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Permutation City (1994)
- BandButcher 3y agoSweet site thanks
- k__ 3y agoPretty awesome book. Would be cool if someone could recommend sci-fi that equally good.
- hcarlens 3y agoYeah, this book was incredible and the tech in it has aged extremely well. Have you tried any of Ted Chiang's books? They're also great hard sci-fi. Another one that plays with similar ideas to Permutation City is the Bobiverse series by Dennis E. Taylor.
- k__ 3y agoI read Bobiverse which was pretty good, at least I liked all but the last book. Thanks!
- myaccount80 3y agoMy fav sci-fi books are: Ubik by Philip K Dick Dark Matter by Blake Crouch Recursion by Blake Crouch Highly recommended
- Weidenwalker 3y agoIf you enjoyed Permutation City, you‘d probably also like „The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect“ by Roger Williams! It explores a similar premise of a post-singularity future (though the mechanism is superintelligence rather than cellular automata/mind uploading), but rather than imagining exactly how we‘d get there, it tries to imagine what human flourishing would look like in a world of perfect abundance!
- Cacti 3y agoOh, is that the one with the incredibly explicit, and incredibly unnecessary, sex based around the authors obsession with fucking dead bodies and fucking and impregnating his daughter? I’m very far from a prude, but JFC. Its clearly the authors vehicle to play out his fantasies, masquerading as a scientific-fi novel.
- gpvos 3y agoYou could try his other writings, such as The Curators, which I just finished and can recommend. It has some sex in it but much more normal, and the violence is mostly abstract (like destroying a planet by teleporting it into its star). Available at his website http://localroger.com/ http://localroger.com/ .
- Cacti 3y agoThanks for the rec, but my issue is less with the book and more with the author. And his non-existent editor.
- MattPalmer1086 3y agoNot sure we are talking about the same book here. It's certainly quite twisted, with people taking out death contracts that allow them to die painfully (but they are ressurected by the godlike AI every time). There's also torture and other unsavoury things. To me, this was not unnecessary, but quite fundamental to the story. Everyone was trapped by the AI who would not let anyone come to harm without their permission anyway, and nobody could die. Various people tried to push back against these constraints in creative but disturbing ways.
- Cacti 3y agoI was going to post the final few pages of the book here as one example, but it’s way more graphic than I remembered, so I won’t. But nothing at all was served by us reading about how deftly the main characters 13 year old daughter blew him until he was hard enough to ride. Or the main characters musings about their two (very underage) children having sex and how he was totally ok with it. Or the long section about the wife urging him to impregnate his daughter. Or the other dozen weird-ass things in that chapter. There’s several more examples like this in the book. The author is not exactly the first to explore potential consequences of effective immortality, but they are one of the few who was seemingly unable to do it without repeatedly getting to multi-page, graphic, and violent, sex scenes. Like, if one feels the need for that kind of thing, William S Burroughs and Tom Wolfe already beat that one to death decades ago. As another example more relevant to this crowd, Altered Carbon covered the exact same subject matter, and did so without needing to write smut for teenage boys.
- iainmerrick 3y agoIt's an oldie (1977), but plays with some similar ideas and I think it really holds up: The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley.
- G3rn0ti 3y ago> Would be cool if someone could recommend sci-fi that equally good. You could consider „Diaspora“ by the same author a good sequel a couple of thousands of years into the future where humanity is but a faint memory called „dream apes“ as living fossils in this story.
- Frotag 3y agoBeen asking myself the same question for months. So Egan's stories are basically a mathy whodunit -- start from first (fictional) principles and eventually solve some universe-scale question or crisis. His characters are basically walking textbooks meant for info dumping / FAQing the derivations. In that light, some similar stories I've found are... - Dragon's Egg (Robert Forward) - Of Ants and Dinosaurs (Liu Cixin, 3 body problem author) - The Andromeda Strain (Crichton, more medsci than math) - Schilds Ladder, Diaspora (other Egan stuff) The first two are especially similar to Egan's stuff in that the only real character is the civilization / setting not the people. I've also tried some of the more common hard scifi recommendations like Reynolds and Stephenson, but I personally don't enjoy the dialogue / scenes meant for character development. I guess it's because the stories usually take a human-scale perspective instead of taking a what-if to its reality-bending extreme like Egan does.
