OryCon 44: Full Schedule

Welcome to the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time schedule for OryCon 44! Seriously - we’re still hard at work on the schedule, but we want to give you an idea of what wonders await you in just a few more weeks. Please check back frequently for changes and additions, and see you in October!

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9:00am PDT

William J. Clancey: Zylerium Blindness

Saturday October 19, 2024 9:00am - 9:50am PDT

Mt Hood

A Cold War Science Fiction Case Study in Comprehensive Design “Zylerium Blindness” is a short story written during the Cold War about how nuclear explosions created an element, Zylerium, causing global congenital blindness. Authored by Thomas B. Sheridan and John E. Arnold, pioneers in “design thinking” and “human engineering,” this case study for students demonstrates the methods and challenges of “comprehensive design.” Humanity must deal with groupthink and social conformity, which inhibit personal integrity, responsibility, and imagination and thus impair creative problem solving.

Moderators

G. David Nordley

Saturday October 19, 2024 9:00am - 9:50am PDT
Mt Hood

EVENTS (SOLO)

10:00am PDT

Robert N. Tyzzer: Metalaw in Anthropology and Cultural Futures

Saturday October 19, 2024 10:00am - 10:50am PDT

Mt Hood

Where Are We in2024? Metalaw developed about 60 years ago as a proposed legal system that would serve to mediate contacts between any and all intelligent species, whether on Earth or elsewhere in the universe. This talk with discuss the current status of Metalaw, including Haley’s Rule, within the social sciences, speculative fiction and, increasingly, SETI.

Moderators

G. David Nordley

Saturday October 19, 2024 10:00am - 10:50am PDT
Mt Hood

EVENTS (SOLO)

11:00am PDT

SETI Observables of Interstellar Beam Propulsion Systems

Saturday October 19, 2024 11:00am - 11:50am PDT

Mt Hood

What would the operation of beam-driven interstellar propulsion systems look like to observers on other stars? If it's coming right at you, you might see the beam, as in The Mote in Gods Eye, but if we assume many starships departing in random directions, the originating star system might look like it were surrounded by a faint halo, about a light year in radius. Why, and how to look for it will be explained.

Moderators

G. David Nordley

Saturday October 19, 2024 11:00am - 11:50am PDT
Mt Hood

EVENTS (SOLO)

1:00pm PDT

David D. Levine Reading

Saturday October 19, 2024 1:00pm - 1:50pm PDT

Holladay

Guest of Honor David D. Levine reads from his works.

Panelists

David D. Levine

David D. Levine is the author of Norton Award winning novel Arabella of Mars (Tor 2016), sequels Arabella and the Battle of Venus (Tor 2017) and Arabella the Traitor of Mars (Tor 2018), and over fifty science fiction and fantasy stories. His story “Tk’Tk’Tk” won the Hugo... Read More →

Saturday October 19, 2024 1:00pm - 1:50pm PDT
Holladay

EVENTS (SOLO)

3:00pm PDT

Gregg Barr: Building a Carrying Capacity Model for the Solar Ecosystem

Saturday October 19, 2024 3:00pm - 3:50pm PDT

Mt Hood

Building a Carrying Capacity Model for the Solar Ecosystem and Examining a Technique to Encapsulate an Asteroid to Build Almost Anything in Space Imagining big, how large a population could the Solar System support? There are models, as Greg Barr will explain. One way to build a world-ship might be to encapsulate an appropriate asteroid with all the resources, and reaction mass, to sustain an interstellar journey, or settle the outer reaches of the solar system. We'll explore Dr. Bruce Damer's Secure Handling by Encapsulation of a Planetesimal (SHEP) concept.

Moderators

G. David Nordley

Saturday October 19, 2024 3:00pm - 3:50pm PDT
Mt Hood

EVENTS (SOLO)

4:00pm PDT

P.J. Boston: Transport of Life and Biosignatures Across the Solar System and Beyond

Saturday October 19, 2024 4:00pm - 4:50pm PDT

Mt Hood

What interplanetary and interstellar mechanisms exist that could transport microbial or other lifeforms across our Solar System or between systems, and what are the limits to survivability for organisms hitching a ride from one planetary body to another? With recent identification of interstellar objects observed passing through our system, speculations about cross-fertilization between Earth and Mars, and the prospects for ancient Earth life biosignatures to be found on the Moon, it is fruitful to take a hard look at the destructive and protective factors that such space-going organisms and their traces will face. What can we really expect to find, and how do we rigorously investigate these intriguing possibilities?

Moderators

G. David Nordley

Saturday October 19, 2024 4:00pm - 4:50pm PDT
Mt Hood

EVENTS (SOLO)

6:00pm PDT

The Northern Lights: Silk of the Gods

Saturday October 19, 2024 6:00pm - 6:50pm PDT

Mt St Helens

Imagine the night sky shimmering in an ever-changing tapestry of light. Dr. Torley takes you on a fascinating celestial field trip to enjoy their shapes and colors here on Earth, and on other planets in the Solar System.

Moderators

Roy Torley

Saturday October 19, 2024 6:00pm - 6:50pm PDT
Mt St Helens

EVENTS (SOLO)

7:00pm PDT

The Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington Earth; and Mars

Saturday October 19, 2024 7:00pm - 7:50pm PDT

Mt St Helens

Ancient floods on Mars left their marks deeply etched into the planet’s surface. Canyons bigger than the Grand Canyon, dry riverbeds, deltas, and huge sandbars suggest to us that Mars had a lot of water and that it flowed with a vengeance. We see something amazingly similar in southeastern Washington, in the Channeled Scablands. Dr. Torley takes you on a tour to do some interesting planetary geology on Earth and its sister planet, Mars.

Moderators

Roy Torley

Saturday October 19, 2024 7:00pm - 7:50pm PDT
Mt St Helens

EVENTS (SOLO)

7:00pm PDT

Israel Zuckerman: COTI Cultures of the Imagination

Saturday October 19, 2024 7:00pm - 9:50pm PDT

Mt Hood

Alien Development – PART 2 of 3 Participants will begin to design an integrated world, alien and its way of life. They will construct a world and its ecology, an intelligent native life form and its culture, basing each step on the previous one and utilizing the principles of science as a guide to imagination. They will finish this design at the Saturday session and conclude on Sunday in a live action roleplay of the meeting of the two alien cultures.

Moderators

G. David Nordley

Saturday October 19, 2024 7:00pm - 9:50pm PDT
Mt Hood

EVENTS (SOLO)