Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Prospectiva Interview With - Greg Egan

This is from Google Translate :-

The original url is at the bottom.


http://translate.google.com.au/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.literaturaprospectiva.com%2F%3Fp%3D6337&sl=es&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

"The trilogy, titled Orthogonal, takes place in a universe that has laws of physics different from ours. A minus sign becomes a plus sign in the basic formula that governs the geometry of space-time, resulting in a terrifying series of branching while beautiful, affecting everything that has to do with light, time and energy. For starters, light travels at different speeds depending on their color, so when you look at the sky at night can see "trails of colors" to show how the stars have moved over the centuries.

At first my plan was to write a single book, but when I reached the 120,000 words and had only told the story of the first of several characters who travel in space for several generations, I asked my editor if I could divide it into three volumes. I think it was a good idea, if he had tried to tell the whole story in a book, do not know if could have resisted the temptation to make it shorter. In this way I can do justice to each of the characters who live in different times, and handle all aspects of the universe itself unusual. This site has so much to discover that put everything in a book would have been impossible."


4 out of 5

http://www.literaturaprospectiva.com/?p=6337

Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Novella

Number of words : 20700
Percent of complex words : 12.9
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 15.9


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 11.5
Flesch : 59.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.0


PEOPLE

Azar

Traveller to Tallulah from the Amalgam.

Shelma

A Bahari who meets Azar at Tallulah.

Shirin

Azar's great-great-granddaughter.

Jake

Spiral Out follower.

Tilly

Spiral Out follower.

Juhi

Spiral Out follower.

Rahul

Spiral Out follower.

Omar

A progressive Circler.

Lisa

A Circler.

Silas

A Circler.

Judah

A Circler spokesman.

Tarek

A Circler.

Santo

A Spiral Out delegate to the Amalgam.



PLACES

Hanuz

Azar's home system.

Tallulah

The planet Azar travels to, a world with no sun over a thousand light years from her home.

Bahar

A nearby solar system to Hanuz. Their people have five limbs and five tails.

Jute

A Tallulah colony.


TECHNOLOGY

Departure Gate

The launching off point for travelling to the new system.

Mologhat 1 and 2

Robot Probes to Tallulah.

Antimatter store

Powers Robot Probes and other such space craft.

Thermocouple

A junction between two different metals that produces a voltage related to a temperature difference.

Rail gun

Device for accelerating a payload rapidly into orbit.

Femtotech

The engineering of matter on the scale of atomic nuclei.

Mass spectrometer

Machine for measuring chemical composition.

Hoops

Made of something extraordinarily strong, spinning at close to the speed of light. A power source on Tallulah.

Deep-bore geothermal turbines

Used for specialized research projects.

Scout mites

Exploration and communication tiny tech.

Photonic jet

Used for moving Tallulah.

Geothermal cannons

Used for moving Tallulah to allow evacuations.

Deep rock graft

Used for seeding other worlds.



ORGANISATIONS

Amalgam

The meta-civilization that now ringed the galaxy.

Circlers

A Tallulah philosophy of those that want to stay on the planet.

Spiral In

A Tallulah philosophy. Followers that want to leave their bodies and become information. They do so and embed their minds in the deep rock of the planet.

Spiral Out

A Tallulah philosophy. Followers want to leave the planet.



CONCEPTS

C3

A carbohydrate polymer replicator.

P2

A polypeptide replicator.

Thermoelectric diffusion

In a particular Tallulah plant the electrons and holes would conduct heat from the ground up into the leaves, and in doing so they'd set up an electric potential, which in turn could be used to drive chemical reactions.

Chemosynthesis

Process of extracting energy from chemicals a la photosynthesis.

N2

DNA, Azar's ancestral replicator.

N3

A hereditary replicator.

Magnetic moment

A quantity that determines the force the magnet can exert on electric currents and the torque that a magnetic field will exert on it.

Next Passengers

The group that will use Tallulah in the future.


PLANTS

Entropy tree

Operates on thermoelectric diffusion, a living thermocouple.

Ribbon weed

A Tallulah common plant, also comes in giant varieties.