- k__ 3y agoHm... I didn't like Cixin or Crichton.
- yencabulator 3y agoYou should try the old master, Hal Clement. Mission of Gravity is a classic "start from first principles" story.
- cdogl 3y agoIt’s not an easy read, but Blindsight by Peter Watts has some equally unique and compelling synthesis of scientific concepts into a big concept plot.
- bejd 3y agoBlindsight hit all the right hard sci-fi notes for me. I've yet to find something that scratches that same itch.
- paul80808 3y agoSecond this recommendation. Blindsight hits much harder and faster than Egan - and in my opinion the writing is much tighter. Similar focus on science-based idea exploration, particularly in regards to theories of consciousness, brain structure, probability, and vampires. If you like Egan I'd be shocked if you didn't like watts. He is one of the hidden gems of science fiction and an absolute gift to humanity.
- gpderetta 3y agoBlindsight is his best book, but Watts has written a lot of great stuff, I recommend all of Rifters and, for something a bit different, especially the Sunflowers cycle.
- asymmetric 3y agoOne thing you can try when looking for similar books to one you liked, is to check Library Thing: https://www.librarything.com/work/18880 https://www.librarything.com/work/18880 In my non-scientific assessment, it's better than GoodReads.
- spiralx 3y agoStephen Baxter's books are along the same lines, start with one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelike_Infinity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelike_Infinity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(Baxter_novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(Baxter_novel)
- gpderetta 3y agoThe only think I have read of Baxter is his short story Last Contact[1], but I still think about it very often. Reading the Xeele sequence is in my todo list. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Contact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Contact
- prepend 3y agoCompletely different style but I think Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan introduces lots of new ideas and interacts with them realistically. The first season of the show was good but very different than the book.
- sorokod 3y agoThe Netflix version is a diluted version of a rough and angry book. The idea of consciousness executed in hardware is explored, including simulated torture in subjective slow time (possibly in one of the sequels: Broken Angels or Woken Furies).
- prepend 3y agoI think they also changed the societal and cultural aspects quite a bit. In the book, everything was accepted and there were weren’t any “downtrodden.” The show changed all this with the meths being super billionaires and then there being lots of poor people. And the whole thing with the rebellion. Book takashi was an envoy super spy person with immense training that stuck with him through sleeves. Tv takashi is like a rebel/terrorist who just got some training and has personality. In the book, it was fruitless to fight against the government because what’s the point? The tv show seems to want to make a more simple rebels vs big brother. Still cool, but I think changed the flavor quite a bit. Second season, of course, is rubbish and I wouldn’t recommend watching it to anyone. It’s suspiciously horrible given how good the first was.
- sorokod 3y agoNot sure about "it was fruitless to fight against the government because what’s the point", a rebellion is a worthwhile thing in itself. "Make it personal" [1] is almost a call to arms. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/169549-the-personal-as-everyone-s-so-fucking-fond-of-saying-is https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/169549-the-personal-as-ever...
- PBnFlash 3y agoIf you can handle the science changing since publication in the 1930s(!!!) Olaf Stapledon is simply remarkable. "Last and first men" is one of my favorite books for just how unique it is, but "star maker" has some interesting parallels
- ArekDymalski 3y agoLet me share several books that brought me a similar level of awe, due to the scope and creativity of the world-building: 1. Accelerando by Charles Stross - for THE Scope. 2. Quantum Thief by Hanny Rajaniemi - for the similarly high entry threshold and rewarding experience when you cross it. 3. Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds - for a fascinating vision of future human societies. I'd be happy to find more books like these.
- gpderetta 3y agoI enjoyed pretty much everything from cstross and Reynolds (pushing ice and especially house of suns are great stand alone). I enjoyed quantum thief but somehow I have yet to go beyond the first book.
- yboris 3y agoAccelerando is amazing; see it being recommended several times in this post!
