FAIRCON SPO‘eoneo YN SON$ PROGRAMMEBOOK Everything you wanted to know about running an Eastercon, but were afraid to ask! Articles about all aspects of Albacon,the 3Ist Annual British Science - Fiction Convention. What went right, what went wrong, and why. Comments by the Committee on the running of the Convention, and what they'd do differently next : i time. PLUS a series of ' & articles explaining how to : organise such essentials as a Bookroom, Film Pro- gramme,etc. Copies are available now from Bob Shaw, c/o 200 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3 6LN. The Albacon Report costs 50p; if you buy NCby post, then please include eee | REPORT FAIRCON ‘82 PROGRAMME BOOK CONTENTS Page 3 Contents and Credits 4 Introduction - Bob Shaw 5 Guest of Honour 6 The Day of the Scotch Computer a short story by Harry Harrison 8 Have We a Duty? - Naomi Mitchison 10 Harry Harrison Bibliography - Gordon Johnson 20 Membership Listing - Dowg McCalhim 22 The Black Wine of Thentis - Mick Lowe 33 McFaircon’s Rant a song by John Brunner 34 Love and Money- Jan Sorensen 35 Autographs ©Copyright Faircon °82. Published by Faircon ’82 c/o 2/L 244 West PrincesStreet, Kelvinbrid ge, Glasgow G4 9DP. Phototypesetand printed by Kall-Kwik, Albion Street, Glasgow GIILH. The day ofthe scotch conmputer Copyright 1982 by Harry Harrison; Faircon’s Rant © Top: John Brunner reading his Copyright 1982 by Brunner Fact and Fiction Lid. All other Copyright GOH speech at Faircon ‘81. reassigned to authors and artists on publication. Produced by Bob Shaw Middle: Marjorie Brunner(left) and Dave Hutton: all process work by Dave Hutton. and Jolin Brunner(right) judge Photos: P3 Topand Middle- Vincent John Docherty, bottom - Boh Shaw, the Fancy Dress Competition. P4Bob Shaw, PS Harry Harrison, P8 Naomi Mitchison. Bottom: The Real Bob Shaw in Artwork: Cover Mike Mollov/Bob Shaw, P6Jim Barker, PlO Thomas the act of delivering a serious Campbell, P22 Jin Barker, PIO Thomas Campbell, P22Jim Barker, P29 and scientific talk. Jim Barker, P30 Jimny Barker FAIRCON '82 23-26 JULY 1982 ELIO (ASAIN) Welcometo Faircon! Now,put this magazine away, and don’t dare look at it until Faircon is over. Get out there and enjoy yourself -don’t sit reading pithy prothe! Good. Well, now that Faircon is over, | hope you enjoyed it. We’ve put a lot of thought into the weekend, and hope that you’ve had a goodtime. By | now you should know both our Guests well; just to refresh your Faircon- damagedbrain I'll recap. | Guest of Honour at Faircon ’82 is Harry Harrison. He comes from the USA, and is renowned both sides of the Atlantic as a writer and fan. Harry’s fan history stretches back more years then he’d care to admit - ask him when he first attended a World SF Convention and step back in wonder; ask him, too, about his career as a comicillustrator, and about why Reptilicus was the worst film ever made. Harryis a top-ranking professional, a fan from way back, and a nice guy. Harry Harrison’s wife Joan, will be at Faircon too; get to know her as well! Special Guest is Naomi Mitchison. She comes of a family of remarkable individuals, and is as well known as a mainstream writer as an authorof SF. She’s been around the world writing scene even longer than Harry Harrison, and is inall ways a most unusual person. The number of people who knowheris quite unbelievable - she seems to have been everywhere and done everything. We're very pleased to have two such outstanding guests at Faircon. Make them welcome, and convince them to come back next year - as Members! Inside the Programme Book you'll find a numberofarticles ranging from the serious to the funny. Harry Harrison, Naomi Mitchison, Gordon | Johnson, Nick Lowe, John Brunner, and Jan Sorensenall havetalesto tell or songs to sing; read, and enjoy. But not until after Faircon! BOB SHAW reve Powre ow te toh 5 cate He ww ee eeun 60% wets © ee Fer 29 Oe o Ait 8, Rt. ee be, Powe 0 Oe Poe Vier ose by ea" ae wom eed 9 2 ees ee ow ve ene 2 ROmrry otoawDAA ee ang WS BO Or bed od od TPMOPO oo 888 On OOD Wed OLY woe ot 2 0° vee * ww 0 oy 1P BPOwwwwOMMWwy 1009 oe eacve @ero oe wo 8 eos 20 26 OPAMa 0 rw ae Any00 0 aww OO~w te ar) @ 200s Woe Lae e 80 ev Ev ee dere PO OE COEwe PUTO!aM wre mews Oe On BA PFLAR TwGwa a short stor “Come in, Dr. MacGregor, comein!” the Prime Minister said heartily, teeth shining, her varnished hair glowing the watery light from the window. “!'m extremely pleased that you could see me on such short notice”. “I dropped everything, Madam when I got your message,” MacGregor said in dry academic tones, his smooth face as empty of expression as his voice. “How mayI be of assistance?”