4 ms·

Also strongly recommend Greg Egan, who I place in a similar bucket to Chiang. Egan has some books that fall into an (afaik) completely unique sub-genre that I

by wyager 2y ago

Also strongly recommend Greg Egan, who I place in a similar bucket to Chiang. Egan has some books that fall into an (afaik) completely unique sub-genre that I have heard described as "math-fi". Some of his books are (credibly) described as a textbook wrapped in a narrative veneer. E.g. he has 3 books set in a universe with a ++++ metric tensor, and another book set in a ++-- universe. He painstakingly rederives many details of physics, chemistry, etc. to a level of detail that I've never seen even in physics textbooks, and then creates a story where characters in that universe discover its properties. The books are good even without paying too much attention to the math, but if you find that part interesting, he has detailed supplemental materials on his website.

justinpombrio 2y ago
Eactly, Eagan is "math-fi", and Borges is "philosophy-fi". And yeah, what Eagan does is absolutely mind blowing. He mathematically derives entire universes entirely unlike our own, determines what it would be like to live in them, and then writes about characters that do. (And this isn't boring shit like "this world is four-dimensional, so its inhabitants need more legs, woah!", this is bizarre shit like "better clear the road so that we can rotate the museum down it, before the sun moves on".)
mos_basik 2y ago
I've read something like 7 egan books now but my math isn't good enough to know if they're any of the four you described via metric tensor (cause the wiki page on it went over my head). Surely not Incandescence? Maybe Schild's Ladder? Curious which ones you mean, a list of names is fine if you don't want to spoil anyone.
- wyager 2y ago
  The Clockwork Rocket trilogy is ++++, and Dichronauts is ++--. Reading these really helped my intuitive grasp of relativistic mechanics. Incandescence is also cool but (minimal spoilers) is more or less the normal +--- metric. Not nearly as mind-bending as ++++ or ++--.

by wyager 2y ago

justinpombrio 2y ago

Eactly, Eagan is "math-fi", and Borges is "philosophy-fi". And yeah, what Eagan does is absolutely mind blowing. He mathematically derives entire universes entirely unlike our own, determines what it would be like to live in them, and then writes about characters that do. (And this isn't boring shit like "this world is four-dimensional, so its inhabitants need more legs, woah!", this is bizarre shit like "better clear the road so that we can rotate the museum down it, before the sun moves on".)

mos_basik 2y ago

I've read something like 7 egan books now but my math isn't good enough to know if they're any of the four you described via metric tensor (cause the wiki page on it went over my head). Surely not Incandescence? Maybe Schild's Ladder? Curious which ones you mean, a list of names is fine if you don't want to spoil anyone.

wyager 2y ago
The Clockwork Rocket trilogy is ++++, and Dichronauts is ++--. Reading these really helped my intuitive grasp of relativistic mechanics. Incandescence is also cool but (minimal spoilers) is more or less the normal +--- metric. Not nearly as mind-bending as ++++ or ++--.