I have arrived at Confluence and have my first program item in  about two hours, a panel which I proposed on whether the Internet is essentially fungal, which I think it is.

Here's my program schedule. I'm expecting this will be a lot of fun.

Friday   6:00pm  Is the Internet Essentially Fungal?
      Kathryn Cramer   (M)
      Geoffrey A. Landis
      James Morrow
      Mary A. Turzillo
  In his book  Mycelium Running, mycologist  Paul Stamets argues that fungi are nature's Internet. Perhaps it's really the other way around. Is the Internet essentially fungal? Discuss from the SF  worldview (and perhaps from Lovecraft's as well).

Saturday 1:00pm  Critic Guest Talk: The Game of  Genre
      Kathryn Cramer

Saturday 4:00pm  Trends in Short Fiction: From Original Anthologies to Online Fiction
      Lawrence C. Connolly
      Kathryn Cramer   (M)
      David Barr Kirtley
      Paul Melko
      Karina Sumner-Smith
  Every year, we hear predictions of the death of short fiction. Yet, every year, some of the genres best works are not novels but short stories and novellas. And more new outlets are appearing.  There are more good original anthologies than we've seen since the golden  years of Universe, New Dimension, Orbit, and Dangerous Visions. And online markets are flourishing. The panel looks at some of the best  new short fiction, where it can be found, and the prospects for the future.

Saturday 5:00pm  What's Best?
      Kathryn Cramer   (M)
      David G. Hartwell
      James Morrow
      William Tenn
  Never mind what's best THIS YEAR, how do we decide what is best in  sf and fantasy anyway?

Sunday  10:00am  Kaffeeklatsch/Literary Beer

Sunday  12:00 noon Real Life Utopianism
      Kathryn Cramer
      Joe Haldeman
      James Morrow   (M)
      Kathryn Morrow
      Charles Oberndorf
  SF as a literature is  strongly concerned w /utopias and dystopias. How do we individually relate these visions to our real lives? What  have we done lately at  achieving utopia?

Right now I'm in my hotel room, having eaten lunch andd taken a shower. Against my better judgement, I spent a few minutes on the Internet and found myself trying to parse why    Violet Blue is trying to get a restraining order against some guy who had never previously impinged on my consiousness  (for his Wikipedia edits having to do with her Wikipedia entry).  What he had done to upset her looked to me simply like standard fairly reasonable Wikicrat behavior.  I never did figure out what this particular fuss is supposed to be about.

When oh when will I learn that I really don't need to try to follow the threads of this kind of Internet  mycelium? Fungal. Yes, the Internet is fungal.