RACES

P2 Lizards

The current inhabitants of Tallulah. Two eight-clawed limbs that they used for digging and grasping objects; all their motive force came from their powerful tails. They sensed the world around them with a mixture of IR vision and sonar.

Builders

Creators of Tallulah. The Ground Heaters.

Old Passengers

Lived on Tallulah after the Builders.


ANIMALS

Tallulah wildlife

Shrimp-like animals straining microbes from the water, floating gas bladders with poisonous tentacles, and sinuous, muscular fish of every size among others.


VEHICLES

Mologhat 3

The probe for use in returning to the Amalgam.


PLOT

An Amalgam story.

Azar travels from her homeworld to the Tallulah system to explore this strange world with no sun. She is met there by Shelma, and together they explorer and finally make contact with the locals. A lizard-like people with their own political divisions, conservative, progressive explorers, and inward turning transhumanists.

The planet's technology allows extremely efficient conversion of energy, allowing it to stay warm without a star, and also the storage of those who leave their bodies to exist as information.

The conservative faction sees the arrival of aliens as a threat, and a precursor to a new wave of settling on the planet, and conflict erupts. One of their Spiral Out friends is taken hostage. They have to try and find a compromise to keep him safe, and allow those who want to make contact with the Amalgam to do so.


4 out of 5

Tallulah wildlife : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Shrimp-like animals straining microbes from the water, floating gas bladders with poisonous tentacles, and sinuous, muscular fish of every size among others.


3.5 out of 5

Old Passengers : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Lived on Tallulah after the Builders.


4 out of 5

Builders : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Creators of Tallulah. The Ground Heaters.


4 out of 5

P2 Lizards : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

The current inhabitants of Tallulah. Two eight-clawed limbs that they used for digging and grasping objects; all their motive force came from their powerful tails. They sensed the world around them with a mixture of IR vision and sonar.


4 out of 5

Ribbon weed : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Tallulah common plant, also comes in giant varieties.


4 out of 5

Entropy tree : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Operates on thermoelectric diffusion, a living thermocouple.


4 out of 5

Next Passengers : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

The group that will use Tallulah in the future.


4 out of 5

Magnetic moment : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A quantity that determines the force the magnet can exert on electric currents and the torque that a magnetic field will exert on it.


3 out of 5

N3 : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A hereditary replicator.


4 out of 5

N2 : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

DNA, Azar's ancestral replicator.


4 out of 5

Chemosynthesis : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Process of extracting energy from chemicals a la photosynthesis.


3.5 out of 5

Thermoelectric diffusion : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

In a particular Tallulah plant the electrons and holes would conduct heat from the ground up into the leaves, and in doing so they'd set up an electric potential, which in turn could be used to drive chemical reactions.


4 out of 5

P2 : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A polypeptide replicator.


4 out of 5

C3 : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A carbohydrate polymer replicator.


4 out of 5

Mologhat 3 : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

The probe for use in returning to the Amalgam.


4 out of 5

Spiral Out : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Tallulah philosophy. Followers want to leave the planet.


4 out of 5

Spiral In : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Tallulah philosophy. Followers that want to leave their bodies and become information. They do so and embed their minds in the deep rock of the planet.


4 out of 5

Circlers : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Tallulah philosophy of those that want to stay on the planet.


4 out of 5

Amalgam : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

The meta-civilization that now ringed the galaxy.


4 out of 5

Deep rock graft : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Used for seeding other worlds.


4 out of 5

Geothermal cannons : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Used for moving Tallulah to allow evacuations.


4 out of 5

Photonic jet : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Used for moving Tallulah.


4 out of 5

Scout mites : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Exploration and communication tiny tech.


4 out of 5

Deep-bore geothermal turbines : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Used for specialized research projects.


3.5 out of 5

Hoops : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Made of something extraordinarily strong, spinning at close to the speed of light. A power source on Tallulah.


4 out of 5

Mass spectrometer : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Machine for measuring chemical composition.


3 out of 5

Femtotech : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

The engineering of matter on the scale of atomic nuclei.


