5 ms·

Egan is one of my favorite sci-fi writers. It takes a while to understand some of the concepts he writes, but imo he's written some of the best works in hard sc

Egan is one of my favorite sci-fi writers. It takes a while to understand some of the concepts he writes, but imo he's written some of the best works in hard sci-fi that also deal with a lot of philosophy. Great to see him active on his website (though I'll admit I gave up on understanding this around halfway) Editing to add: of his works, Permutation City is one of my favorites. Multiple mind blowing concepts. I'm sure it'll be up the alley of many other HN readers.

marsten 3y ago
Interestingly there are no photos or video of Egan publicly available. All we have over the last 30 years is his/her/its textual output. I'm 50/50 on whether "Greg Egan" is in fact a LLM.
- pavel_lishin 3y ago
  I've seen LLM output. If Greg Egan is an LLM, you can come to my house, choose any hat within it, and I'll eat it.
- Rediscover 3y ago
  About 20 years ago, there was this individual on Slashdot that was frequently commenting, quite knowledgeably, on many many subjects. I am still wondering if it was a test of an expert engine.
TheHumanist 3y ago
Would you say his writings are over the head of most readers? If not, what are a couple you would start with? Would Permutation City be understandable to a lot of people? You just make him seem like he's writing about very complex topics haha
- namanyayg 3y ago
  He definitely does write about complex topics and is one of the harder sci-fi writers I've read. The descriptions of those concepts and the increase in complexity is something that is done over many chapters. But, I've noticed that in some particular parts of the book the "acceleration" of complexity becomes so high that I have to reread things and look up references online to be able to understand and continue. Without giving too many spoilers, Permutation City takes the concept of cellular automata to the next level. It was approachable to me, and perhaps also became my favorite, because I had experience with those in the past. To answer your question, Axiomatic is his collection of short stories and is definitely the most approachable. If you like the style presented there, you will also find it worthwhile to try his novels. There is a certain sense of beauty clear in his longer works, where everything is taken to its pinnacle, and all the ideas fit together like a puzzle in the end.
BLKNSLVR 3y ago
Quarantine is my favourite. Permutation City was great, but difficult - I think because whilst I can mentally touch the concept I can't quite hold it.
- tremon 3y ago
  I'm of two minds about Quarantine. I loved the overall concept of it and the mystery narrative of gradual discovery, but the end of the story felt rather flat and unsatisfying. Maybe he intended it that way, to contrast it with the grandiose events in that short window before (I could say more, but I don't want to spoil it). But it still felt kind of rushed to me.
  - JadeNB 3y ago
    > I loved the overall concept of it and the mystery narrative of gradual discovery, but the end of the story felt rather flat and unsatisfying. Maybe he intended it that way, to contrast it with the grandiose events in that short window before (I could say more, but I don't want to spoil it). I think at least part of it is just that he was very early in his writing career, and probably wasn't sure how to stick the landing yet. I love the book, but there's no denying that it has its rough spots.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
  Permutation City isn't that tough, is it? I'm not claiming that I have ever been clever enough to think up the idea myself, but upon reading it was almost intuitive. I'm half-convinced that our own universe works something like in that story.
QuackingTheQ 3y ago
I would also go to bat for Diaspora, single-handedly re-invigorated my interest in science fiction
- gcr 3y ago
  I loooove diaspora! Egan was inventing neopronouns 25 years ago and it totally works in the context of the story, reader doesn’t even bat an eye seeing ve/ver/vis so consistently and casually after a few pages. Just one of the many forward-thinking aspects of that story.
  - abecedarius 3y ago
    When this book came out I'd previously seen ze/zir which sounds less jarring in legacy English. I think this was from a few people in the sf world in online discussions rather than in fiction, though I can't really remember anymore. Either way, it scales better than having everyone publish an individual pronoun policy and every else remember it, O(1) vs. O(N^2). Diaspora is excellent.
    - pc86 3y ago
      I went to a small rural school on the east coast and circa 2005 or so I recall getting a mass email from an acquaintance explaining their new pronouns of ze/zir. That was the first I had ever heard about someone preferring different pronouns, and it was probably close to a decade before I heard those particular ones in any other context. All that is to say that it makes sense if it had made its way out to a rural college in 2005 it was probably being used a bit more widely in the SF a few years prior.
      - Rediscover 3y ago
        Also chalk up Tim Leary for "hir" back in the 1970s (maybe 1960s).
- ajmurmann 3y ago
  I loved Permutation City and his short story collection, Axiomatic and really liked Distress. However, I stopped reading Diaspora 30% in. If it hasn't click yet, should I still keep reading?
thatcherc 3y ago
I'll go in to plug the Clockwork Rocket series (Orthogonal and its sequels) and Incandescence, all of which have much more to do with physics and spacetime than Permutation City and short story collections like Instantiation (which I also love). I think Incandescence is my favorite book of the physics set, but the Orthogonal books and their corresponding web notes [1] are an absolute tour de force of deriving a whole universe of physics from a tiny modification to the rules we're familiar with. It was wild to read those as a physics undergrad and still very cool to think about today. [1] -https://www.gregegan.net/ORTHOGONAL/00/PM.html https://www.gregegan.net/ORTHOGONAL/00/PM.html
- gpderetta 3y ago
  Instantiation does contain a short story (The Gateway) about a space anomaly which, IIRC, had some Didicosm-like properties, like lack of mirroring.
- Filligree 3y ago
  If you liked Clockwork Rocket, you'll also like Dichronauts. Whereas Clockwork is set in a +/+/+/+ universe, Dichronauts is +/+/-/-. Between that and the +/+/+/- of the ones set in our own, he's covered every possibility. (+/+/+/+ and -/-/-/- being mathematically equivalent.)
  - NooneAtAll3 3y ago
    wouldn't there also be +/-/+/+ for negative space dimention?
  - 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
    Unless it is a complete spoiler, could you elaborate on what those universe designations mean?
    - Filligree 3y ago
      Besides what sibling said- In a ++-- universe, you have two timelike dimensions but still just one time dimension. This is to say that one of the space dimensions is timelike, which means you get effects like "time" dilation from ordinary rotation. Our own universe is +++-. Between Dichronauts and Clockwork Rocket, it's possible to get a good intuition for the underlying geometry that causes special relativity; something none of my physics textbooks even tried.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
danbmil99 3y ago
Greg Egan is a true genius, and I don't use that word lightly. He's a true polymath. In another era, I suspect he could have been one of the leading scientist/mathematician/philosopher of his time. One comparison I really like: Johannes Kepler -- he figured out planetary orbits _and_ wrote one of the fist (if not the first) SciFi novels. Oh and he saved his mother's life when she was accused of witchcraft -- a parallel to Egan's work regarding the indigenous Australian population. I sometimes wonder though whether people like Egan are properly appreciated in the modern age. So much noise and competition for attention...

