For those of you attending Arisia next month in Boston, the schedule is up and I’m on it. I’m going to be pretty busy and probably not available to go out to dinner (have I mentioned how excited I am about the food trucks? SUCH a good idea), but I expect to enjoy the heck out of it. Here are my scheduled panels:

Saturday

Critiquing Someone Else’s Work — Writing, Panel — 1hr 15min — Bulfinch (3W) 10:00am

So you’ve joined a writers’ group! It can be a big aid to writing, not only in the critiques you get, but in those you give. Still, there are pitfalls. What are some of the ways that critiques can go wrong, or right?

Let’s Rule the Universe! — Literature, Panel — 1hr 15min — Faneuil (3W) 8:30pm

The galactic-spanning empire is one of the most common and long-lasting tropes in speculative fiction. How would such an empire actually work? Could communication ever be instantaneous? How would economics develop? These panelists will poke at the practical worldbuilding issues of such empires while citing classic literature and media examples.

Sunday

Sherlock Showdown — Media, Panel — 1hr 15min — Paine (2) 1:00pm

Sherlock on the BBC. Elementary on CBS. And Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes movies. Three high-profile adaptations. But who’s the best Sherlock? The top Watson? The most menacing Moriarty? We’ll talk about what makes all three very different takes so entertaining.

How to Disagree Better — Fan Interest, Panel — 1hr 15min — Douglas (3W) 5:30pm

Someone is wrong on the Internet! Discussion of new and sometimes challenging ideas, is one of the hallmarks of fandom and any free society. We can do a better job of arguing and disagreeing with each other. How do we do this? What tools do we have for sorting out those arguments and finding where the areas of agreement might be hiding? This is not a plea for everyone to agree, this is about how to disagree honestly and respectfully, in ways that allow us to remain a community.

Computers, Internet, and Human Memory — Science, Panel — 1hr 15min — Bulfinch (3W) 8:30pm

The priests of Mnemosyne used to complain that the new fad of writing was destroying students’ abilities to memorize epic poetry. Today, we cannot remember dozens of peoples’ phone numbers, as we always call or text them by name. Search engines give us answers so easily, we don’t seem to remember anything ourselves. Or is the whole situation weirder than that?