- mietek 3y agoI read and enjoyed these quite a bit, so let me add a few more to the list. - “The Fall Revolution” tetralogy by Ken MacLeod: “The Star Fraction”, “The Stone Canal”, “The Cassini Division”, and “The Sky Road” - “Void Star” by Zachary Mason - “Singularity Sky” by Charles Stross - “The Freeze-Frame Revolution” by Peter Watts - “Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość” by Jacek Dukaj - “A Fire Upon the Deep” and “A Deepness in the Sky” by Vernor Vinge - “The Golden Oecumene” trilogy by John C. Wright: “The Golden Age”, “The Phoenix Exultant”, and “The Golden Transcendence” - “Gnomon” by Nick Harkaway - the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks
- marginrabbit 3y agoPeople have already mentioned qntm, but I’ll put another plug in for “Valuable Humans in Transit” https://qntm.org/vhitaos https://qntm.org/vhitaos Sol Quy with monthly short stories: https://solquy.substack.com/p/111123-the-gunslinger https://solquy.substack.com/p/111123-the-gunslinger Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Children of Time” series is fantastic. Vernor Vinge can be a bit variable, but I would start with “A Fire Upon the Deep”
- zeekaran 3y agoChildren of Time is great. Children of Ruin was a lot of fun, but I was convinced by friends Children of Memory wasn't worth it.
- drewthestu 3y ago[dead]
- ohlookcake 3y agoChildren of Memory is my favourite in the series! If you liked the first two (#1 was significantly better imo), you should 100% go for the third
- sat0ri 3y agoHave you read Gibson's "Sprawl" and "Bridge" trilogies? I read them > ten years ago and haven't read any sci-fi since, these books kinda put a subconscious "it does not get better, better diversify into other genres" attitude into my brain and personally I'm OK with that. Was reading a lot of sci-fi before that.
- _dain_ 3y agoNovella, free to read: The Epiphany of Gliese 581 https://borretti.me/fiction/eog581 https://borretti.me/fiction/eog581 >A linguist, a chemist, and a comparative psychologist explore the ruins of a dead superintelligence.
- jz391 3y agoExcellent Sci-Fi yarn, with nostalgic references. I particularly liked the VAX-11 and LISP reference ("ideograms in a formal language full of parentheses")
- VikingCoder 3y agoYup, I enjoy this book. If you enjoy it, too, might I recommend Fool's War by Sarah Zettel. It's more of a Space Opera, but some similar themes to Permutation City pop up in it...
- surprisetalk 3y agoMy book review from last September: > Reads like a “consciousness and computers are cool” story written by an engineer. A few incredible ideas padded by weak storytelling and philosophical exposition. Probably would’ve been better as a short story. [0] https://taylor.town/books#permutation-city https://taylor.town/books#permutation-city If you like this book, I recommend Accelerando, Piranesi, Dick's Ubik, and Ted Chiang's collections.
- gpvos 3y agoI liked the expansion of the ideas. I was bored a couple of times so it could be compressed a bit into maybe a novella half the size of the book, but a short story would have left me wanting.
- Al-Khwarizmi 3y agoGlad to see Ubik mentioned. While far from unknown, it typically takes a back seat to other works by Dick, and IMHO it's the absolute best. It is unsettling in a way comparable, although different, to Kafka.
- surprisetalk 3y agoAgreed. Speaking of underrated works from cyberpunk authors, you may be interested in William Gibson's non-fiction essay collection Distrust That Particular Flavor. My hot take: I think Gibson's non-fiction is much stronger than his fiction. EDIT: Ooh, that collection includes Disneyland with the Death Penalty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_with_the_Death_Penalty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_with_the_Death_Pena...
- mandmandam 3y ago> My hot take: I think Gibson's non-fiction is much stronger than his fiction. Wow, that's spicy. Will def check those out though.
- surprisetalk 3y ago
- rollulus 3y agoI loved this book. It’s the sort of book that made me occasionally pause and think about the ideas presented in it. Boltzmann brains still fascinate me. The spot market for CPU power was visionary. When reading it again when I was older I only found the characters a bit weak.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago> Boltzmann brains still fascinate me. It's ok. You fascinate them too.
- vagab0nd 3y ago> The spot market for CPU power was visionary. Absolutely. Not to mention the use of proof of work, just 2 years after the idea was actually proposed. Very ahead of its time.
- patchtopic 3y agoA timeless classic.
