The lede is buried in this excellent article by Ray Hartley from South Africa’s Rand Daily Mail. The meat begins with the tenth paragraph, which starts, “There was only one moment during the press event when the giant bubble of hype was threatened by a sharp question.” Read from that point down, at least, then […]
I have a nice sideline as a keynote speaker, talking about futurism at all sorts of conferences and meetings. It all started fifteen years ago today, on May 30, 2000, with my first real keynote, given to National Life of Canada‘s Group Insurance Brokers Conference, held at the Hockley Valley Resort. That talk came about […]
Free transhumanism lecture! Free snacks! Plus you get to be part of the studio audience for TVOntario’s Big Ideas series: it’s all happening this Monday night, November 21, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. at The Gardiner Museum in Toronto, 111 Queen’s Park (just across the screet from the ROM). Sponsor: The Literary Review of Canada, co-producing […]
I was the only author invited to give a solo talk at this year’s Canadian Book Summit, which had the theme of “Hot New Models” — the implicit assumption being that new technologies and ways of doing business, such as ebooks and print-on-demand, were going to be the salvation of traditional publishing. My talk was […]
I’m giving a keynote at this upcoming conference, my great friends James Kerwin and Chase Masterson will be on hand to talk about their quantum-physics noir movie Yesterday was a Lie, and Chase will be singing songs from Star Trek on Wednesday night. Join us! Toward a Science of Consciousness 2010 April 12-17, 2010 Tucson […]
Those of you who have read my novel Wake, about the World Wide Web gaining consciousness, know how prominently Julian Jaynes’s famous book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind figures in the book. In fact, my main character, Caitlin Decter, even posts a review of the book (under her online […]
When I’m asked what scientific topic fascinates me the most, I usually cite consciousness studies. Certainly, the nature of consciousness — and the question of why we have internal lives, of why it is like something to be alive — is at the heart of much of my fiction, perhaps most notably these days in […]
My keynote address today for the Hansard Association of Canada, given on the floor of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly in Regina (pictured above), was very well received. Indeed, I freely confess to being mightily inspired by getting to speak in the same place that giants like Tommy Douglas had spoken in (for my non-Canadian readers, […]
I’ve updated my page about my services as a keynote speaker; I give talks on all sorts of futurism topics. You can see the new page at: FuturismKeynotes.comA couple of upcoming Robert J. Sawyer keynotes: Hansard Association of CanadaRegina, Saskatchewan(on the floor of the Saskatchewan Legislature!) Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of ManitobaWinnipeg, Manitoba […]
Lovely feedback from the Canadian Science Writers’ Association on my closing keynote address at their annual meeting last month in Sudbury: “In a conference already packed with treats and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, Rob’s talk on the craft of science writing from a science fiction writers’ perspective stood out as a celebration of compelling science communication. His […]
On Wednesday, May 27, 2009, Hugo Award-winning science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer spoke at Google Waterloo, in a talk that was broadcast to Google facilities worldwide, about the science behind the World Wide Web gaining consciousness — the theme of his new novel Wake. (Wake is set in Waterloo.) You can listen to Rob’s talk […]
On Monday, May 25, 2009, Robert J. Sawyer gave the closing keynote address at the annual meeting of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association (Canada’s professional organization of science journalists), which this year was held in Sudbury, Ontario. Rob’s 52-minute talk to the CSWA (including Q&A session) is now available right here. (Matthew Dalzell of the […]
On Wednesday, May 6, 2009, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer gave an invited 90-minute talk at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience [pictured] at the University of Pennsylvania (“Penn”). Sawyer was the first science-fiction writer ever invited to speak at the Center. Sawyer’s talk delved into the cognitive science, neuroscience, and other […]
For those who are curious, there’s now an English-language version of the brochure for the conference I’m attending next week in Istanbul, Turkey. You can download the PDF here. (The brochure also gives some background on previous conferences in this series.) My keynote address at this conference for business leaders is entitled “The Science-Fiction Mindset […]
On February 2, 2009, I’ll be one of five keynote speakers at a management conference in Istanbul, Turkey, entitled “Time to Exit the Labyrinth.” Also on the program: my buddy David Gerrold, who wrote the classic Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles,” and — and how cool is this? — Erin Brockovich. More on […]
Forbes.com — the online site of the famed business magazine — interviews Robert J. Sawyer in his capacity as futurist. They only used a portion of the interview we did; here’s the whole thing: I’m both a science-fiction writer and a futurist — which are related but distinct disciplines. A futurist’s goal is usually to […]
