Kategoriarkiv: avsnitt

Sweconpoddar 108 – 2019 Hugo Award Finalists

The panel explains what the Hugo is and introduces some of the finalists this year, both established writers and new names. You will get lots of reading tips.

This panel was recorded at Swecon 2019 – Replicon in Västerås Sweden

Participants: Carolina Gomez Lagerlöf, Tommy Persson, Britt-Louise Viklund, Marika, Jenny Bristle and Kisu Leikomaa (moderator)

The music is from Sands Of Time (Psychadelik Pedestrian) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Sweconpoddar 107 – Like any other machine?

Replicants and other artificial humans in fantastic fiction. General discussion on artificial humans in fantastic fiction, with examples. What are their unique properties? Strengths and weaknesses? Roles and rights in their respective societies? Their similarities to and differences from the ”real humans”? How can they (in fiction) tell who is a real human and who is not? How do they see their creators? And what does it mean to a human to have created a ”human”?

This panel was recorded at Swecon 2019 – Replicon in Västerås Sweden

Participants: Charlie Jane Anders, Jenny Bristle, Mattias Kuldkepp, Alex Haridi and Marcus Olausson (moderator)

The music is from Sands Of Time (Psychadelik Pedestrian) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Sweconpoddar 106 – Hedersgästintervju med Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén.

Hedersgästintervju med Gunilla Jonsson and Michael Petersén.

Detta samtal spelades in på Swecon 2019 – Replicon in Västerås

Medverkande: Gunilla Jonsson, Michael Petersén och Stefan Nordin. (moderator)

Musiken är från Sands Of Time (Psychadelik Pedestrian) / CC BY-NC 31

Sweconpoddar 105 – Future fandom

Fandom is very much about communication and and the exchange of ideas. It has moved from clubs and fanzines to the internet, but the conventions remain. What will happen in the future? Will we still meet? Will fandom be more or less organised? Will everything be available in our phones, or perhaps directly in our brains? Here is room for wild speculations.

This panel was recorded at Swecon 2019 – Replicon in Västerås Sweden

Participants: Nahal Ghanbari, Kisu Leikomaa, Marika, Joakim Mäki and Håkan Wester (moderator)

The music is from Sands Of Time (Psychadelik Pedestrian) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Sweconpoddar 104 – Between Stasi and the promised Socialist Paradise: SF and fandom in the GDR, with Thomas Recktenwald

Imagine SF authors whose books had a print-run of 100,000 copies, were sold out within days and could not be reprinted because there was no hard currency left for paper. Or secret service employees who infiltrated SF clubs but were easy to expose because they had no idea about SF. But beware: Being an SF author or reader in the GDR could sometimes destroy your career!

This lecture was recorded at Swecon 2019 – Replicon in Västerås Sweden

Participant: Thomas Recktenwald

The visual presentation can be downloaded here.

The music is from Sands Of Time (Psychadelik Pedestrian) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Sweconpoddar 103 – Automisation and AI – and their influence on us


Automisation and AI – threats, salvations or both? How is society influenced by the advances in automisation and AI? Huge amounts of data are collected and analysed, searching for patterns in behaviour, computers are making decisions. What will the future bring us? Could AI be the solution to the climate problem? Or will the automisation lead us to doom? How can we understand the risks and opportunities, and how can we control the developments?

This panel was recorded at Swecon 2019 – Replicon in Västerås Sweden

Participants: Annalee Newitz, Charlie Jane Anders, Eva Holmqvist, Edmund Schluessel, Linn Liljemo (moderator)

The music is from Sands Of Time (Psychadelik Pedestrian) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Sweconpoddar 102 – Fantastic identity

Which new perspectives on gender, identity and partnership/families can we get from fantastic fiction? How can writers use gender neutral robots, polyamorous aliens, many-bodied distributed AIs et cetera, to say something about the lifes and societies of humans today?

This panel was recorded at Swecon 2019 – Replicon in Västerås Sweden

Participants: Annalee Newitz, Charlie Jane Anders and Marika (moderator)

The music is from Sands Of Time (Psychadelik Pedestrian) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Sweconpoddar 101 – God dividing by zero: the mathematics of black holes with Edmund Schluessel


Light can’t escape the edge of a black hole. Why? Gravity becomes infinite at the center of a black hole. Why? And when aren’t these things true? Using high school-level mathematics, journey inside one of astrophysics’ most fascinating objects.

This lecture was recorded at Swecon 2019 – Replicon in Västerås Sweden

Participant: Edmund Schluessel

The music is from Sands Of Time (Psychadelik Pedestrian) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Sweconpoddar 100 – Nanites – salvation or threat?

Molecule-sized machines, possibly self-replicating, are quite common in sf stories and films, and have several names, one of which is nanites. They might be used for medical purposes to clean arteries or kill cancer cells, they could provide new competences, and it has even been suggested that they could provide a means for telepathy. But if they are selfreplicating they might turn everything into ”grey goo”. The panel will talk about nanites as presented in sf, what they could be used for and which role they play in stories.

This panel was recorded at Swecon 2019 – Replicon in Västerås Sweden

Participants: Ann Olsson Rousset, Sara@BooksOfDoom, Tommy Persson and Mattias Kuldkepp (moderator)

The music is from Sands Of Time (Psychadelik Pedestrian) / CC BY-NC 3.0

Sweconpoddar 99 – Guest of honor interview with Charlie Jane Anders

Guest of honor interview with Charlie Jane Anders at Swecon 2019 – Replicon in Västerås Sweden

The interviewer is Anna Bark Persson

The music is from Sands Of Time (Psychadelik Pedestrian) / CC BY-NC 3.0