4 out of 5

Rail gun : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Device for accelerating a payload rapidly into orbit.


3.5 out of 5

Thermocouple : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A junction between two different metals that produces a voltage related to a temperature difference.


4 out of 5

Antimatter store : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Powers Robot Probes and other such space craft.


4 out of 5

Mologhat 1 and 2 : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Robot Probes to Tallulah.


4 out of 5

Departure Gate : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

The launching off point for travelling to the new system.


4 out of 5

Jute : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Tallulah colony.


4 out of 5

Bahar : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A nearby solar system to Hanuz. Their people have five limbs and five tails.


3.5 out of 5

Tallulah : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

The planet Azar travels to, a world with no sun over a thousand light years from her home.


4 out of 5

Hanuz : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Azar's home system.


4 out of 5

Santo : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Spiral Out delegate to the Amalgam.


3 out of 5

Tarek : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Circler.


3 out of 5

Judah : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Circler spokesman.


3.5 out of 5

Silas : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Circler.


3 out of 5

Lisa : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Circler.


3 out of 5

Omar : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A progressive Circler.


3.5 out of 5

Rahul : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Spiral Out follower.


3.5 out of 5

Juhi : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Spiral Out follower.


3.5 out of 5

Tilly : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Spiral Out follower.


3.5 out of 5

Jake : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Spiral Out follower.


3.5 out of 5

Shirin : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Azar's great-great-granddaughter.


3 out of 5

Shelma : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

A Bahari who meets Azar at Tallulah.


3.5 out of 5

Azar : Hot Rock - Greg Egan

Traveller to Tallulah from the Amalgam.


4 out of 5

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

Short Story

Number of words : 5500
Percent of complex words : 12.3
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 19.6


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 12.7
Flesch : 54.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 10.5


PEOPLE

James

A husband to be.

Alison

His wife to be.

Francis Chen

An astronomer who looked for time-reversed galaxies in space.

Hazzard and Capaldi and Wu

Astronomers who work on the hardware to communicate between future and past.

Pria

James and Alison's best man.

Lisa

A political staffer and mistress of James.

Henry Kissinger

A politician.

Maura

A politician.


PLACES

Kashmir

Disputed region between India and Pakistan where war breaks out in 2079.


ORGANISATIONS

Fulvio's

A restaurant on Martin Place.

St Vincent's

A hospital with a Casualty Department.

God Averts His Gaze

A cult with the political balance of power in 2077.


TECHNOLOGY

Hazzard Machines

Allows transmissions of messages from the future, 128 bytes per person per day.

ROMs

Digital information discs.


CONCEPTS

Shunting

Fictional theory that you can avoid something preordained communicated from the future.


PLOT

Astronomers discover that time reverses with the contraction of the universe. This allows the construction of machines that allow people's past and future selves to communicate - the amount of which is limited by bandwidth, and, of course, government desires on what people should actually know when it comes to wars. People of course cannot be made to communicate with their past selves, and a mistress of James desire to not do so, her pragmatism and political job and some conversations leads him to some terrifying realisations about what is going on.


3.5 out of 5

Shunting : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

Fictional theory that you can avoid something preordained communicated from the future.


4 out of 5

ROMs : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

Digital information discs.


4 out of 5

Hazzard Machines : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

Allows transmissions of messages from the future, 128 bytes per person per day.


4 out of 5

God Averts His Gaze : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

A cult with the political balance of power in 2077.


3.5 out of 5

St Vincent's : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

A hospital with a Casualty Department.


4 out of 5

Kashmir : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

Disputed region between India and Pakistan where war breaks out in 2079.


3.5 out of 5

Fulvio's : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

A restaurant on Martin Place.


3.5 out of 5

Maura : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

A politician.


3 out of 5

Henry Kissinger : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

A politician.


3 out of 5

Lisa : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

A political staffer and mistress of James.


3.5 out of 5

Pria : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

James and Alison's best man.


3 out of 5

Hazzard and Capaldi and Wu : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

Astronomers who work on the hardware to communicate between future and past.


