MileHiCon 47: Full Schedule

WELCOME!
Keep in mind that times, venues and even entire panels will be subject to change. Any schedule changes made after we go to print will appear here, so bookmark it!

5:00pm MDT

3-D Printing Demo & Roundtable

You’ve heard about them, but have you had the chance to see one in action close up? Stop by to discuss and maybe try out a 3-D printer.

Participants

Arlen Feldman

Arlen Feldman is a software engineer, and co-founder of Cherwell Software, one of the leading service desk products in the world. Now semi-retired, he is also a technical adviser, computer book author, maker, costumer, and a semi-professional dilettante.

Tayvon Hageman

Friday October 23, 2015 5:00pm - 5:50pm MDT
BristleCone Ground Floor

Programming, Demo, Discussions, Science

5:00pm MDT

Ome on the Range

The genome has been joined by the epigenome, metabolome, phenome, physiome,.. bioinformatics scientists are increasingly focused on how all the "–omes" fit together and what we can learn by combining massive amounts of information from many different sources.

Participants

Daniel Dvorkin

Daniel Dvorkin, a joint production of David and Leonore Dvorkin Productions, has served as an Army infantryman and an Air Force medic. He recently completed his Ph.D. in bioinformatics, which was harder than anything the military threw at him including Desert Storm. His most recent... Read More →

Friday October 23, 2015 5:00pm - 5:50pm MDT
Wind River A Ground Floor

Programming, Science

6:00pm MDT

Space Food: In Sticks and Otherwise

With talk about going to Mars or maybe back to the moon for long term colonies, what are people going to eat and where will it come from?

Moderators

David B. Riley

publisher, science fiction trails

David B. Riley is the editor of numerous horror and weird western anthologies. He is also the author of four novels and more than 100 short stories. He writes horror, science fiction and steampunk and is an active member of the Horror Writers Association. He edited Science Fiction... Read More →

Participants

Alastair Mayer

Alastair Mayer has the kind of background you might expect of a writer of "hard sci-fi action comedy adventures." He has been a software developer; scuba diver; farm hand; bartender; a contributing editor at Byte Magazine; a private pilot; member of Jerry Pournelle's Citizen's Advisory... Read More →

Cynthia Felice

Cynthia Felice is hard to miss, standing five-foot-ten with curly hair that adds an inch or two. She frequently carries a backpack instead of a purse, and very much enjoys meeting new people and seeing old friends. Among her science fiction works are the novels Godsfire, The Sunbound... Read More →

Daniel Dvorkin

Karen Morrissey

CEO, Thursday Night Press

Karen A. Morrissey read her first science fiction in the third grade, leading her toward a career in software engineering and an avocation of editing and publishing. She published her first novel, Fisher King: Percival's Descent, in 2013.

Friday October 23, 2015 6:00pm - 6:50pm MDT
Wind River A Ground Floor

Programming, Science

6:30pm MDT

Star Viewing with Denver Astronomical Society

Evening stargazing with the Denver Astronomical Society—the moon will be nicely in view as should some brighter clusters. Join us outside!

Friday October 23, 2015 6:30pm - 8:30pm MDT
Outside Outside

Programming, Science

10:00am MDT

When Science Gets It Wrong

The discovery of Vulcan, the expanding earth, Martian canals, phrenology, downgrading Pluto--what happens when science just gets it wrong? Dr. Science explains it all for you!

Participants

Courtney Willis

Dr. Courtney Willis (aka Dr. Science) taught physics and chemistry to high school students for 23 years. Then the cowboys in Laramie gave him a PhD, so he moved on to be a physics professor at UNC in Greeley for some 20 years. He is now mostly retired and spending more time playing... Read More →

Saturday October 24, 2015 10:00am - 10:50am MDT
Main Events - Grand Mesa Ballroom ABC Second Floor

Programming, Science

11:00am MDT

Mars Exploration Update: What’s New on the Red Planet?

Seven different spacecraft missions are actively exploring Mars today! Dr. Lee will discuss how our understanding of the Red Planet has changed over the years -- from the canals of Mars (based on early telescopic observations), to recent missions that have revealed details about present conditions on Mars and provided glimpses into the past history of the Martian surface and climate. Recent results from several ongoing missions, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, will be highlighted.

