The Quantum Internet and: Cthulhu Now!, Don’t get your time machine in a twist, and Warped Plotting

This year’s Philcon is going forward in person, in spite of Covid! It runs from Friday afternoon (11/19/2021) through Sunday afternoon (11/21/2021). Jabs & masks mandatory, but it will be great to see old friends in person. And make a few new as well. My science talk is:

The Quantum Internet: Hype or the next step

What do we mean by the quantum internet? Why do we need more than just quantum computing? What are quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution, quantum sensors? How are these concepts entangled? What are the advantages of the quantum internet? key problems? Who will get to use it? And do we have just a bunch of interesting tech that all have quantum in their name or can the whole be more than the sum of its parts?

This will be 1 pm Saturday November 20th at Philcon 2021

I did this at this year’s Capclave. Went well: some pretty deep questions from the audience at the end, always a good sign. I’ve updated — quantum computing does not stand still! — and looking forward to presenting in a few days. The picture is of Google’s Sycamore Quantum Computer, which recently achieved “Quantum Supremacy”. I will explain what that means!

I’m doing three panels as well:

The Post-Lovecraftian Cthulhu

How have HP Lovecraft’s ideas evolved in the hands of subsequent writers?

At this point, post-Lovecraftian Cthulhu is 99+% of Cthulhu. There are a lot of interesting directions here: from more mythos (Derleth for instance), more grim humor (Stross), high tech reboots (Delta Green), and a deeper (pun intended) take on Lovecraft’s racism (Lovecraft Country, Ballad of Black Tom). And we have uses of Cthulhu in music, film & TV (of course!), theater, and even in real science (the elongated dark region on Pluto nee Yuggoth called Cthulhu Macula!) if we are willing to include songwriters, playwrights, & scientists as part of the dark horde of subsequent writers.

This with Darrell Schweitzer (my co-editor on Tales From the Miskatonic University Library) and Stephanie Burke (writer, cosplayer, and a remarkable presence). I proposed the topic so have been unable to avoid the scourage of moderation.

At 10pm Friday, 11/19/2021

A Beginner’s Guide to Time Travel Paradoxes

You know not to remove a major historical figure, hand Thomas Edison a cell phone, or kill your grandfather. But is it even possible to travel into the past without changing anything?  So you go back to Chicago in 1920, and eat a hamburger in a diner. But, unbeknownst to you, that hamburger was destined to sit for six hours, spoil, and sicken someone else, who misses an important appointment, and… there goes the timestream. Would nature have a way of correcting this?

This with Michael Ventrella, George W. Young, and Russell Handelmann. Michael is currently editing a time travel anthology and is also moderating the panel. Michael’s a lot of fun; the other two I look forward to meeting.

At 2pm Saturday, 11/20/2021

Parsecs, Light Years, and the Speed of Plot

Warp?  Hyperspace?  Ion propulsion?  Improbability drive?  Is it necessary to sacrifice accuracy to maintain pacing?  Our panelists science the heck out of “velocity equals distance divided by time” as used in fiction.

This with Tobias F. Cabral (moderator), Anastasia Klimchynskaya, Tom Purdom. All familiar & valued co-panelists!

At 4pm Saturday, 11/20/2021

Tales from the Miskatonic University Library Has Escaped into the Real World

Only by purchasing mass quantities can you ensure that its deletorious effects are not too widely felt.

You may order from my co-editor Darrell Schweitzer ($24.99 + $4.00 shipping) or from me directly ($25.00 but I don’t ship) or from PSPublishing (£20.00).

My first book but Darrell’s N-th (see his wikipedia page!).

I’m rather pleased (& a bit relieved) to see it came out pretty well.  All thirteen stories are good, each in their own way.  And Darrell & I each did introductions.  His is light-hearted & not to be taken seriously while mine is in deadly earnest.

So if you want to find out why not to use a spell-checker on the Necronomicon, or wonder what the gastronomic possibilities of Cthulhu are, look no further.

And remember, every copy you purchase saves another hapless human from an otherwise dire & unavoidable fate!

PS.  And if you would like to see snippets of Darrell & myself opining on matters Lovecraftian, we were on PBS recently, in a segment from Articulate TV.

Tales from the Miskatonic University Library about to escape into the world!