- _yb2s 3y agoI see what you did there
- gmuslera 3y agoIf you like this one Diaspora seem to have extrapolated some of this ideas and went several step further (and then added much more), and Zendegi that is a lot more modest in extrapolation and tries to be more realistic (and emotional). He have also a lot of mindblowing short stories. The collection I've read by him was Axiomatic, that had many great ones.
- cdogl 3y agoEgan is the only great Australian science fiction writer I’m aware of. I principally recommend Diaspora for far future post-human history with a strong focus on physics and maths, and Quarantine which is a sort of heist thriller with a unique quantum physics hook in a relatively near future Northern Australia setting where First Nations people have gained independence and positioned themselves as an Asian financial / biotech hub. Egan’s prose, characterisation and plotting are often weak, but almost every page has a new creative concept.
- anileated 3y agoEgan’s Diaspora is a strong book that I’d definitely recommend to hardcore sci-fi lovers.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- andyjohnson0 3y ago> Egan’s prose, characterisation and plotting are often weak, but almost every page has a new creative concept. I agree with all of that. I was thinking recently about how Egan compares to Neal Stephenson after some discussion of his (NS) fiction here a few days ago [1]. They both (imo) are weak at characterisation etc. - but to me Egan's work is among some of the best sf I've ever read [1], wheras I find reading Stephenson an ordeal. I think that's down to the depth of the ideas that Egan explores, but I'd be interested in what others think of how he compares to other authors. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39287616 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39287616 [2] Permutation City. Diaspora, short works in collections like Luninous, etc.
- ahartmetz 3y agoIMO, Egan's prose and plotting are not notably bad. Characters are probably his weakest point. Plus, Egan knows when to stop rambling, or rather, he doesn't ramble. As opposed to the other guy.
- hmahncke 3y agoGreg Egan as great! Two other Australians you might try are: Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman, about what it's like to be colonized. Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen, about what it's like to be part of a computer.
- jharohit 3y agoGreg Egan is an acquired taste of hard SF. I would highly recommend someone who wants to get in to start here - it is short stories and some of his very best. Also one of my best cover of sci fi books https://www.amazon.com/Best-Greg-Egan-Stories-Science/dp/1949102254 https://www.amazon.com/Best-Greg-Egan-Stories-Science/dp/194...
- adamgordonbell 3y agoAgreed. He's strongest I'm his short stories. I have two collections of them.
- ChrisArchitect 3y ago(1994)
- ajuc 3y agoIt's great classical sci-fi. Reminds me of Lem, Watts, Dukaj. Ideas and science matters more than special effects, action and characters.
- peniswobbler 3y agoJust finished it! It's so good.
- Doches 3y agoFun to see this on HN today; I just finished it last night, on a recommendation from a friend. It was great, and left me full of unfinished thoughts -- just what you want from a good SF yarn. For folks who enjoyed the ideas in it I can heartily recommend qntm's short story Lena (https://qntm.org/lena https://qntm.org/lena), which explores some of the same ideas but with a hefty dollop of (implied, but all the more intense for it) psychological horror.
- joshmarlow 3y agoThat's a great short story. The clinical ambience of it's description really amps it up. Real Black Mirror stuff. I haven't read Permutation City (on my list) but I really enjoyed Disaspora by the same author (Greg Egan). Similar themes from what I gather.
- gattr 3y agoMore specifically, in Permutation City mind uploading is in its infancy, while in Diaspora it's a run-of-the-mill tech. I'll add Schild's Ladder to the recommendations.
- dzikimarian 3y agoOn the side note - most of qntm's works have these small, interesting ideas behind them - really satisfying to read.
- pavel_lishin 3y agoEgan's "Instantiation" series of short stories is also probably up a similar alley - available in his collection of the same name.
- edanm 3y agoCan confirm - I'm a huge fan of Greg Egan and specifically Permutation city, and also a huge fan of qntm's stories. Lena is probably the most famous, though not even the best ("I don't know Timmy" is better IMO). Also, I finally read qntm's Antimemetics division and, while it is a bit lacking in the end, it is one of the most "oh wow this is a crazy good idea" stories I've read in years.
- peniswobbler 3y agoI just finished it. It's extraordinary. It's awesome. It goes way beyond ideas I'd seen half assedly developed before.