3 out of 5

Francis Chen : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

An astronomer who looked for time-reversed galaxies in space.


3 out of 5

Alison : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

His wife to be.


3.5 out of 5

James : The Hundred Light-Year Diary : Greg Egan

A husband to be.


4 out of 5

Glory - Greg Egan

Novelette

Number of words : 10300
Percent of complex words : 12.7
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 23.9


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 14.6
Flesch : 51.4
Flesch-Kincaid : 12.0


PEOPLE

Joan

Amalgam Xenomathematican traveller in matter-antimatter needleship as data.

Anne

Amalgman traveller in matter-antimatter needleship as data.

Pirit

A Ghahari researcher.

Sando

The senior Noudah archaeologist.

Surat

One of the Noudah archaeologists.

Rali

One of the Noudah archaeologists.

Halzoun

A Noudah mathematician supervisor. Also a tedious spook type.

Jaqad

An academic archaeologist who is well connected in Tira.

Daya

A Noudah.


TECHNOLOGY

Antihydrogen

Antimatter equivalent of the hydrogen element.

Antiprotons

Antimatter equivalent of the proton.

Antineutrons

Antimatter equivalent of the neutron.

Gamma ray lasers

Used for making antimatter/matter spaceships.

Fullerene

A particular form or carbon.

Nanomachines

Very small builder robots.


CONCEPTS

Quantum Zeno effect

Keeps the decay in check to allow the antimatter process to work.

Chromatophores

Change the colours of a Noudah's skin.

Hypercube

A cube of greater than three dimensions.

The Big Crunch

A Niah desire for the unification of every field of mathematics that they considered significant.

Glory

The particles of fog were scattering the sunlight back, toward them, turning it one hundred and eighty degrees, causing a visible halo effect. Also: every black hole had its glory, twisting light around it in a tight, close orbit and flinging it back out again.

Quark-gluon plasma

A hot soup of elementary particles.

Baryon decay process

Doesn't exist.

Spreaders

Expansionist races.

Seekers

Races that look knowledge and insight from the world around it rather than expanding after money and power.

Sheath fluid

Bodily substance of a Noudah.


RACES

Noudah

People of the planet Joan and Anne visit.

Niah

An ancient Noudah people.


VEHICLES

Matter-antimatter needleship

Capable of extreme speeds and carrying passengers as information.

Small fusion-powered spacecraft

Vehicles built by the traveller's nanomachines to fit Noudah-level technology.


ORGANISATIONS

Amalgam

The metacivilization that spanned the galactic disk.


PLACES

Baneth

The gas giant's moon in the Noudah home system.

Tira

A dominant Noudah nation.

Ghahar

The other dominant Noudah nation.

The Cataract

A black hole remote partner to the Noudah's sun. Orbiting each other at a distance of about eighty billion kilometers.


MEDIA

Seekers and Spreaders: What We Must Learn from the Niah

An article in a Tiran journal.


PLOT

The Amalgman sends two scientists as information in a tiny ship to the Noudah homeworld. They want to study the ancient Niah mathematics, a race that lasted for three million years, but whose ancient artifact sites are in imminent peril.

After convincing the locals that they are aliens, Joan and Anne are each taken to one of the dominant Noudah nations. This splitting up leads to paranoia as each country worries the other has forced the aliens to spill their tech secrets. Violence erupts and Anne is a victim as she tries to get the information back to the Amalgam via a black hole trick. Joan will not let herself be used, either, and she can instantly turn off her Noudah body if she desires.


4.5 out of 5

http://outofthiseos.typepad.com/blog/files/GregEganGlory.pdf

Seekers and Spreaders: What We Must Learn from the Niah : Glory - Greg Egan

An article in a Tiran journal.


4 out of 5

The Cataract : Glory - Greg Egan

A black hole remote partner to the Noudah's sun. Orbiting each other at a distance of about eighty billion kilometers.


4 out of 5

Ghahar : Glory - Greg Egan

The other dominant Noudah nation.


4 out of 5

Tira : Glory - Greg Egan

A dominant Noudah nation.


