresh vegetables grown in their "oxygen garden," in stark contrast to the algae or food cubes seen in most space fiction. The production of food in a post-oil economy has many similarities to the task of feeding space travelers with minimum resources. SF offers MREs and meals-in-a-pill as well as greenhouse space ships. Here on Earth we've got dirt, grass and stock farming, the symbiosis of hydroponics and aquaculture in aquaponics, integrated pest management and other permaculture techniques. What can we take from SF to help our current food issues, and how can we use our experience with sustainable urban agriculture to navigate a path to the future?

This panel feels like it can go in a number of directions. On the one hand, it can be used to talk about the entirely unsustainable food production processes that we currently operate under. I think it'd be interesting to discuss the economics of food, and the relationship between free trade and food sovereignty.

My fear is that the description will get the panel into "science can only make food production better!" Which is an assertion that I'm not sure the evidence supports.

Marxism and Beyond: Assembling a Class Discussion Toolkit:

Talking about class at WisCon is hard. Where should we start? What can we say? Sometimes this discussion goes horribly wrong—how can we avoid that?

Heh. Have I mentioned that my co-workers all call me a communist? I don't actually self-identify as a communist, although I have a lot of pinko tendencies. Again, this panel could go into a lot of interesting territory. I'm a bit nervous of getting too much into theoretical discussions of Marxism. I've been dying for more discussion about the consequences of globalization on worldwide capital distribution.