Permutation city deals with a question common in cyberpunk and postcyberpunk works. As for permutation city, i too really enjoyed contemplating dust theory and its consequences. Away from a few dazzling patches of direct sunshine, everything glowed softly in the diffuse light. Bursting with ideas about artificial life, virtual realities, digital consciousness, etc originally posted at fantasy literature permutation city 1994 won the john w. The first known publication of the idea of event symmetry is in a work of science fiction rather than a journal of science citation needed.
My initial take on this as i was reading it was oh, so the point is that theres no free will at least for copies. A universe with conscious beings either finds itself in the dust. This study guide consists of approximately 38 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of permutation city. What is the best scientific argumentation against the dust.
Campbell award and is probably greg egans bestknown book. He labels this bizarre concept dust theory, and this forms the foundations for an even more dazzling idea, that of the turingvon neumannchiang tvc. A couple of questions regarding permutation city by greg. Permutation city is the tale of a man with a vision how to create immortality and how that vision becomes something way beyond his control. Throughout permutation city, egan writes about copies living seventeen times slower than real time. As the autoverse universe starts to take over permutation city maria says, its not just a matter of the lambertians outexplaining us. You have from the brilliant mind of greg egan, permutation city, first.
Like opponents replied that when you modeled a hurricane, nobody got wet. Permutation methods underlie forcing via booleanvalued models, nominal sets in computer science e. With the rise of the life sciences and darwins theory of evolution by natural selection in the nineteenth century, new answers to these questions were proposed that were deeply at. Permutations and combinations, the various ways in which objects from a set may be selected, generally without replacement, to form subsets. Is a stranger in a crowd less than human, just because you cant witness her inner life.
Cool, i just recently finished permutation city, too. More specifically, permutation city focuses on exploring one possible model of consciousness and reality, the logic of the dust theory of reality, or simply dust theory, similar to the ultimate ensemble. Ai, alife, and the posthuman in greg egans permutation city. Matrix short trick for up tgt pgt nvs tgt pgt ndakvs pgt punjab master cadre rpsc lt grade duration. For example, in permutation city there is an unexplained 17x slowdown of copies relative to real time. My take is that durhams dust theory comes from the experiment that he carries out early on where he runs his copy asynchronously on multiple computers in random order. When you modeled a fusion power plant, no energy was produced. The term event symmetry refers to invariance principles that have been used in some discrete approaches to quantum gravity where the diffeomorphism invariance of general relativity can be extended to a covariance under any permutation of spacetime events. Permutation city explores a chain of evermoreesoteric paradigms to arrive at the ultimate counterintuitive reality.
Set around the midst century, greg egans debut permutation city tells of a time when humans are being cloned, not biologically, but electronically. Campbell memorial award, the hugo award, and the locus award. Permutation city by greg egani dont read a lot of hard sf because my understanding of science is ru. And egan, like almost all other authors, conveniently leaves this possibility out.
Greg egan used the idea in a short story called dust in 1992 and expanded it into the novel permutation city in 1994. This selection of subsets is called a permutation when the order of selection is a factor, a combination when order is not a factor. Like ensemble in quarantine, and graph theory in schilds ladder. Sure, this is a common sciencefictional idea, but when i. These are ad hoc simulations employing knowledge from all levels of biology at the synapse and neurotransmitter level in the brain, but. More specifically, permutation city focuses on exploring one possible model of consciousness and reality, the logic of the dust theory of reality, or simply dust theory, similar to the ultimate ensemble mathematical universe hypothesis proposed by max tegmark. Permutation city by greg egan is a classic 20 years. Permutation city also is a treatment of an alternateuniverse model in which the universes all coexist and all comprise the same dust of individual events. This anthropocentric conceit is then undermined by the novels conclusion. Durham hurriedly creates a copy of the city and its residents and launches a new garden of eden city. A life in permutation city is unlike any life to which youre accus tomed. Permutation city is a brilliant book i can highly recommend to any scifi fan who has an interest in scientific and philosophical themes. Sam my question revolves around the theme of speed. But the main story is flat and almost emotionless with the barest excuse for a rationale, and the subplots are stuck into it haphazardly.
