
Foundations by Greg Egan (1998) - Jach
http://www.gregegan.net/FOUNDATIONS/
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jcrites
Diaspora by Greg Egan is one of the most amazing books I've ever read, in
terms of the ideas it explores. A serious treatment of the future where
humans' minds are scanned into machines: what senses do you have in a virtual
world? How do you spend your time when you want for nothing? What do love and
reproduction mean? Space exploration when you slow your subject day to a solar
year. Wonderful, beautiful, and mind-bending.

[http://www.gregegan.net/DIASPORA/DIASPORA.html](http://www.gregegan.net/DIASPORA/DIASPORA.html)

It used to be hard to find, but these days it seems to be available [edit: at
least digitally] (ebook, audio) from the retailers you'd expect.

It's not a "change your outlook on life" kind of book, but as a science
fiction exploration of humanity's distant "singularity" future, set in 2975,
it was the best I've read. (I would appreciate references to any other books
on those topics - I haven't found many.)

~~~
cscharenberg
Same here. It profoundly widened my ideas on the universe and how to deal
conceptually with its immensity in time and space. It's a beautiful story.

His other books have been so-so, but his short stories are the hardest science
fiction around. Nobody else has explored ideas of quantum mechanics
intersecting with biology and humanity like he has. I think "Axiomatic" is a
good set of them.

~~~
elzr
> how to deal conceptually with its immensity in time and space

Yes! Dimensions (not even the most objective, physical ones) are not absolutes
but subject to changing, creative interpretation through the abilities of our
tech.

Compare the meaning of a meter when squirming vs walking vs cycling vs driving
vs flying... Modern computing makes a mockery of our past capabilities for
information processing / storage / transmission.

Put another way, "there is no bad or good weather, only different gear
requirements."

Same goes for everything, not only distance & information, but also scale,
temperature, calories, food, output, wealth, energy, users, complexity,
manufacturing effort, ... and time! Both time as speed (how much happens in a
certain period) and time as something to traverse (need to wait for a result
for decades or centuries). With Diaspora & Permutation City I first learned to
imagine a future where we could treat centuries with the same amused
detachment with which we now treat intercontinental distances as we jet over
the oceans.

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ggreer
Disclaimer: I've read and enjoyed most of his books and short stories, but
Egan's not for everyone. He favors ideas and world-building over characters
and storytelling.

I most like Egan when he avoids math and goes to a dark, cynical place. His
short story _The Extra_ [1] is probably the best example. If you like _The
Extra_ , you'll probably enjoy _Blindsight_ by Peter Watts[2]. Some of the
late Ian M. Banks titles fit as well: _Against a Dark Background_ and _Matter_
are both grim, somewhat hard sci-fi.

If you're a fan of Greg Egan, you'll likely enjoy Ted Chiang[3]. He doesn't
write much, but he writes well.

1\.
[http://eidolon.net/?story=The%20Extra](http://eidolon.net/?story=The%20Extra)

2\.
[http://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm](http://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm)

3\.
[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/130698.Ted_Chiang](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/130698.Ted_Chiang)

~~~
zem
and if you do like egan for the worldbuilding, check out stephen baxter as
well. 'vacuum diagrams' makes a good introduction.

~~~
diego898
thank you both for these suggestions! Ive been searching to try and find
something like Egan. Ill definitely give these a read!

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thisjepisje
I'm reading Schild's Ladder atm, wherein the fictional Quantum Graph Theory
plays a large role. This is the first paragraph:

 _In the beginning was a graph, more like diamond than graphite. Every node in
this graph was tetravalent: connected by four edges to four other nodes. By a
count of edges, the shortest path from any node back to itself was a loop six
edges long. Every node belonged to twenty-four such loops, as well as forty-
eight loops eight edges long, and four hundred and eighty that were ten edges
long. The edges had no length or shape, the nodes no position; the graph
consisted only of the fact that some nodes were connected to others. This
pattern of connections, repeated endlessly, was all there was._

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timruffles
If you've not read any of Greg Egan's books this is your lucky day - an
incredible writer to discover! His books have an unusually high ideas/page
ratio, and are very readable.

~~~
ianmcgowan
For some definition of readable. Be prepared to have yours eyes glaze over at
certain points, but it's well worth the struggle to push on through.

~~~
pavel_lishin
I've had friends mention that they liked Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon",
except for the lengthy digressions into mathematics. One day, I'll get mad at
them, and get revenge by suggesting an Egan novel.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
That's funny: the _only_ thing I usually like about Neal Stephenson books are
the digressions into nonfictional material. Everything else is just a needless
exercise in people being shitty to one-another and Stephenson re-announcing
his belief in '90s-era "hacker" ideologies.

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diego898
Permutation City was completely unlike anything I have ever read. I love
Egan's works and couldn't recommend them any higher!

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otikik
Axiomatic is one of my favourite short sci-fi stories books.

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mercurialshark
2/3 way through Incandescence (first GE book I've read). Not disappointed. Was
on the hunt for Stephenson equivalent in brilliance of writing, but with
slightly more hard science. Wow...

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whitten
I liked Eternal Flame and Clockwork Rocket, they are an interesting
exploration of the possibility that the Time is an actual spatial dimension
orthogonal to the other three spatial ones.

