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Permutation City

(12)

| Mass Market Paperback | 9780061054815

Book Description

The good news is that you have just awakened into Eternal Life. You are going to live forever. Immortality is a reality. A medical miracle? Not exactly.

The bad news is that you are a scrap of electronic code. The world you see around you, the you that is seeing it, has been digitizeContinue

4 Reviews

Mizzica che libro. La realta' non mi e' piu' sembrata la stessa, dopo.

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― Paolo Verrocchio said on Nov 27, 2009 | Add your feedback

Mind- but not soul-expanding

This is a good book, and I think I must read it again soon to appreciate it better but my initial impressions are that, while it stretches the intellect with many new possibilities of Matrix-like proportions (subjects include: almost infinitely regressive computer simulation; the ability to lead mul ... (continue)

This is a good book, and I think I must read it again soon to appreciate it better but my initial impressions are that, while it stretches the intellect with many new possibilities of Matrix-like proportions (subjects include: almost infinitely regressive computer simulation; the ability to lead multiple digitally cloned lives; speculations on personality, memory and the relativity of time in an environment where one can create and run copies of oneself; worlds that are completely malleable, with the ability to replicate and provide themselves with unlimited virtual space and processing power, and a scenario in which a simulacrum of biological life allows the evolution of beings whose sentience, increasing intelligence and consciousness are capable of shaping the bounds of their 'reality' simply through the operation of the organising principles of mind itself), it leaves the soul somewhat detached.
There are real people in here, with their own existential crises but their speculations are philosophical, not emotional; their problems appear to the reader to be just, well, permutations, variations on a theme, a libretto, an equation. Perhaps that is the intention of the author, to show through the lack of depth developing in these digital adventurers as they delve deeper into their new simulated realm, the fundamental difficulty of remaining fully human. However, I doubt it. At one point, a lead character craves to be amongst flesh-and-blood people again but despite the apparently plaintive cry, one has no authentic connection to the personal reasons why this might be, any more than you could say that an addict craves their drug for affective rather than reasons of altered cellular chemistry.
Recommended as a tightly-written piece of speculative fiction only. The author probably had nothing else in mind, and certainly don't expect to be engaged on multiple levels.

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― OwnedLibrarian said on Aug 3, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback