I’ve participated in hundreds of panels during my decades of going to conventions, but the two I took part in yesterday at Awesome Con (sponsored by the Museum of Science Fiction) were a first, in that I can say, without fear of contradiction, that all the other panelists were far more qualified than me to speak on the topics at hand. They’re actual scientists, you see, dedicated to making real the technologies of which we spoke, while I’m but a writer of fiction, who takes what they’re doing in life and tries to imagine what implications their reality might have 50, 100, 1,000 years down the road.

My morning panel was 3D Printing: Replicating Success, on which I pontificated with Mason Peck, PhD (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University), Nathan Castro (PhD Candidate at GW’s Lab for Nanomedicine and Tissue Engineering), Lewis Sloter, PhD, PE (Associate Director of Materials & Structures at US Department of Defense), and Jamie Gurganus, PhD (Associate Director of Engineering Education Initiatives at UMBC).

See what I mean about feeling outclassed? (more…)