It focuses on a model of consciousness and reality, the dust theory, similar to the ultimate ensemble mathematical universe hypothesis proposed by max. More specifically, permutation city focuses on exploring one possible model of consciousness and reality, the logic of the dust theory of reality, or simply dust. Permutation city 1995 read online free book by greg egan. Paul durham is one of the main characters in the story. Basically i think the broken vase thing was about the idea that a computer s.
Multiplcation between two permutation in group theory and its inverse permutation. Egan used dust theory as a way of exploring the question of whether a perfect computer simulation of a person differs from the real thing. I havent read permutation city for a number a years but i believe what you are referring to leads to the central conceit of the book. Paul uncovered his eyes, and looked around the room. It has been well over a year since i first read permutation city and relating writings on the internet on greg egans dust theory. Egan used dust theory as a way of exploring the question of whether a perfect computer simulation of a person differs. Greg egan used the idea in a short story called dust in 1992 and expanded it into the novel permutation city in 1995. Nonetheless, the methods used in the study of permutation models live on. A theory of consciousness which the book does not offer, of course must be invoked to provide a context and an explanatoryempirical anchor for any such hypothesis. And it turns out that the dust theory works, that the copies survive, that elysium works, that delucas alien world works, and that it all keeps growing and expanding and evolving, unconnected from the real world they left behind. Greg egan used the idea in a short story called dust in 1992 16 and expanded it into the novel permutation city in 1995. Greg egan is arguably one of the greatest scifi authors of our time, and without reservation my favorite. The theory has been discussed tangentially in this community, but i havent found an article that directly addresses the rationality of egans own dismissal of the theory. Permutations are usually studied as combinatorial objects, we will see in this chapter that they have a natural group structure, and in fact, there is a deep connection between nite groups and permutations.
The second part of the story veers off wildly from the ordered nearfuture world, into the idea of the dust theory and the potentially eternal lives of electronic copies. Sections of the story were adapted from egans 1992 short story dust, which dealt with many of the same philosophical themes. Gregory benford, maureen kincaid speller, andrew m. Greg egan permutation city pdf a life in permutation city is unlike any life to which youre accus tomed. Permutation city is put in danger when the autoverse portion of the universe begins to corrupt the permutation city program and recreate it according to the lambertians theory of reality.
Egan literalizes these permutation theories by scattering dustlike cutup fragments of his original story throughout the expanded novel and using anagram. In permutation city this is called the logic of the dust theory. The theory of cosmology in permutation city is based largely on the anthropic principal, whereby the origin of the universe is constrained by the existence of the individual human, thus placing the human at the center of our particular realities. Permutation city is a 1994 sciencefiction novel by greg egan that explores many concepts, including quantum ontology, through various philosophical aspects of artificial life and simulated reality. If you enjoyed the characters learning what to do with their immortality, i highly recommend that you read diaspora, as well as some of egans short stories which deal with a transgalactic civilization called the amalgam. Its a tragic tale involving interesting characters i couldnt help but relate to, together with a fascinating delve into the the essence of consciousness and identity. It focuses on a model of consciousness and reality, the dust theory, similar to the ultimate ensemble mathematical universe hypothesis proposed by max tegmark. When they did, i immediately went to purchase diaspora, one of the best books, scifi or otherwise, that ive ever read. Something quite separate from the issues with the dust theory mentioned above, although these are all valid points.
I found it useful to visit his dust theory faq page to help me sit and contemplate his ideas. Permutation city is the tale of a man with a vision how to create immortality. Permutation city faq which is a kind of distorted anthropomorphic principle. What i regret most is my uncritical treatment of the idea of allowing intelligent life to evolve in the autoverse. Permutation city asks whether there is a difference between a computer simulation of a person and a real person. Permutation city was an engaging story from start to finish, and i am looking forward to reading more of greg egans work. In the 2050 world of permutation city, nothing as unrealistic as physical level simulation is possible, but there are copies of people. Overall, the ideas are fascinating, but the characters motivations are murky. What is the best scientific argumentation against the dust theory.