4 out of 5

Baneth : Glory - Greg Egan

The gas giant's moon in the Noudah home system.


3.5 out of 5

Amalgam : Glory - Greg Egan

The metacivilization that spanned the galactic disk.


4 out of 5

Sheath fluid : Glory - Greg Egan

Bodily substance of a Noudah.


4 out of 5

Small fusion-powered spacecraft : Glory - Greg Egan

Vehicles built by the traveller's nanomachines to fit Noudah-level technology.


4 out of 5

Matter-antimatter needleship : Glory - Greg Egan

Capable of extreme speeds and carrying passengers as information.


4 out of 5

Niah : Glory - Greg Egan

An ancient Noudah people.


4 out of 5

Noudah : Glory - Greg Egan

People of the planet they visit.


4 out of 5

Seekers : Glory - Greg Egan

Races that look knowledge and insight from the world around it rather than expanding after money and power.


4 out of 5

Baryon decay process : Glory - Greg Egan

Doesn't exist.


3 out of 5

Spreaders : Glory - Greg Egan

Expansionist races.


4 out of 5

Quark-gluon plasma : Glory - Greg Egan

A hot soup of elementary particles.


3 out of 5

Glory : Glory - Greg Egan

The particles of fog were scattering the sunlight back, toward them, turning it one hundred and eighty degrees, causing a visible halo effect. Also: every black hole had its glory, twisting light around it in a tight, close orbit and flinging it back out again.


4 out of 5

The Big Crunch : Glory - Greg Egan

A Niah desire for the unification of every field of mathematics that they considered significant.


4 out of 5

Hypercube : Glory - Greg Egan

A cube of greater than three dimensions.


4 out of 5

Chromatophores : Glory - Greg Egan

Change the colours of a Noudah's skin.


3.5 out of 5

Quantum Zeno effect : Glory - Greg Egan

Keeps the decay in check to allow the antimatter process to work.


4 out of 5

Nanomachines : Glory - Greg Egan

Very small builder robots.


4 out of 5

Fullerene : Glory - Greg Egan

A particular form or carbon.


3.5 out of 5

Gamma ray lasers : Glory - Greg Egan

Used for making antimatter/matter spaceships.


4 out of 5

Antineutrons : Glory - Greg Egan

Antimatter equivalent of the neutron.


4 out of 5

Antiprotons : Glory - Greg Egan

Antimatter equivalent of the proton.


4 out of 5

Antihydrogen : Glory - Greg Egan

Antimatter equivalent of the hydrogen element.


4 out of 5

Daya : Glory - Greg Egan

A Noudah.


3 out of 5

Jaqad : Glory - Greg Egan

An academic archaeologist who is well connected in Tira.


3 out of 5

Halzoun : Glory - Greg Egan

A Noudah mathematician supervisor. Also a tedious spook type.


3 out of 5

Rali : Glory - Greg Egan

One of the Noudah archaeologists.


3 out of 5

Surat : Glory - Greg Egan

One of the Noudah archaeologists.


3 out of 5

Sando : Glory - Greg Egan

The senior Noudah archaeologist.


3.5 out of 5

Pirit : Glory - Greg Egan

A Ghahari researcher.


3.5 out of 5

Anne : Glory - Greg Egan

Amalgman traveller in matter-antimatter needleship as data.


3.5 out of 5

Joan : Glory - Greg Egan

Amalgam Xenomathematican traveller in matter-antimatter needleship as data.


4 out of 5

The Extra - Greg Egan

Short Story

Number of words : 6300
Percent of complex words : 13.3
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 23.3


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 14.6
Flesch : 49.2
Flesch-Kincaid : 12.2


PEOPLE

Daniel Gray

A wealthy man with Extras.

Sarah Brash

Owner of Continental Bio-Logic, and a recent former lover of Daniel's. She has a child by one of his Extras.

C7

The Extra Daniel and Sarah used for sex.

D12

The Extra Daniel chooses for a brain transplant.


TECHNOLOGY

Extras

Congenitally brain-damaged clones of oneself for organ replacement or brain transplant.