The Tales from the Miskatonic University Library is not only at the publisher (PS Publishing) but on the awful verge of being actually published. Darrell Schweitzer & I have just reviewed the signing sheets: apparently there is to be not only a regular edition but a special, limited, & elder-signed edition as well!

So, the list of the authors & their stories:

1. Don Webb. “Slowly Ticking Time Bomb”
2. Adrian Cole. “Third Movement”
3. Dirk Flinthart. “To be In Ulthar”
4. Harry Turtledove. “Interlibrary Loan”
5. P. D. Cacek. “One Small Chance”
6. Will Murray. “A Trillion Young”
7. A. C. Wise. “The Paradox Collection”
8. Marilyn “Mattie” Brahen. “The Way to a Man’s Heart”
9. Douglas Wynne. “The White Door”
10. Alex Shvartsman. “Recall Notice”
11. James Van Pelt. “The Children’s Collection”
12. Darrell Schweitzer. “Not in the Card Catalogue”
13. Robert M. Price. “The Bonfire of the Blasphemies”

And — triskaidekaphiliacs rejoice, triskaidekaphobes despair — there are exactly thirteen stories. Quite by coincidence! (& nothing to do with the fact that thirteen is my personal lucky number.)

And you get intros by both Darrell & myself. Quite a range of stories: funny, grim, grimly funny, paradoxical, and terrifyingly straightforward. Our ultimate criteria was that both Darrell & I enjoyed reading them — and hope you will as well!

Tales from the Miskatonic Library — Call for Submissions

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.” — Ernest Shackleton

The small press anthology Tales from the Miskatonic Library is now soliciting stories for submission.  This is an anthology of tales about, found in, inspired by, or stolen from the Miskatonic University Library.

Your editors are Darrell Schweitzer & myself, and we are looking for tales that:

1. Are good stories.
2. Can be included in an anthology titled Tales From the Miskatonic Library without involving us in elaborate explanations.
3. Aren’t “Boy Reads Book; Book Eats Boy.”

So, your chance to have a bit of grim fun:

• What sort of tales might be found in the Miskatonic University Library?  Kept perhaps in the secure reading room?  Shared by Chief Librarian Henry Armitage over faculty sherry with only a trusted few?
• And how did Dr. Henry Armitage acquire his position as Chief Librarian?  And what of his successor(s)?
• What unexpected problems might be faced by an acquisitions librarian at Miskatonic University?  Or a cataloger? Is the Necronomicon quite as rare as it is made out to be?
• What is the real explanation for the curious gaps in the Dewey Decimal System?
• What might it take to see the unexpurgated account of the Pabodie’s 1930 expedition to The Mountains of Madness?  Together with their troubling cross-correlations with Shackleton’s private diary? The US Treasury Departments internal report on the incident at Devil Reef off Innsmouth?
• Why are no students allowed within the stacks?  Are rumors of non-Euclidean spaces within merely rumors?  Why was Einstein called in for a consult in 1944?  And his frequent correspondent Schrödinger brought over  secretly from Ireland that same year?
• And are series like Warehouse 13 or The Librarian or Charlie Stross’s The Laundry really just cover stories for the MUL? precautions taken to make sure if a bit of the truth gets out, it will be seen as merely a publicity stunt?
• …

And, there is absolutely no requirement to mention the Necronomicon or even the Cthulhu Mythos at all!  So long as its appearance in our anthology makes sense, we’re good with it.

Our publisher is PS Publishing, which has just published Darrell’s That is Not Dead:  Tales of the Cthulhu Mythose Through the Centuries, and which has a very strong line of Lovecraftian titles.  As this is small press, maximum 1000 copies, the rate is — alas — correspondingly small:  3¢/word max $100.  Sigh.  But, Honour & recognition!  Or, even better, a chance to warn the world of untimely horrors!

Please send stories in electronic form only!  RTF, Word, or Pages are OK.  Not PDF, which is not editable.

No reprints.  Your original work only.  We need to see by the end of August, 2015.

Send to me, John Ashmead, at john.ashmead@timeandquantummechanics.com.

Any questions, ask!

And if even if you don’t have a Tale from the Miskatonic Library bubbling up inside you, perhaps a friend does.  Please pass this link along to any who might be interested.  Word of tentacle is our best advertisement!