Participants

Dr. Steve Lee

Dr. Steve Lee is Curator of Planetary Science and Chairman of the Department of Space Sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS), and is a Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute (SSI) in Boulder, CO. He is a science advisor to the DMNS Space Odyssey exhibition... Read More →

Saturday October 24, 2015 11:00am - 11:50am MDT
Wind River A Ground Floor

Programming, Science

1:00pm MDT

First Contact: What Would It Really Be Like?

Since early SF, writers have envisioned Martians attacking earth, benevolent galactic civilizations come to save us from ourselves, fleets of flying saucers, and individual aliens come to earth seeking ConSuite, water, women or a way to phone home … but what might first contact really be like?

Moderators

Daniel Dvorkin

Participants

Connie Willis

Connie Willis’ latest published book is The Best of Connie Willis. Her next novel, Crosstalk, a romantic comedy about telepathy,will be out in 2016. She is the author of Blackout/All Clear, Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Bellwether, Passage, Remake, Fire Watch, Impossible... Read More →

Jane Bigelow

Jane Bigelow has published short stories this year in Gifts of Darkover and in Luxor: Gods, Grit and Glory. She has had a story accepted for Realms of Darkover, to be published in May of 2016. She is currently doing final (really) revisions for Children’s Knives, a sequel to her... Read More →

Sourdough Jackson

Sourdough Jackson began reading SF with a Jules Verne novel at the age of six, found fandom in the early 1970s, and has been deeply involved with it ever since. Early on, he met longtime Denver fan Gail Barton at a convention, and they married in 1978. Since that time, he has been... Read More →

Tim Slater

Endowed Professor, University of Wyoming

Dr. Tim Slater is a professor at the University of Wyoming where he holds the Wyoming Excellence in Higher Education Endowed Chair for Science Education. As a member of the UW Physics and Astronomy Department, he is recognized as an expert in education and public outreach in astronomy... Read More →

Saturday October 24, 2015 1:00pm - 1:50pm MDT
Main Events - Grand Mesa Ballroom ABC Second Floor

Programming, Science

1:00pm MDT

Freezing Time

Join Dr. Beason for an exploration of Freezing Time. Freezing Time is a term used when things can happen faster than physical phenomena — and those things can be used to change the physical phenomena. For example, a computer chip can calculate how a telescope mirror can be changed faster than the atmosphere changes. End result: atmospheric distortions removed so telescope observations from earth become comparable to the Hubble.

Participants

Doug Beason

Dr. Doug Beason is the author of 14 books, eight with collaborator Kevin J. Anderson, including Ignition (bought by Universal studios) and Ill Wind (recently optioned by Fox Studios). His latest book is The E-Bomb. A Nebula Award finalist, Doug's short fiction has appeared in... Read More →

Saturday October 24, 2015 1:00pm - 1:50pm MDT
Wind River A Ground Floor

Programming, Science

1:00pm MDT

SFX on Stage

Long before Spielberg, there was a whole age undreamed of now when special effects on stage (including non-Western theatre traditions) were as big a deal as they are in movies now.

Participants

John Barnes

John Barnes is a widely published obscure writer. His first published science fiction story was in 1982, in CoEvolution Quarterly, and his most recent appeared in Light Reading, which is a website for optical communications engineers. In between he has appeared in places like The... Read More →

Saturday October 24, 2015 1:00pm - 1:50pm MDT
Mesa Verde A Ground Floor

Programming, Costuming, Discussion, Science

2:00pm MDT

Getting into Space Without a Rocket

Stop in for a presentation on space elevators, launch loops, space fountains and other non–rocket ways of getting into space as they are employed in science fiction

Moderators

Robert Williscroft

Author Alley

Dr. Williscroft is a retired submariner, diver, scientist, businessman, adventurer, author. He spent 22 months underwater, a year in the equatorial Pacific, 3 years in the Arctic, a year at the Geographic South Pole. He has appeared on dozens of talk shows, the Michael Medved show... Read More →

Saturday October 24, 2015 2:00pm - 2:50pm MDT
Wind River B Ground Floor

Programming, Science

6:30pm MDT

DAS Star Viewing

Evening stargazing with the Denver Astronomical Society—the moon will be nicely in view as should some brighter clusters. Join us outside!

Saturday October 24, 2015 6:30pm - 8:30pm MDT
Outside Outside

Programming, Science

11:00am MDT

Remember That Thing Called Privacy?

The Supreme Court has ruled that we have a Right to Privacy. But what does that mean when our cell phones can be tracked/eavesdropped on, social media develops algorithms to influence our mood and drones the size of insects will soon buzz your bedroom?

