Do Ancient Egyptians Dream of Electric Sheep?

[RobertMuldoon]

There is going to be a symposium discussing the use of ancient cultures in science fiction on the 9th and 10th of July. It will be hosted over Zoom and also livestreamed to YouTube, the talks will be left on YouTube to watch offline unless the speaker has requested that they are removed. There will be a keynote lecture to close on the 10th, given by Dr Stuart Tyson Smith, who is an Egyptologist and was the advisor for films like Stargate (1994) and The Mummy (1999).

The suggested topics were (but not limited to):

• The origins and historical development of SF’s fascination with Egypt
• Archaeology and out-of-place artefacts
• Time and space travel
• Parallel universes or alternate histories
• Steampunk
• Afrofuturism
• Dystopia, apocalypse or post-apocalypse
• The ethics of ‘ahistorical’ representation

The full programme and abstracts for the talks can be downloaded from this site: Do Ancient Egyptians Dream of Electric Sheep? (as it’s hosted in the UK, times are in BST (UTC+1)).

The (free) signup is here: Do ancient Egyptians dream of electric sheep?

There is also a Slack channel set up for speakers and attendees to meet up, chat and ask questions: Join Do Ancient Egyptians Dream of Electric Sheep? on Slack There will also be separate Zoom breakout rooms to chat in during the ‘coffee breaks’.

I'm super-excited for this, and I hope to see you all there!

 

[mathew]

Very nice. I am going to try to shift some hours at my job to attend

 

[firesprite]

Oooooooooooooooh!

I'll have to try to check this out!

 

[Sundowner]

This sounds awesome!

 

[Wonder Knight]

Hoooooo!!!! It sounds super cool, but I'm afraid my English is not good enough to be able to attend this kind of conference
There is also the subject of the representation of archaeology itself . I took part in a few archaeological missions several years ago, and the representation of archaeology in cinemas is the opposite of archaeological work. I am especially thinking of films like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft which are closer to looters than to archaeologists

 

[RobertMuldoon]

Hoooooo!!!! It sounds super cool, but I'm afraid my English is not good enough to be able to attend this kind of conference
There is also the subject of the representation of archaeology itself . I took part in a few archaeological missions several years ago, and the representation of archaeology in cinemas is the opposite of archaeological work. I am especially thinking of films like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft which are closer to looters than to archaeologists

Most of the talks will be left up on YouTube, so you can always watch after the event and use YouTube's auto-subtitles.

And yes you're very right, to most people if you say archaeologist they say 'oh like Indiana Jones'. At least Lara Croft is branded as a tomb raider. The Fifth Element does a great job filling out the stereotypical archaeologist - a bearded white European dressed head to toe in linen and with a pith helmet!

 

[The Terminator]

Fun fact about ancient Egypt:
Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of TikTok/the moon landings, than to the construction of the Great Pyramid/Pyramid of Cheops.

 

[ScourgiousJinx]

Really looking forward to this! Totally on board for all of those topics. These types of events are truly invaluable, thank you for sharing!

 

[Soloruben]

Wow! It seems to be a great event for many different interests: archaeology, films, science fiction, narrative... I'm sharing this with one of my brothers, who is a History specialist. We'll try to be there. Thanks for sharing RobertMuldoon!

 

[RobertMuldoon]

Wow! It seems to be a great event for many different interests: archaeology, films, science fiction, narrative... I'm sharing this with one of my brothers, who is a History specialist. We'll try to be there. Thanks for sharing RobertMuldoon!

Really looking forward to this! Totally on board for all of those topics. These types of events are truly invaluable, thank you for sharing!

You're very welcome, it should be really fun!

Fun fact about ancient Egypt:
Cleopatra lived closer to the invention of TikTok/the moon landings, than to the construction of the Great Pyramid/Pyramid of Cheops.

It's amazing how long the culture endured. I mostly study the Predynastic era, so circa 4400-3000 BCE - it's a rare privilege to get to handle objects that are about 6000 years old!

 

[The Terminator]

You're very welcome, it should be really fun!


It's amazing how long the culture endured. I mostly study the Predynastic era, so circa 4400-3000 BCE - it's a rare privilege to get to handle objects that are about 6000 years old!

Um yeah! Could say that again.
I live in a city with a city wall. It dates back some 800 years. Before that we had plenty of vikings here.

And in some other places nearby we have different types of ancient remains, that date back 7-8000 years. Though nothing as impressive as what we can find in ancient Egypt.

 

[RobertMuldoon]

Um yeah! Could say that again.
I live in a city with a city wall. It dates back some 800 years. Before that we had plenty of vikings here.
View attachment 1468356
And in some other places nearby we have different types of ancient remains, that date back 7-8000 years. Though nothing as impressive as what we can find in ancient Egypt.

The ship burials are very cool, one day I'll make it over there to see them in person. The city I was born in has some of its Roman walls still remaining. I do keep finding flint tools where I live now though, they're a great window into the lives of the people who lived here a few thousand years ago!

 

[RobertMuldoon]

All of the pre-recorded talks are now available on the Digital Hammurabi YouTube channel. These are the links to the recordings, which can also be found on Slack (Join Do Ancient Egyptians Dream of Electric Sheep? on Slack). Watch these at your convenience, and make a note of any questions you'd like to ask these speakers when the time comes!

Session 1: Christian Langer, Earth History and Interstellar Diversity: The Reception of Ancient Egypt in Star Trek -

Session 2: Rebekka Pabst, Ghost in the Shell: Ancient Egyptian and Modern Conceptions of the Ideal Body in Comparison -

Session 3: Nicola Reggiani and Alessia Bovo, The Djed Order: A Case of Egyptian Symbolism in Science-Fiction Movies -

Session 3: Julia Troche and Stacy Davidson, ‘Luminous beings are we’: Force Ghosts and Akhu -

Session 4: Kofi Oduro and Mohammad Tarqui Jalloh, ManoPunk, The Fusion of Ancient, Present and Future Civilizations -

Session 5: Owen Morawitz, ‘Children of the Gods’: Panspermia, Galactic Diaspora, and Egyptian Deities in Stargate SG-1 -

Session 5: Abraham I. Fernández Pichel, When the Egyptian Gods Ruled the (Future) World: Egypt and Science-Fiction, Dystopic Worlds and Time Travel -

Session 8: Sean Manning, Ancient Astronauts Built the Science Fiction of Egypt -

 

[Krats]

That's awesome, I'll listen to them today as I work. Thank you!

 

[RobertMuldoon]

Just realised I never posted the YouTube links to the conference recordings.

Day 1:

Day 2:

There is also going to be a special edition of Aegyptiaca published collating papers from the conference, the final drafts have been sent in and reviewed so it should be out very soon!