CONCEPTS

Batch D

Gray's most recent group of Extras.


PLOT

Daniel and Sarah are billionaires with enough money to have clones of themselves grown to use in keeping themselves healthy and alive. The clones retain some sex drive, and one night they include C7 in a bondage threesome. Sarah gets pregnant by the Extra, and sues Daniel for paternity payments.

Daniel, to try and one-up Sarah on the PR front decides to undergo a brain transplan to his Extra D12. However, he wakes up as his old self in his old body - so what state is the Extra in? There would appear to be two versions of Daniel Gray now, given how the younger D12 body was talking to the doctors.


4 out of 5


http://eidolon.net/?story=The%20Extra&pagetitle=The+Extra§ion=fiction

Batch D : The Extra - Greg Egan

Gray's most recent group of Extras.


4 out of 5

Extras : The Extra - Greg Egan

Congenitally brain-damaged clones of oneself for organ replacement or brain transplant.


4 out of 5

D12 : The Extra - Greg Egan

The Extra Daniel chooses for a brain transplant.


3.5 out of 5

C7 : The Extra - Greg Egan

The Extra Daniel and Sarah used for sex.


3.5 out of 5

Sarah Brash : The Extra - Greg Egan

Owner of Continental Bio-Logic, and a recent former lover of Daniel's. She has a child by one of his Extras.


3.5 out of 5

Daniel Gray : The Extra - Greg Egan

A wealthy man with Extras.


4 out of 5

Friday, November 26, 2010

Eugene - Greg Egan

Short Story

Number of words : 5500
Percent of complex words : 15.7
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 20.9


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 14.6
Flesch : 48.7
Flesch-Kincaid : 11.6


PEOPLE

Angela Cooper

Lottery millionaire mother who wants an enhanced son.

Bill Cooper

Lottery millionaire father who wants an enhanced son.

Sam Cook

MB BS MD FRACP PhD MBA. A reproductive specialist.

Elvis Presley

An early rock singer.

Eugene

Bill and Angela's future child.

Kant

A philosopher.

Beethoven

A composer.


TECHNOLOGY

Perspex

A transparent thermoplastic.

IVF

In-vitro fertilisation.


ORGANISATIONS

Human Potential

A genetic engineering company.

Department of Social Security

Australian government department.

Department of Defence

Australian government department.


PLACES

Melbourne

Capital of Victoria.

Alice Springs

City in the Northern Territory.


CONCEPTS

Neo-blacks

People who have taken a viral treatment to turn their skin black and make it more resistant to skin cancer and radiation given the ozone depletion.

Muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease

Genetic conditions Human Potential can eliminate.

TPGM

Third-party genetic material.

Grand Unified Field Theory

Merged interaction of the fundamental forces.


VEHICLES

Roll-Royces

Expensive cars.


MEDIA

Van Goghs

Old paintings.



PLOT

Bill and Angela meet and decide they are compatible, so do the usual thing. After winning the lottery they decide to have a child that has undergone gene therapy.

The act and possibility of doing so with so many millions behind it earns them a visit from the future-possible avatar of the child - who doesn't see any point in his existence as they desired it, tells them this briefly, empties their banks accounts, and vanishes.

The three people involved go back to their lives.


4 out of 5

Van Goghs : Eugene - Greg Egan

Old paintings.


3 out of 5

Roll-Royces : Eugene - Greg Egan

Expensive cars.


3 out of 5

Grand Unified Field Theory : Eugene - Greg Egan

Merged interaction of the fundamental forces.


3 out of 5

TPGM : Eugene - Greg Egan

Third-party genetic material.


3.5 out of 5

Muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease : Eugene - Greg Egan

Genetic conditions Human Potential can eliminate.


3 out of 5

Neo-blacks : Eugene - Greg Egan

People who have taken a viral treatment to turn their skin black and make it more resistant to skin cancer and radiation given the ozone depletion.


4 out of 5

Alice Springs : Eugene - Greg Egan

City in the Northern Territory.


3 out of 5

Melbourne : Eugene - Greg Egan

Capital of Victoria.


