HAL-CON 2011 Program Guide

Time Table

9 April, 2011

9 April, 2011


10 April, 2011

10 April, 2011


Program Guide

The information of program items are subject to change.

9 April, 2011


An introduction to HAL-CON's program items
This year''s HAL-CON again brings together a wide rage of program items. We will explain their basic contents and key features. Anyone wondering which program items they should go to, should definitely come!
SF Quiz
The popular opening program item, the SF Quiz, returns! This might be your one chance this year to use that SF knowledge that you don''t usually have a chance to show?!
JAXA Lecture "International Space Station cooperation and the future of Japan's Space development"
From now on, any natural scientists or researchers will be able to participate in a space missions after necessary trainings, as the International Space Station is now fully operating.Junjiro Nakahara from JAXA, who was a manager of Tsukuba Space Center, will look back the history of ISS cooperation and foresee the possibility of Japanese space development especially on manned space transportation.
Flash Forward, episode 19 viewing, with GoH Robert J. Sawyer!
We will watch episode 19, "Course Correction", of the TV version of Flash Forward, along with Robert J. Sawyer! The TV version of Flash Forward is based on Sawyer's novel Flash Forward, but Sawyer himself wrote the script for episode 19. Sawyer's major in university was radio and TV art. Let's ask him about the differences between writing the novel and the TV version of Flash Forward, how overseas TV shows are made, and more!
Caramel Box works and SF
Every year, there are many stage performances with SF motifs. We look back at some of these works, mainly focusing on those by Caramel Box.
Let’s go to SF Seminar and Donbracon L!
Upcoming SF Seminar (May) and Donbracon (September) preview. Members and potential members welcome.
GoH Naoyuki Katoh talks about his works
GoH Naoyuki Katoh will talk about about his carrier from his time as an aspiring SF illustrator to stories about his gallery series, "Tower of Time", in SF Magazine. A must-attend talk show for fans!
Science Cafe, Snake Oil and Anti-mater, ～Behind the scenes of KEK Comics ～
A Science Cafe where we talk about the behind the scenes stories from the "Kasoku Kids" comic series. This will be an uproarious conversation between the creator, who is an absolute amateur at physics, and some actual physicists.
Let’s visit Japanese local conventions!
Some cities in Japan regularly hold small but enjoyable science fiction conventions. We discuss various aspects of these conventions.


10 April, 2011


AI Ethics
If we succeed in producing a computer program or system that appears to be conscious, what rights and responsibilities might such a program have? Should it have the right to life? What does that mean when it could be paused, or copied or externally edited directly? What responsibilities would it have for its actions? How might it be punished, if held responsible for "criminal" acts? The science fiction author Robert J.Sawyer discusses these issues with Professor of Information Ethics Andrew A.Adams. (In ! English with consecutive translation into Japanese.)
A room of Paranormal Romance
Paranormal Romance is very popular in western world, however it is not so in Japan. We would like to introduce interesting Paranormal Romace novels and talk about it.
Japanese TV Animation 2010-2011
We will talk about new TV anime programs in the 2011 spring season and from 2010. There will be some reports about Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) 2011 and Anime Contents Expo. Main topic is SF Anime but programs from other genres may also be covered.
The impact of Electronic books
Some companies officially started selling e-book readers last year in Japan (including Amazon's Kindle). The Japanese trends in e-book publishing will be presented by a representative of the publishing industry.
GOH Naoyuki Katoh talking about e-books
Mr. Katoh talk about his new visual book on iPod which will be published on this spring, and his activity in e-book publishing.
Build the World
Along with your fellow HAL-CON members, design a world from scratch, from the physical formation of the planet to the civilizations that that evolve there.
Lost in Transit
Panel discussion about the difficulties of a non-native but fluent Japanese writer trying to translate her short story from English to Japanese.
"Lonely Planet" Guide to Worldcon
What is Worldcon? What happens at it? How can you best enjoy it? We will talk about Aussiecon4 (last year's Worldcon), Renovation (coming next summer), and introduce the Worldcon in general.
How to live with a mundane
Based on the tweets from Manga artist Yuki Masami on 16th November 2010 and others, we discuss how SF fans can co-habit with non-fans.
Reading
GOH Mr. Sawyer will read one of his short stories in the Halcon special book “Looking up”interleaved with a reading of the Japanese translation.
Who will come as GOH of HAL-CON next year?
The Halcon committee presents the Guest of Honor of Halcon 2012 and lead a discussion of their work.
These Sci-Fi movies seems to be fun?
We would like to discuss about Sci-Fi movies comming this Spring to Summer in Japan, watching the trailers and discuss whether it would be interesting or not.