Permutation City and Simulated Realities

Hello Nerdfighters! This week, Zoë (aka nobmouse) talks about Greg Egan's second novel, 'Permutation City', and the Dust Theory of reality it created.

For more information on the Dust theory, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_symmetry#Greg_Egan.27s_Dust_Theory

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[MitchellLeary1]

Permutation City is my favorite book also, and I'm hoping that one day they'll make it into a movie. Many of Greg Egan's stories would make great movies or even short vignettes like Twilight Zone episodes. Hopefully we won't have to wait until he's dead before Hollywood takes notice, as they did with Philip K. Dick. Check out Egan's other books such as Axiomatic and Incandescent, both books of his short stories, which seem to be his forte.

[OMGTHERERNONAMESAAGH]

@nobmouse Nope, not at all. I only saw it recently, so I'm only marginally more informed than you on pop culture phenomena.

[nobmouse]

@OMGTHERERNONAMESAAGH Is it bad of me to admit that I've not seen that film yet?

[nobmouse]

@mistressredbird Ah, right. Sorry. I wouldn't say it's the most mind-blowing in history. Egan topped it in 'Diaspora' (which takes the 'digital human' idea and runs with it into a series of different universes, including several five-dimensional-space universes) and then topped it *again* in 'Schild's Ladder', where he destroys a lot of reality; replacing it with something even weirder.

[nobmouse]

@BigGuyZee Isn't it just? :D

[OMGTHERERNONAMESAAGH]

...we need to go deeper O.o (srry for obviously ripping off Inception, but it seems fitting)

[mistressredbird]

@nobmouse I don't mean to suggest they stole the idea!! I just mean that it must be the most mind-twisting book in history.

[BigGuyZee]

Quite mind-blowing stuff near the end of that video. lol

[nobmouse]

@mistressredbird A little, yes. However, this book predates 'The Matrix' by five years.

[mistressredbird]

It's like...Inception meets the Matrix. Sounds good!