P1110367 Molly Crabapple, Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz

in the "Social Media is Science Fiction" panel. What do science fiction stories tell us about how social networking and user-generated content will evolve? How it will affect us as a civilization? These topics were debated by Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders of the futurist magazine io9.com, Matt Thompson from NPR, science fiction writer Maureen McHugh, and artist Molly Crabapple.

Social media may push us to create more authentic selves, serve as a societal memory repository, or "gamify" the future of work so much that employers won't have to pay us salary. Such were the trends extrapolated by the panelists. Grim as it may seem, they ended the panel on stating what good things social media has brought into their lives.

Read my whole blog post on the "Social Media is Science Fiction" panel.