- pranay01 3y agoJust finished reading Exhalation by Ted Chiang, and can't recommend it enough. It's a collection of short stories - so easy entry point for beginners as well.
- SamBam 3y agoI love Ted Chiang, and enjoyed Exhalation, but personally I would recommend Stories of Your Life and Others as the first book of short stories. I found it had a higher percentage of home runs.
- x86x87 3y agoTo me anything I've read from Ted Chiang is a home run and I've basically read all his work.
- jeremiahbuckley 3y agoYou might like Invisible Planets, Chinese sci-fi short stories compilation. I’ve read a few of them; Folding Beijing is pretty great.
- yboris 3y agoMy all-time-favorite collection of short stories is The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu. Highly recommend, whether or not you liked The Three Body Problem (trilogy)
- alexhornby 3y agoloved the dust theory. really stuck with me, bit like the dark forest from three body problem
- loudmax 3y agoGreg Egan's Mastodon profile is https://mathstodon.xyz/@gregeganSF https://mathstodon.xyz/@gregeganSF He's fairly active there and likes to post math problems. I liked Permutation City, but Diaspora really blew me away. Every time you begin to get your mind around some radical new concept, Egan throws adds another fold that makes you reconsider everything you think you knew.
- prepend 3y agoI think Diaspora has the best description of a valid digital identity. But I still kept thinking I’d never trust my existence to the polis/state keeping my private key private. In Diaspora if someone steals your private cert then they become you or are at least indistinguishable to everyone else from you. I’ve never seen a super solid way to prevent this when everyone and everything is digital.
- BLKNSLVR 3y agoI thought asking similar lines with Altered Carbon: If you can switch physical bodies, then how can you prove you're you? Do you have to memorise a GUID? What if you forget it? What is someone else knows yours? If there's no physical link, how is it provable?
- prepend 3y agoThey skipped this in Altered Carbon and it was just a “rule.” Memorizing a GUID wouldn’t work because someone could read it from your memory. Stephenson did this well, I think, in Dodge with the PURDAH as it was an AI trained on every characteristic of an individual through their life so it was impossible to fake. Still hand waving, but logically consistent hand waving for an id that spans consciousness transferring from biology to digital.
- gchamonlive 3y agoI would really like to see writers sell their work DRM free on their pages, or have an open and responsible platform that writers could use for that. I know it is a hassle to process anything finance-related, but in my region on amazon the book is unavailable and a hard copy isn't an option for me. It is virtually impossible for me to give money to the author for an e-reader version of the book.
- prepend 3y agoSame. Not just for convenience of having drm-free ebooks but so I can have an AI read it to me. I don’t really have a preference for audiobook performers so hate having to buy ebook and audiobook. So I’m happy just feeding a text file into a reader and listening that way.
- macrolime 3y agoWhat AI do you use for that?
- prepend 3y agomacOS’ “say” command is tolerable. Edge will read documents out to me. And I’ve also played around with speechify and natural reader, but am kind of stuck because most of the public domain I want to read already have librevox or some recording available. And I can’t feed properly purchased books without a hassle.
- wishfish 3y agoI agree with your wish for more DRM-free options. I don't know why a hard copy isn't an option for you. If it's just because you lack the space, then one option would be to order the physical book. Give it away. And download a copy of the book from LibGen. Author gets their money and you get a usable copy of the book.
- bhaney 3y agoPermutation City was my introduction to Egan many years ago, and since then I've read nearly everything he's written (Scale is still somewhere on my unfortunately neglected reading list, but I'll get to it eventually). The same captivating exploration of interesting ideas is omnipresent throughout his work, and that's always been why I keep coming back. I think it's important to go into his stories with an open mind towards what literature is allowed to be - namely that it can focus on things other than narrative or characterization without being a detriment to itself. A steak does not need to be as sweet as a cake in order to satisfy a diner, after all. And that's not to say that he avoids interesting narration or character development entirely, but there are definitely stories of his where he's clearly focusing on other aspects, and the choice to do that feels intentional and appropriate to me.
- edanm 3y agoWhich Egan is your favorite?