3.5 out of 5

Department of Defence : Eugene - Greg Egan

Australian government department.


3 out of 5

Department of Social Security : Eugene - Greg Egan

Australian government department.


3 out of 5

Human Potential : Eugene - Greg Egan

A genetic engineering company.


4 out of 5

IVF : Eugene - Greg Egan

In-vitro fertilisation.


3 out of 5

Perspex : Eugene - Greg Egan

A transparent thermoplastic.


3 out of 5

Beethoven : Eugene - Greg Egan

A composer.


3 out of 5

Kant : Eugene - Greg Egan

A philosopher.


3 out of 5

Eugene : Eugene - Greg Egan

Bill and Angela's future child.


3.5 out of 5

Elvis Presley : Eugene - Greg Egan

An early rock singer.


3 out of 5

Sam Cook : Eugene - Greg Egan

MB BS MD FRACP PhD MBA. A reproductive specialist.


3.5 out of 5

Bill Cooper : Eugene - Greg Egan

Lottery millionaire father who wants an enhanced son.


4 out of 5

Angela Cooper : Eugene - Greg Egan

Lottery millionaire mother who wants an enhanced son.


4 out of 5

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Dust - Greg Egan

Novelette

Number of words : 12300
Percent of complex words : 12.7
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 12.3


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 10.0
Flesch : 58.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 8.2


PEOPLE

Paul Durham

Experimenter with Copies of himself.

Dali and Giger

Painters and artists.

Martin Sandover

Former US President and crook.

Tsang Chao and Michael Nyman and Philip Glass

Composers.

Elizabeth

Paul's girlfriend.

Cleopatra or Ramses II

Ancient Egyptian rulers.

Rembrandt and Picasso

Painters and artists.


TECHNOLOGY

Copy

Computer representation of a human created by scanning their brain.

Telepresence

Remote operation of robots.


CONCEPTS

Strong AI Hypothesis

Declares that consciousness is a property of certain algorithms, independent of their implementation.

Gaia

Earth deity.


MEDIA

Principia

A mathematical tome.

Mishima

A Glass composition.

David

A statue by Michaelangelo.


PLACES

Canberra

Capital of Australia.

Sydney

Capital of NSW.

New York

American city.


ORGANISATIONS

Hitachi Supercomputer Facility

In Tokyo. One of the processors Durham uses in his experiments.


PLOT

Paul Durham is creating copies of himself by brain scanning to see if running them via massively distributed processing results in something equivalent to reality. And it doesn't matter where they are run, geographically. Being programs, they can also be run at varying speeds. The Dust Theory.

His girlfriend Elizabeth doesn't like what he is doing, and suggests if he is going to inflict this on Copies, he should undergo it himself, and she helps him set things up so that he thinks he is a copy in a simulation.


5 out of 5

Hitachi Supercomputer Facility : Dust - Greg Egan

In Tokyo. One of the processors Durham uses in his experiments.


3 out of 5

New York : Dust - Greg Egan

American city.


3 out of 5

Sydney : Dust - Greg Egan

Capital of NSW.


3.5 out of 5

Canberra : Dust - Greg Egan

Capital of Australia.


3 out of 5

David : Dust - Greg Egan

A statue by Michaelangelo.


3 out of 5

Mishima : Dust - Greg Egan

A Glass composition.


3.5 out of 5

Principia : Dust - Greg Egan

A mathematical tome.


3 out of 5

Gaia : Dust - Greg Egan

Earth deity.


3 out of 5

Strong AI Hypothesis : Dust - Greg Egan

Declares that consciousness is a property of certain algorithms, independent of their implementation.


4 out of 5

Telepresence : Dust - Greg Egan

Remote operation of robots.


3.5 out of 5

Copy : Dust - Greg Egan

Computer representation of a human created by scanning their brain.


4 out of 5

Rembrandt and Picasso : Dust - Greg Egan

Painters and artists.


3 out of 5

Cleopatra or Ramses II : Dust - Greg Egan

Ancient Egyptian rulers.


3 out of 5

Elizabeth : Dust - Greg Egan

Paul's girlfriend.


