Finished Greg Egan’s 1994 novel Permutation City. Egan retains the title as the singularly most challenging science fiction writer I have ever read in my life. Granted, I’m not a sci-fi completist but I find it hard to believe that there are more than one or two other hard sf writers who are in his class. Egan’s work is not easy reading, but it’s definitely worth the effort.
The Wikipedia page for Permutation City is actually a pretty good summary despite a few Wikiwarts. The essence of the book is a deep exploration of the consequences of viable computational simulation of human consciousness. Many other Singularity or “nerd rapture” books have this aspect as a feature, but they often have as a bug an implicit assumption that humans can straightforwardly make the transition to such an existence. Egan doesn’t take this easy path.
The Wikipedia entry lingers a little too long on the geeky computing aspects of the story, but the real reward is the varied characters who make the ultimate transition into a simulated “immortality”. And their varied human reactions. There’s the reluctant creator of both the simulated Elysium and a computational alien world within it. There’s the pair of stowaway lovers who get immortality but can’t join the society on which they’re essentially parasites. There’s the privileged asshole who carries a guilty secret into an infinite life, and winds up descending into a self-made hell.
When you get down to it, Egan does a deep dive into the philosophical question of if you can simulate consciousness into infinity, what does it actually mean to be human anymore?
P.S. The chapter titles are cute, and I’m sure there’s an Easter Egg or two beyond the play on the title.
P.P.S. If you’re looking for a taste of how hard Egan’s work can be, check out the FAQ for Permutation City