Permutation City Blog

Really enjoyed listening to this on Escape Pod. It's a science fiction story set after genetic engineering has changed society. People can now be specialised to perform specific function, such as the Arties mentioned in the title. Most striking is the story's slang, you have to dive in at the deep end and just work out what they're talking about.

Part of my English syllabus involved making presentations to the class. One of mine was based on this article and explored the sort of structures we might someday build in space. What impressed me at the time was the scale of things. It starts by blowing up asteroids like some sort of giant balloon and fitting an inhabitable ecosystem on the inside. Later on there is talk of "dismantling" gas giants to provide building material for Ringworlds or Dyson Spheres. After that it starts to get really outrageous.Bigger Than Worlds