I enjoyed Capclave. It’s a science-fiction convention in Maryland put on by the Washington Science Fiction Association. I did a talk on space law that had a good number of people turn up. Someone who used to work at NASA as an engineer was in the audience, and everyone else seemed keen on the topic. One person even took notes. I was impressed.
I spoke from Powerpoint slides about the three U.S. regulatory agencies, the FAA, the FCC, and NOAA. I talked the most about the FAA, because that’s where my war stories come from. I showed cool pictures of launch and reentry vehicles, and talked about how we blow things up for safety in the U.S. For the second half I took questions. People were interested in how future space activities will be regulated (this is right outside DC, after all), what happens if a commercial company wants to put up a nuclear reactor, things like that. I had even dropped all the insurance information from my slides, because, really, it was 8 p.m. on a Friday night. Would anyone want to hear about insurance? Sure enough, there was a lawyer in the audience, so we had a good chat about how launch operators have to buy insurance.
I got to attend an author reading, and a panel on how science fiction has reflected its times over the past few decades. One person observed how the XMen mutants were intended to reflect oppressed minorities. Another panelist commented that she’d heard that Magneto was supposed to represent Malcom X, and Professor Xavier represented Martin Luther King. Going further back in time, the panelists made the usual points about 1950’s science fiction representing a sense of optimism about technology.
What I appreciated, however, was the fact that a couple of panelists wished for a return to less dark societies. They wanted the optimism of Star Trek’s happy future to make a come back. None spoke of what Sarah Hoyt calls the “human wave,” but I think that’s what they were looking for. It was a welcome sign.
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