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Permutation City (1994)

gregegan.net

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Re: Permutation City (1994)

#31

Post by MattPalmer1086 »

Cacti wrote: post #11
Weidenwalker wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If 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!

Oh, 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.

Not 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.

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#32

Post by surprisetalk »

selimthegrim wrote: post #27
surprisetalk wrote: post #6

My 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 If you like this book, I recommend Accelerando , Piranesi , Dick's Ubik , and Ted Chiang's collections.

Why Piranesi? Seems more straight up fantasy.

To me, the main distinction between fantasy and sci-fi is world-building vs. idea-exploration.

This book feels more like the deep exploration of a cool idea, which is why I'm recommending it in this context :)

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#34

Post by bejd »

cdogl wrote: post #21
k__ wrote: post #2

Pretty awesome book. Would be cool if someone could recommend sci-fi that equally good.

It’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.

Blindsight hit all the right hard sci-fi notes for me. I've yet to find something that scratches that same itch.

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#35

Post by SamBam »

pranay01 wrote: post #33

Just 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.

I 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.

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#36

Post by paul80808 »

bejd wrote: post #34
cdogl wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’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.

Blindsight hit all the right hard sci-fi notes for me. I've yet to find something that scratches that same itch.

Second 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.

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#37

Post by andyjohnson0 »

cdogl wrote: post #17

Egan 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 /…

> 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

[2] Permutation City. Diaspora, short works in collections like Luninous, etc.

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#38

Post by hmahncke »

cdogl wrote: post #17

Egan 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 /…

Greg 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.

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#39

Post by asymmetric »

k__ wrote: post #2

Pretty awesome book. Would be cool if someone could recommend sci-fi that equally good.

One thing you can try when looking for similar books to one you liked, is to check Library Thing: https://www.librarything.com/work/18880

In my non-scientific assessment, it's better than GoodReads.

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