Permutation City Blog

In another collection of short stories Egan explorers some of the places he's visited before. Several pieces of history are filled in. He wonders about the ethics causing the evolution of an intelligent race and all the suffering it must entail.

A story of two parts. One follows a traditional themes for Egan dealing with software sentience, it's transfer into real bodies, and the exploration of the galaxy. The other is from alien viewpoint as they explore the way their world works and what will happen to it. Although I enjoyed this it didn't seem to add much new to Egan's work.

In this world people are able to re-wire their brains using neural mods. Want a phone inside your head, a travel guide, or a hallucination to replace your dead wife? They are all available at your local nanoware shop. The story follows a detective trying to find an immobile brain damaged patient who has disappeared from hospital.

This book follows a number of different software "people" when they decide to look outside their closed world and explore the universe instead. This follows of of Egan's traditional ideas mathematics, physics, and conciousness. I particularly like the first chapter which follows the genesis of one of the main characters inside his computer womb.

A heavily physics inspired book mixing up Egan's traditional ideas about the nature of reality and the boundaries of the mind. A physics experiment gone wrong threatens to devour the galaxy if left unchecked.

A book that examines the nature of reality and simulation asking "Is there really any difference between them?" An blend of cyberspace, psychology, and artificial life. Do you want to create your own universe and can you? If you thought living forever just meant living for a really long time then think again. Remember, don't look at the fractal basilisk.