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Permutation City (1994)

gregegan.net

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Re: Permutation City (1994)

#151

Post by schubart »

yencabulator wrote: post #87
Doches wrote: post #29

Fun 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 ), which explores some of the same ideas but with a hefty dollop of (implied, but all the more intense for it) psycho…

Better link to read (same story, not the first draft): https://qntm.org/mmacevedo

Fantastic read, thanks both of you for sharing this.

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#152

Post by ews »

Egan 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.

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#153

Post by ianmcgowan »

surprisetalk wrote: post #44
mandmandam wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Here's an even spicier take: Although less prescient, Seveneves was a better read than Cryptonomicon .

You shut your mouth! :-)

Actually, if you said the first 2/3 of Seveneves was a better read than Cryptonomicon, then maybe..

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#154

Post by ianmcgowan »

marcellus23 wrote: post #131
NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I'll put that one on my reading list. Haven't read but one of his before.

Anathem is, I think, Stephenson's best book. Definitely worth checking out.

'The Diamond Age' is my favorite, but perhaps because it's one of the rare Stephenson's that sticks the landing. Anathem is amazing, and worth reading just for the parable of the fly-worm-bat...

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#156

Post by edanm »

bhaney wrote: post #54

Permutation 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…

Which Egan is your favorite?

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#157

Post by edanm »

Vetch wrote: post #150
edanm wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can 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.

I'd also wager that "I don't know Timmy" is more thematically related. I feel most of the discussion in this thread glosses over what is most unsettling about Permutation City. It isn't just a book about what it could be like to be a simulated mind, it's most deeply about exploring the disquieting metaphysical consequences of computable minds. I can't think of a story that has as thoroughly scattered my basic grasp o…

> I can't think of a story that has as thoroughly scattered my basic grasp of reality as this one. Only Blindsight even begins to comes close.

Absolutely! Very few books have also basically changed my philosophical outlook on something as much as this has (I had the seeds of the idea before the book, but the book really cemented specific concepts around computation and thought/consciousness/identity even mean).

Another book that is fairly different, but has had a big impact on some of my views of things, is the Three Body Problem trilogy (specifically the second and third book).

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#158

Post by marcellus23 »

ianmcgowan wrote: post #154
marcellus23 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anathem is, I think, Stephenson's best book. Definitely worth checking out.

'The Diamond Age' is my favorite, but perhaps because it's one of the rare Stephenson's that sticks the landing. Anathem is amazing, and worth reading just for the parable of the fly-worm-bat...

The Diamond Age is my next-favorite after Anathem. Both are excellent books.

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#159

Post by Severian »

edanm wrote: post #86
Doches wrote: post #29

Fun 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 ), which explores some of the same ideas but with a hefty dollop of (implied, but all the more intense for it) psycho…

Can 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.

I got a copy of the Antimemetics division too after a read through on SCP wiki. Well worth getting a physical copy to support the author.

qntm is becoming one of my favorite authors as well.

Re: Permutation City (1994)

#160

Post by gojomo »

If 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?

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