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rjkamaladasa 's review for:
Permutation City
by Greg Egan
This is what Science fiction should be. If you're tired of the post-apocalyptic bullshit that comes out every other day, this should be a breath of fresh air.
This book gives me Hope. Hope about the human condition. Hope about Existentialism/Absurdism. Hope about Artificial Intelligence. Hope about Enlightenment/Nirvana. Hope about theoretical physics and it's pursuits to understand the Universe. And perhaps most importantly, hope about the genre of Science Fiction.
Sure, there's less character build up and less depth to the characters than one would expect. But that's not the point of the genre. The point of science fiction is to transcend current culture/morality and weave a future of higher ethics, one that would be in-line with the practical development of technology and philosophical understanding that new science may bring. This book does exactly that.
Without giving away the plot, I will tell you this. The author plays with the idea that a Self comes into being as long as it's coherent and has no internal inconsistencies. In that sense, our consciousness can be mapped to a computer simulation and we wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Taking this a step further, as long as a string of information is coherent and has no internal inconsistencies, the Self will always form, even if the information is scattered throughout Time and Space. The information will always find itself, and the concept of "you" will always be there. With or without a computer to simulate it. Enlightened yet? But wait, there's more. The Universe itself is a Self. As long as the laws of physics are coherent and has no internal inconsistencies, Time and Space will find itself and create itself. A universe out of nothing. We are here because we can.
Cellular automation and artificial life, artificial universes with its own laws of physics, virtual realities and computing power economies, "Solophist Nations", speculations about general relativity, immortality, death, rebirth, transcending physical emotion, there are so many ideas that the book plays with, it's impossible not to have your jaw dropped while reading some of the chapters.
The book comes with a very high recommendation. Go and read it!
This book gives me Hope. Hope about the human condition. Hope about Existentialism/Absurdism. Hope about Artificial Intelligence. Hope about Enlightenment/Nirvana. Hope about theoretical physics and it's pursuits to understand the Universe. And perhaps most importantly, hope about the genre of Science Fiction.
Sure, there's less character build up and less depth to the characters than one would expect. But that's not the point of the genre. The point of science fiction is to transcend current culture/morality and weave a future of higher ethics, one that would be in-line with the practical development of technology and philosophical understanding that new science may bring. This book does exactly that.
Without giving away the plot, I will tell you this. The author plays with the idea that a Self comes into being as long as it's coherent and has no internal inconsistencies. In that sense, our consciousness can be mapped to a computer simulation and we wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Taking this a step further, as long as a string of information is coherent and has no internal inconsistencies, the Self will always form, even if the information is scattered throughout Time and Space. The information will always find itself, and the concept of "you" will always be there. With or without a computer to simulate it. Enlightened yet? But wait, there's more. The Universe itself is a Self. As long as the laws of physics are coherent and has no internal inconsistencies, Time and Space will find itself and create itself. A universe out of nothing. We are here because we can.
Cellular automation and artificial life, artificial universes with its own laws of physics, virtual realities and computing power economies, "Solophist Nations", speculations about general relativity, immortality, death, rebirth, transcending physical emotion, there are so many ideas that the book plays with, it's impossible not to have your jaw dropped while reading some of the chapters.
The book comes with a very high recommendation. Go and read it!