And it doesn’t look like it’s going to be populated by whack jobs.
I mean, it’s possible that the folks from Boeing, the DoD, and the other universities are nutters, but I find it hard to believe that there’s so many of them. It looks like the mainstream science community is serious about this.
I’m all about anti-gravity… but I’ll lay dollars to doughnuts the consensus is that we’re screwed in this regard…
I hope a few whackjobs speak up, but IMHO it’s just pathetic at this point.
And I would GLADLY eat my words.
Just about all science starts off as science fiction. So this may be a fruitless conference, but maybe not. If this about anti-gravity, will they be taking heavy topics and making light of them? What kind of uses an anti-gravity effect could be put too? Hover trains and flying vehicles seem obvious but what about all those industrial and pharmaceutical uses they talk about doing in orbit? It could become possible to do them here on earth in some kind of A-G field. Maybe it could be applied to therapeutic uses, like relieving back problems by having a person spend an hour a day in free fall.
It’s not really antigravity; it’s using magnets and other technologies to lift things off the ground. Different things all together.
The Google Ads are coming up “Learn to levitate like David Blaine.” YMMV, but if I’m gonna learn to levitate, I’m going with a full-time levitationist, not the Frozen Alive Guy/Buried Alive Guy/Living in a Glass Box on Stilts Guy.
If this is a truly Anti-Gravity Conference, it will be held aboard the Vomit Comet.
You must have missed these papers titles
One scientist has called it “synthetic gravity,” but given that “anti-gravity” is rarely, if ever, defined in any greater detail, I don’t see that it really makes much difference. And after all, we frequently use inaccurate terms to describe phenomina. The wind is described as “blowing” but in reality it sucks.
So, what have you all got against gravity, anyway? 
Usually, I’m cool with gravity. When I step on a scale, though, or try to pick up a 50-pound bag of birdseed without having my battered fingers hurt for the rest of the day, I am militantly anti-gravity.
Whadda we want? No gravity!
When do we want it? Yesterday!
I’m thinking of wearing my star fleet uniform to the session discussing warp drives.
We already know that a lower gravity environment helps arthritis, right? I have scoliosis and have often wondered whether my spine would straighten at all in a weightless environment. The closest I could get to that right now is floating in a pool, but that’s hardly anti-gravity. How wonderful it would be to suddenly become 5’ 10"! Though I bet there’d be drawbacks, like split skin or at the very least horrendous stretch marks.
What have the weightless experiments done on the shuttles shown about how plants grow in that environment?
As long as one of those fat scientists doesn’t start flying around the room drenched in oil pulling the heart plugs out of his terrified minions it should be an interesting conference.
I say good on them: it’s high time this field of research got off the ground.
Daniel
I’m glad science is finally giving some weight to anti-gravity research.
Well, they’ve been talking about it for some time now but all the plans were up in the air.
No way. I’ll be outside the conference hall with the rest of the pro-gravity demonstrators.
The last anti-gravity conference I went to really sucked.
Sorry, that’s all I got.
Gravity sucks, man.
GRAVITY:
IT’S NOT JUST A GOOD IDEA–
IT’S THE LAW.
Daniel
You pro-gravity types are always trying to keep us down!
I’m pretty sure the Belligerent Design folks would disagree, saying that gravity, like evolution, is just a theory. Science students need to hear both sides; the theory of gravity, and the theory that The Belligerent Designer’s love pulls you down. 