Issue I

CHIKids News

Opening Plenary: SCI-FI@CHI
By: Brian Jaffee Jr. Editor (13)

On Tuesday the CHIkids Newsroom reporters had the chance to attend the Opening Plenary. It was very interesting. It was dedicated to Dr. Mark Weiser who died last month. After the dedication, the co-chairs Mark Altom and Marian Williams thanked everyone who had helped them to get CHI99 ready.

To go with the theme of "CHI is the limit," there was a panel of sci-fi writers. It included Aaron Marcus, Michael Swanwick, Venor Vinge, Bruce Sterling, and Elliot Soloway. They each discussed what they thought our future with computers would be like. Michael talked about artificial intelligence and how human brains might be part of robot systems in the future.

Bruce Sterling discussed having virtual property and real property, and in the future all property will be tagged. If the owner asked where the property is, it would yell out what and where it was. He used the example of his cowboy boot saying that it was Brucešs left cowboy boot and that it was under the couch where the cat had dragged it. The last person that spoke was Elliot Soloway. He talked about what would happen if poor children did not have the opportunity to use computers. I think that it was very cool to have the Opening Plenary be about the future of computers and humans.