marsten 3y ago

Interestingly there are no photos or video of Egan publicly available. All we have over the last 30 years is his/her/its textual output. I'm 50/50 on whether "Greg Egan" is in fact a LLM.

pavel_lishin 3y ago
I've seen LLM output. If Greg Egan is an LLM, you can come to my house, choose any hat within it, and I'll eat it.
Rediscover 3y ago
About 20 years ago, there was this individual on Slashdot that was frequently commenting, quite knowledgeably, on many many subjects. I am still wondering if it was a test of an expert engine.

TheHumanist 3y ago

Would you say his writings are over the head of most readers? If not, what are a couple you would start with? Would Permutation City be understandable to a lot of people? You just make him seem like he's writing about very complex topics haha

namanyayg 3y ago
He definitely does write about complex topics and is one of the harder sci-fi writers I've read. The descriptions of those concepts and the increase in complexity is something that is done over many chapters. But, I've noticed that in some particular parts of the book the "acceleration" of complexity becomes so high that I have to reread things and look up references online to be able to understand and continue. Without giving too many spoilers, Permutation City takes the concept of cellular automata to the next level. It was approachable to me, and perhaps also became my favorite, because I had experience with those in the past. To answer your question, Axiomatic is his collection of short stories and is definitely the most approachable. If you like the style presented there, you will also find it worthwhile to try his novels. There is a certain sense of beauty clear in his longer works, where everything is taken to its pinnacle, and all the ideas fit together like a puzzle in the end.

