With Austin’s homegrown science fiction literature gathering ArmadilloCon hitting the big 30 this weekend (read our coverage here), it’s going to be a time for swapping stories. Co-Chair Kirk Baty had one to share about one of the con’s more famous alumni.
“I was flying in from New England,” said Baty, “And I hadn’t seen (panelist) John Quarterman in while, and we met on the Friday evening.” Baty being a computer chip designer and Quarterman being the founder of the Texas ISP Association, they got to talking tech shop. After a while, they noticed they had been joined by a silent acquaintance. “William Gibson is standing right there next to the two of us. We figured he’d interrupt if he wanted anything.”
After 15 minutes of conversation on their behalf and silence from Gibson, Baty and Quarterman asked him if everything was OK, to which the evesdropping author of Neuromancer said, “Just doing research, just doing research!”
Gibson wasn’t interested in the kit they were talking about (ironically, for the godfather of cyberpunk, Gibson is a slight technophobe whose normal line on advances in things like email is, “I said I’d do it when dogs and children could do it,” he recently told the Chronicle): he just wanted to know how technologists talk about it. “He is such a bard,” Baty explained, “He just wants to hear the language being used in context.”
Armadillocon runs Friday Aug 15. through Sunday Aug. 17 at the Doubletree Hotel, 6505 N. I-35. One- and three-day passes available.
This article appears in August 15 • 2008.