Moderators

Mario Acevedo

Mario Acevedo is the author of the bestselling Felix Gomez detective-vampire series, which includes Rescue From Planet Pleasure from WordFire Press. His short fiction has appeared in Nightmares Unhinged and CyberWorld from Hex Publishers. Mario lives and writes in Denver, CO.

Participants

David Dvorkin

David Dvorkin has published non-fiction, science fiction, mystery, horror, and Star Trek novels. Nowadays, he self-publishes his work in the form of e-books. He finds his new publisher and editor to be infinitely accepting and endlessly accommodating. Visit www.dvorkin.com for lots... Read More →

Karen Morrissey

CEO, Thursday Night Press

Robert Williscroft

Author Alley

Van Aaron Hughes

Van Aaron Hughes is the author of "The Long View," in the March-April 2013 issue of F&SF, "The Body Pirate" in a forthcoming issue of F&SF, and "The Dualist," which was a winner in the Writers of the Future Contest and published in Writers of the Future Vol. 27. His fiction has... Read More →

Sunday October 25, 2015 11:00am - 11:50am MDT
Wind River B Ground Floor

Programming, Science

11:00am MDT

Through the Eyes of a Robot

What goes on 'under the hood' in modern Artificial Intelligence and Robotics? If you were the robot or the human level AI, what would cognition look like from your perspective? Robots and AIs have been a staple of SF for over 50 years--how have the imaginations of authors like Asimov, Laumer, Simmons and Banks predicted, informed, and to a degree created the modern science of artificial intelligence? We’ll tie together research from the bleeding edge of science and the deep history of science fiction

Participants

Jim Gunderson

Louise Gunderson

Sunday October 25, 2015 11:00am - 11:50am MDT
Wind River A Ground Floor

Programming, Science

11:00am MDT

DAS Solar Viewing

Join DAS for some solar viewing this afternoon, possibly with a look at Saturn in the daytime!

Sunday October 25, 2015 11:00am - 12:50pm MDT
Outside Outside

Programming, Science

12:00pm MDT

The Year in Science

Our panel takes a look back at the past twelve months in science, research and applied technology.

Moderators

Daniel Dvorkin

Participants

Arlen Feldman

Michael Carroll

Michael Carroll has been an astronomical/science fiction artist and author for three decades. He has done work for NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and dozens of book and magazine publishers internationally. His art has appeared in several hundred magazines throughout the world... Read More →

Rebecca Lickiss

Rebecca Lickiss, a passionate reader, began telling stories at an early age. She finally decided to write them down for publication, since it was better than cleaning house again. Her day job is teaching physics at the Air Force Academy, which explains why she doesn't write hard... Read More →

Wil McCarthy

Wil McCarthy has published ten novels, dozens of short stories, and hundreds of articles. He is a former correspondent and editor for Wired magazine, and was the science columnist for the SciFi channel from 1999 through 2009. He has founded two nanotechnology companies, and holds... Read More →

Sunday October 25, 2015 12:00pm - 12:50pm MDT
Wind River A Ground Floor

Programming, Science

3:00pm MDT

Closer & Further Than You Think

What hard SF possibilities are actually right around the corner despite being depicted as far out far future stuff? And which standard SF gadgets predicted for “any day now” are still decades away?

Moderators

Doug Beason

Participants

F. P. Dorchak

Paranormal Fiction Author, F. P. Dorchak

I write gritty, Twilight Zone-like fiction. Please check out my new book: Do The Dead Dream? An Anthology of the Weird and the Peculiar, which won the 2017 national Best Book Award for Fiction: Short Stories.My interests are many and varied. Just say "Hi!" and we'll take it from... Read More →

J.L. Forrest

J.L. Forrest writes science fiction and fantasy nomadically, scribbling upon the pages of innumerable Moleskines in the wet techno-jungles of the Pacific Northwest, the rarified forests of the Rocky Mountains, the primeval landscapes of Sweden, the battered remnants of Italian ruins... Read More →

Kevin Ikenberry

Author

Kevin Ikenberry's head has been in the clouds since he was old enough to read. Ask him and he'll tell you that he still wants to be an astronaut. With more than twenty-five years of experience in space science education, including managing the U.S. Space Camp program and serving as... Read More →

Tim Slater

Endowed Professor, University of Wyoming

Sunday October 25, 2015 3:00pm - 3:50pm MDT
Wind River A Ground Floor

Programming, Science, Science Fiction