. “If you would be so kind, there is some information you could help me with. In strictest confidence of course. Just between old friends. We're alone here in Number Ten and the recordersare turned off. | would like to ask youa few simple questions about computers. About one computerin particular. That rather large one you workon in Glasgow.....” “SUPERSCOT.” “Yes, SUPERSCOT,that’s the one. The biggest and fastest in the world, I understand. Is that true?”. Dr. MacGregor nodded. “Aye, it might be describedin that manner.Butit would be aweebit more accurate to say that it has the largest memory banks and the fastest retrieval time, SCOTC coupled with VLSIC circuitry.” “Yes, of course. You took the wordsright out of my mouth. So let us say, just for the point of discussion, that if any computeris going to take COMPUTE by Harry Harrison over the world, why SUPERSCOTis the one that “No. It would take too long, be too cumbersome. could do it. Correct?.” After the program waswrittenit would have to be debugged, that is checked many different ways to “Incorrect.” makesure it would work.It might take a lifetime to The Prime Minister blinked rapidly. “Would you do that.” care to explain that?”. “Youre not being frank with me, Dr. MacGregor” “Of course. At the present state of computer The Prime Minister's voice was now cold, technology it is physically impossible for a decisive. “You’ve been watched. You are writing computer on its own to ‘take over the world’ as that program. Admitit.” you put it. Computers do not think - yet. They ” “Yes, I started to write that program..... must be programmed. That is, they must have software written for them.” “1 knew it! Guard!” “Software?” The door burst open anda General rushedin with a drawn Webley revolver in his hand. Dr. “Yes, Madam. To explain briefly, hardware is MacGregor was unruffled. whatis left when you turn a computer’s poweroff. All the physical equipment, the VDU’s, memory “I started to write that programme,” he admitted. banks, buttons, switches, all of it. Just acollection “Then I realized that if | were smart enough to of electronic parts. Then, when you turn the write a program and debugit, why it would be alot power back on, you put in programs that make easier to simply take over the world myself. There the hardware function. This is the ‘software’.> 99 would be no need to get involved with the computeratall.” “That seems reasonably clear. Do correct meif I’m wrong. Your computer, SUPERSCOT,has “Execute him!” the Prime Minister shouted the hardware to take over the world, but not the hoarsely. “Before it is too late.” software. And it can’t write its own software.” The General stepped forward, raised the revolver “Absolutely correct, Prime Minister.” carefully, aimed and squeezed thetrigger. A single shot rang out. “Then we are in agreement. Would youalso agree that if someone wrote a program to take over the The Prime Minister slumped forward, dead. world, why then he could runit on that computer and take over the world?” Copyright ©1982 by Harry Harrison “Lambasically a story-teller, | like things to have a beginning, a middle and an end,all properlytied up. what interests me is how people react to new situations, as manyofus have had to do overthe last half century. Doing this entails the imaginative gymnastic of geiting into other people’s bodies and minds in these situations. Science fiction means one kind of newsituation and should showits effect on genuinely real men and women. The same goes for historicalfiction (or writing about people ofother cultures). Here it is essential to get social and historical facts of probabilities as minutely correct as possible. I have tried to do this in manybooks, not only on the ancient Mediterranean world, but on Africa or the West Highlands, and perhapsto lead the reader to thinking about these facts, about what they have done to us (or we to them) and the situations in which we mayyet be involved.” Naomi Mitchison As a main-stream writer I find myself looking rather slant-wise on Science Fiction, having only written two S.F. novels out of some seventy others. Whatare all these S.F. guys (and dolls) actually onto? I have had a numberoffriends in the S.F. world, including H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon, the earliest of the serious writers. You notice that I have not counted, for instance, Jules Verne; but it seems to me that he doesn’t really count, because he was not thinking in moral terms.