Sci-Fi writer to open 2011 science festival

One of Britain’s top science fiction writers is to open this year’s Orkney International Science Festival.

Ken MacLeod will open the Festival on Thursday, September 1, at 12 noon, and follow it with a talk entitled The Sky Road – Islands on the Horizon. In it, he will look at what the future might hold for us. Will there be new technologies and opportunities, or a gradual slide into war and chaos? And what do such scenarios mean for islands at the edge?

The opening will also feature a new islands product buffet, setting the theme for a strong islands theme that will flow through the whole programme this year. Food and drink will also play a major part in enriching the presentation of topics that range from astronomy to archaeology, the Arctic to the Alhambra, recycling to renewables, and lighthouses to the Loch Ness Monster.

The programme brochure is included in this week’s Orcadian, and a full announcement of the Festival plans is being made next Thursday, August 18.