- bhaney 3y agoIt's been years since the last one I read, so it's a bit hard to recall. But the stories that have really stuck in my mind are the results of Egan tweaking some physical law, constructing a universe that might reasonably arise under those physical conditions, and then writing a plausible adventure within that universe. Dichronauts (2 spacial and 2 time-like dimensions instead of our 3 and 1) and the Orthogonal trilogy (Riemannian spacetime instead of our "Lorentzian") come to mind. I just really like the care he puts into constructing these universes, from how planets form (the worlds in Dichronauts are infinite hyperboloids instead of spheres), to how scientific discovery progresses (as a result of the physics in Orthogonal, light of different frequencies travel at different speeds and visually separate as a common matter of course, which leads to a much earlier understanding of relativity by a fairly primitive civilization). It feels like he's building universes from first principles and taking care to consider every little consequence and detail, which leads to a lot of "Ohhhhh" moments when you encounter something counter-intuitive but then realize it directly follows as a consequence of the initial physics tweak.
- CapmCrackaWaka 3y agoPermutation city is one of those books that "blew my mind". If you read sci-fi recreationaly, you know what I'm talking about. When the author introduces a novel concept which makes you think "holy crap, _what if_???" and then uses that concept to create a compelling story. It's on the top shelf in my library, along with my other favorite books.
- alecco 3y agoGreg Egan is the Nintendo-hard of SciFi. You enjoy re-reading many times and every time you figure out something new.
- gafferongames 3y agoEgan's short stories are great. Luminous is an excellent collection. I've never been huge fan of his long form novels, and will remember forever the sex scene in one of them that ends with a cramped testicle. Why Greg, why?
- ycombinete 3y agoThat scene is from Permutation City. I thought it was a nice metaphor for that character’s strained relationship with his corporeal self.
- gafferongames 3y agoI look forward to the motion picture adaptation of this scene.
- eterps 3y ago> Egan's short stories are great [...] I've never been huge fan of his long form novels Same here, I love his short stories! IMO short form works better for him because there's so much to think about, even after having finished reading a story. If someone needs a pointer on where to start I can recommend this thread: https://redlib.freedit.eu/r/printSF/comments/x1i4bj/greg_egans_axiomatic_stories_ranked_by/ https://redlib.freedit.eu/r/printSF/comments/x1i4bj/greg_ega... I especially enjoyed: - The Safe-Deposit Box - Into Darkness
- GeekyBear 3y agoI found the concept of computational biology pretty mind blowing in the early 1990s.
- azaras 3y agoI do not remember when I read that I was Richard Stallman's favorite book. Then I read it, and I love it. I tried to find the citation online, but I found that Richard Stallman does not have a favorite book (https://stallman.org/rms-lifestyle.html); https://stallman.org/rms-lifestyle.html); anyway, it is a good book with good ideas to think about.
- mindcrime 3y agoI thought Permutation City was great. One of my favorite sci-fi reads from the last couple of decades. It's probably about time to read it again, as most of the details escape me now. Anyway, I was going to say... I've always thought that folks who enjoyed Permutation City might also enjoy Glasshouse[1] by Charles Stross[2]. The two novels aren't necessarily overtly similar, but I feel like there's a sort of abstract conceptual kinship there. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasshouse_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasshouse_(novel) [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=cstross https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=cstross
- edanm 3y agoI've long wanted to read Charles Stross and somehow haven't. (Well, I read a few chapters of Accelerando years ago and never finished it, despiting liking it quite a bit.) Do you think Glasshouse is a good place to start with his writing and is representative of his style? I loved Permutation City, one of my favorite books. (I would've asked cstross himself but that would seem too awkward!)
- kybernetikos 3y agoI think glasshouse is truly excellent, but to me it's not terribly representative of the other works (most of which I also enjoy - they're just different).
- yboris 3y agoI once commented on HN how much I loved Accelerando and Charles Stross responded suggesting I read his The Rapture of the Nerds. I read it soon after and loved it. I very much enjoy the genre of people living inside computers; I welcome recommendations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rapture_of_the_Nerds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rapture_of_the_Nerds
- lxgr 3y ago> I very much enjoy the genre of people living inside computers; I welcome recommendations. "Ra" by qntm: https://qntm.org/ra https://qntm.org/ra
- airstrike 3y agoOK, I stared at that animation far longer than I should have... then went digging and found this other link by the same author: http://www.gregegan.net/SCIENCE/Superpermutations/Superpermutations.html http://www.gregegan.net/SCIENCE/Superpermutations/Superpermu...
