Tag: Worldcon

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Cosmic Tech

How watching the watchers could help stop Big Brother

"Big Brother Is Watching You" graffiti on a wall.
"Big Brother Is Watching You," a surveillance slogan made famous in George Orwell's "1984," is stenciled on the wall of an industrial building in Ukraine's Donetsk region. (Credit: Борис У. / Boris U. / 2010 / CC BY-SA 3.0)

If Big Brother is watching us, can we fend him off by watching him back? Thanks to the proliferation of smartphone videos and social media connections, we’re starting to find out.

The past, present and future of surveillance technology was the focus for one of the sessions last week at Seattle Worldcon 2025, this year’s edition of the world’s premier science-fiction convention.

Surveillance societies have been a frequent topic in science fiction, with George Orwell’s “1984” (which gave birth to the slogan “Big Brother Is Watching You”) and “Minority Report” (a 2002 Tom Cruise movie based on a 1956 novella by Philip K. Dick) among notable examples.

But last week’s session focused primarily on fact, not fiction.

Futurist and sci-fi author David Brin noted that his nonfiction book on privacy and freedom, “The Transparent Society,” came out 27 years ago. “Unfortunately, too many of the chapters are completely relevant today,” he said.

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GeekWire

‘Game of Thrones’ creator traces his twists and turns

Neil Clarke and George R.R. Martin sitting at a table during Seattle Worldcon 2025 panel
George R.R. Martin takes part in a panel discussion at Seattle Worldcon 2025 as sci-fi editor Neil Clarke looks on. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

If you were to track the milestones in the career of George R.R. Martin, the science-fiction and fantasy writer whose knightly tales spawned HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and “House of the Dragon,” you’d have to include his twisted take on “The Pit and the Pendulum” in high school.

Martin — who famously killed off good-guy Ned Stark early in the “Game of Thrones” saga — recounted an early stage of his literary origin story during a panel session at Seattle Worldcon 2025, a prestigious science-fiction convention that wraps up today.

The spark for the story came when fellow sci-fi writer Isabel J. Kim told Martin that the father of a friend had lent her a 1966 yearbook from Martin’s high school, in hopes that the 76-year-old author would add a fresh signature over his class photo.

The crowd laughed at the contrast between the fresh-faced kid in the yearbook photo and Martin’s current bewhiskered visage — but seeing the yearbook reminded Martin of a story.

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Cosmic Books

‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ doubles up on Hugo Awards

Triptych featuring Timothee Chalamet in "Dune, Part Two," a Hugo Award trophy and characters from "Star Trek: Lower Decks"
"Dune: Part Two" (starring Timothee Chalamet, at left) and "Star Trek: Lower Decks" were among Hugo Award winners at Seattle Worldcon 2025. (Credits: Legendary Pictures / Warner Bros. for "Dune: Part Two"; Alan Boyle for Hugo Award photo; CBS Studios for "Star Trek: Lower Decks")

“Star Trek: Lower Decks,” the animated Trek spinoff that focuses on Starfleet’s lower ranks, scored a double win tonight when this year’s Hugo Awards were handed out at the world’s premier convention for science-fiction authors and fans.

One of the episodes of the Paramount+ streaming series, titled “The New Next Generation,” won the Hugo for best short-form dramatic presentation at Seattle Worldcon 2025. And a choose-your-adventure graphic novel — titled “Star Trek: Lower Decks – Warp Your Own Way” — took the prize for best graphic story or comic.

Series creator Mike McMahan accepted the award for the video episode in a video clip that was aired during the ceremony.

“I love being recognized by a community who have recommended so many good and weird books to me over the years,” he said. “I congratulate all the winners, but also all of those who support and work and represent, because it’s also in that direction that advancement and liberty and democracy will proceed.”

The writer for the graphic novel, Ryan North, thanked McMahan in turn for letting the team do a choose-your-adventure book. “Weird books are great,” North said. “That’s what I love about reading. The weirder the better.”

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GeekWire

Worldcon celebrates science fiction’s past and future

Illustration showing futuristic cartoon characters with Seattle Worldcon 2025 sign
Seattle Worldcon 2025 strikes a retro-futuristic theme. (Characters by Matt Youngmark / Logo by Rob Carlos)

Thousands of science fiction and fantasy fans will be going back to the future this week when Seattle plays host to Worldcon, the world’s premier sci-fi convention, for the first time since the Space Needle opened its doors.

“The Pacific Northwest is a great community of makers and doers and learners, and people really deeply engaged in speculative fiction and all that genre has to offer,” Kathy Bond, the chair of Seattle Worldcon 2025, told me. “We want to share that with the rest of our world community.”

Registered Worldcon members selected the site of the annual convention under the auspices of the World Science Fiction Society — a tradition that started with the first convention in New York City in 1939. Seattle’s organizers have been preparing for this week since 2017, when they sent in their initial bid to host Worldcon.

Bond, a volunteer who works as an attorney at her day job, became involved after attending her first Worldcon in 2015 in Spokane. “From there, I got it into my head that we could totally do this in Seattle,” Bond said.

The path hasn’t always been smooth: This spring, a controversy arose over the revelation that generative AI was used to glean information about prospective speakers. Bond issued an apology, and the organizers reworked the process for vetting Worldcon’s panelists — but the episode led some writers and fans to create a one-day alternative convention called ConCurrent Seattle, set for Aug. 14.

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