BLKNSLVR 3y ago

Quarantine is my favourite. Permutation City was great, but difficult - I think because whilst I can mentally touch the concept I can't quite hold it.

tremon 3y ago
I'm of two minds about Quarantine. I loved the overall concept of it and the mystery narrative of gradual discovery, but the end of the story felt rather flat and unsatisfying. Maybe he intended it that way, to contrast it with the grandiose events in that short window before (I could say more, but I don't want to spoil it). But it still felt kind of rushed to me.
- JadeNB 3y ago
  > I loved the overall concept of it and the mystery narrative of gradual discovery, but the end of the story felt rather flat and unsatisfying. Maybe he intended it that way, to contrast it with the grandiose events in that short window before (I could say more, but I don't want to spoil it). I think at least part of it is just that he was very early in his writing career, and probably wasn't sure how to stick the landing yet. I love the book, but there's no denying that it has its rough spots.
NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
Permutation City isn't that tough, is it? I'm not claiming that I have ever been clever enough to think up the idea myself, but upon reading it was almost intuitive. I'm half-convinced that our own universe works something like in that story.

QuackingTheQ 3y ago

I would also go to bat for Diaspora, single-handedly re-invigorated my interest in science fiction

gcr 3y ago
I loooove diaspora! Egan was inventing neopronouns 25 years ago and it totally works in the context of the story, reader doesn’t even bat an eye seeing ve/ver/vis so consistently and casually after a few pages. Just one of the many forward-thinking aspects of that story.
- abecedarius 3y ago
  When this book came out I'd previously seen ze/zir which sounds less jarring in legacy English. I think this was from a few people in the sf world in online discussions rather than in fiction, though I can't really remember anymore. Either way, it scales better than having everyone publish an individual pronoun policy and every else remember it, O(1) vs. O(N^2). Diaspora is excellent.
  - pc86 3y ago
    I went to a small rural school on the east coast and circa 2005 or so I recall getting a mass email from an acquaintance explaining their new pronouns of ze/zir. That was the first I had ever heard about someone preferring different pronouns, and it was probably close to a decade before I heard those particular ones in any other context. All that is to say that it makes sense if it had made its way out to a rural college in 2005 it was probably being used a bit more widely in the SF a few years prior.
    - Rediscover 3y ago
      Also chalk up Tim Leary for "hir" back in the 1970s (maybe 1960s).
ajmurmann 3y ago
I loved Permutation City and his short story collection, Axiomatic and really liked Distress. However, I stopped reading Diaspora 30% in. If it hasn't click yet, should I still keep reading?

thatcherc 3y ago

I'll go in to plug the Clockwork Rocket series (Orthogonal and its sequels) and Incandescence, all of which have much more to do with physics and spacetime than Permutation City and short story collections like Instantiation (which I also love). I think Incandescence is my favorite book of the physics set, but the Orthogonal books and their corresponding web notes [1] are an absolute tour de force of deriving a whole universe of physics from a tiny modification to the rules we're familiar with. It was wild to read those as a physics undergrad and still very cool to think about today. [1] -https://www.gregegan.net/ORTHOGONAL/00/PM.html https://www.gregegan.net/ORTHOGONAL/00/PM.html

gpderetta 3y ago
Instantiation does contain a short story (The Gateway) about a space anomaly which, IIRC, had some Didicosm-like properties, like lack of mirroring.
Filligree 3y ago
If you liked Clockwork Rocket, you'll also like Dichronauts. Whereas Clockwork is set in a +/+/+/+ universe, Dichronauts is +/+/-/-. Between that and the +/+/+/- of the ones set in our own, he's covered every possibility. (+/+/+/+ and -/-/-/- being mathematically equivalent.)
- NooneAtAll3 3y ago
  wouldn't there also be +/-/+/+ for negative space dimention?
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
  Unless it is a complete spoiler, could you elaborate on what those universe designations mean?
  - Filligree 3y ago
    Besides what sibling said- In a ++-- universe, you have two timelike dimensions but still just one time dimension. This is to say that one of the space dimensions is timelike, which means you get effects like "time" dilation from ordinary rotation. Our own universe is +++-. Between Dichronauts and Clockwork Rocket, it's possible to get a good intuition for the underlying geometry that causes special relativity; something none of my physics textbooks even tried.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

danbmil99 3y ago

Greg Egan is a true genius, and I don't use that word lightly. He's a true polymath. In another era, I suspect he could have been one of the leading scientist/mathematician/philosopher of his time. One comparison I really like: Johannes Kepler -- he figured out planetary orbits _and_ wrote one of the fist (if not the first) SciFi novels. Oh and he saved his mother's life when she was accused of witchcraft -- a parallel to Egan's work regarding the indigenous Australian population. I sometimes wonder though whether people like Egan are properly appreciated in the modern age. So much noise and competition for attention...