- waveBidder 3y agohis mastodon presence is full of such things https://mathstodon.xyz/@gregeganSF https://mathstodon.xyz/@gregeganSF
- lfciv 3y agoWhat is this?? Permutation City?!
- dandare 3y agoJust came here to say that Diaspora by Gregg Egan is my #1 book ever :)
- aethertron 3y agoIt's up there for me. But I liked his Schild's Ladder, which plays with some of the same ideas, even more.
- gilbetron 3y agoI literally was telling a friend about how the one group needed to warn the group on earth about the danger (keeping things vague deliberately!) and how they had to quickly "evolve" different entities to be able to communicate with the earth beings. Also the different time scale awareness concept. Such great ideas!
- Pixelbrick 3y agoIf you enjoy the 'cute bugs doing science' SF subgenre then his incandescence is definitely worth a look. https://www.gregegan.net/INCANDESCENCE/Incandescence.html https://www.gregegan.net/INCANDESCENCE/Incandescence.html
- Karsteski 3y agoGreat book. I've read it through twice already! I always recommend it when talking about Sci Fi
- prepend 3y agoI remember this book having the concept of people running at different time scales so people in “the real world” would run at 1x and simulated people would run at whatever fraction they could afford. And they could speed up temporarily to have conversations back to real world. This made me think that sometimes our physical brains speed up and can run at 2x but still only get I/o at 1x. It will be neat that I think at some point we’ll be able to boost up to like 1000x with implants or whatnot and think about something that doesn’t require any new information and then return to the present with insight to continue the conversation. I hope this is affordable because it will be so handy for many things. If even to just spend more time staring at the Mona Lisa and contemplating. It also makes me wonder how people age in fiction where people can freeze time. If someone freeze time for a year, does their body keep aging biologically?
- ryanianian 3y agoThis book rather profoundly impacted my sense of reality and the kinds of realities that can exist within sci-fi universes.
- ews 3y agoEgan has been my favorite author for years. I like his earlier works (like this one) much more than his last books. I have the impression most books he wrote and published in the last 15 years require a Ph.D. in either Mathematics or Theoretical Physics. Permutation City was my absolute gateway drug to his work and I could not stop talking about it when it first came out. A series that explores similar ideas (although to a much smaller degree) of uploading, artificial life, and transfumanism, I've been enjoying lately is Pantheon. I just wanted to mention it here since I think you guys will enjoy it.
- jeremyjh 3y agoZendegi is a recent book that is quite readable - but I agree regarding most of the others. Permutation City is one of my favorites but I think Diaspora must be my very favorite.
- arisAlexis 3y agoI felt dumb and that I couldn't keep up also with Permutation City
- jamilton 3y agoI read The Book of All Skies and quite liked it, but yeah, I basically just skimmed over the especially mathy sections. In that one the math is about (spoiler?) how gravity would work with a very unique planet, with comparisons drawn to electrostatics, I think. It was still enjoyable because it's still unique and interesting sci-fi.
- gojomo 3y agoIf they ever want to shoot an 'Even Blacker Mirror' TV anthology, they should adapt Egan's short stories. 'Axiomatic', especially. Two stories in that collection from before the modern social internet (1992), with non-internet somewhat fantastic premises, nonetheless often come to mind when observing modern online self-presentational & affiliational dynamics: • 'The Hundred Light-Year Diary' - a method of receiving tiny (tweet-like!) messages from the future – eventually rationed out to all people! – examines questions of free-will & (self-)deception, at many levels • 'Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies' - how much of what you believe/aver is imposed by your neighborhood?
- chrispine 3y agoThis book sent me into a four-year-long depression and existential crisis. Best book I ever read. I guess.
- jcul 3y agoI recommended this on another HN thread last week. Probably my favourite book of all time. I'm almost due a reread.
- vackosar 3y agoEgan is great. Another good book is Incandescence. Only problem is that some of his novels contain some kind of loneliness. Can't describe it.