3.5 out of 5

Tsang Chao and Michael Nyman and Philip Glass : Dust - Greg Egan

Composers.


3 out of 5

Martin Sandover : Dust - Greg Egan

Former US President and crook.


3 out of 5

Dali and Giger : Dust - Greg Egan

Painters and artists.


3 out of 5

Paul Durham : Dust - Greg Egan

Experimenter with Copies of himself.


4.5 out of 5

The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

Short Story

Number of words : 6000
Percent of complex words : 11.4
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 15.5

READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 10.7
Flesch : 60.9
Flesch-Kincaid : 8.6



PEOPLE

Demon

The first intelligent tumour.

Chief Oncologist

Head of the department working on the tumour.

Billy

A tumour also known as Spinecrusher.


VEHICLES

Shuttle

The space shuttle.


PLACES

Surry Hills

Suburb in Sydney where the Australian Biotech Playground is located.

King's Cross

Haunt of prostitutes in Sydney.

Belsen

A concentration camp.

Brussels

City in Belgium.

Wellington

City in New Zealand.

Cairns

City in Queensland.


ORGANISATIONS

Australian Biotech Playground

A skyscraper that holds many and varied research facilities with a shopping arcade on the ground floor. Floors two to ten hold consulting rooms: neurologists, endocrinologists, gynaecologists, rheumatologists. Floors eleven to eighteen house a wide range of pathology labs. Nineteen to twenty-five are filled with the offices of pharmaceuticals and medical instrumentation firms. Twenty-six to thirty hold libraries, conference rooms, and row after row of
quiet offices. Thirty-one to forty is administration and marketing. On top of that is a simulated Viennese cafe which revolves. Underneath the shoppers are five levels of research labs: flow cytometry, mass spectrometry,
X-ray crystallography, high performance liquid chromatography. Nuclear magnetic
resonance. There's a level of cold-rooms and freezers. There's a level of equipment stores, and another for chemicals. Second-lowest is where they keep the computers. Four of them, big as elephants. And underneath them all is the animal house.


CONCEPTS

Doppler effect

Change in frequency of a wave relative to a moving body.

Marquat-Levenberg algorithm

A numerical method for minimising a function.

Parkinson's disease

A degenerative neurological condition.

Dopamine

A neurotransmitter.

MIPS

Millions of instructions per second for a computer.


MEDIA

Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare

Television doctor characters.


PLOT

Research at the Australian Biotech Playground has come up with an advanced tumour - feeding it rats and rabbits for growth it appears it has become intelligent. A sardonic tour of the facility is constructed for the reader by the tumour, suggesting that the operations there perhaps may be a tad unethical. They are doing tumour research to look into using controlled cancers as producers of other substances people may lack and to treat other conditions. However, an intelligent being may question their own worth and whether it and its telepathic powers should live.


3.5 out of 5


http://eidolon.net/?story=The%20Demons%20Passage&pagetitle=The+Demon's+Passage§ion=fiction

Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

Television doctor characters.


3 out of 5

MIPS : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

Millions of instructions per second for a computer.


3 out of 5

Dopamine : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

A neurotransmitter.


3 out of 5

Parkinson's disease : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

A degenerative neurological condition.


3 out of 5

Marquat-Levenberg algorithm : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

A numerical method for minimising a function.


3 out of 5

Doppler effect : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

Change in frequency of a wave relative to a moving body.


3 out of 5

Australian Biotech Playground : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

A skyscraper that holds many and varied research facilities with a shopping arcade on the ground floor. Floors two to ten hold consulting rooms: neurologists, endocrinologists, gynaecologists, rheumatologists. Floors eleven to eighteen house a wide range of pathology labs. Nineteen to twenty-five are filled with the offices of pharmaceuticals and medical instrumentation firms. Twenty-six to thirty hold libraries, conference rooms, and row after row of
quiet offices. Thirty-one to forty is administration and marketing. On top of that is a simulated Viennese cafe which revolves. Underneath the shoppers are five levels of research labs: flow cytometry, mass spectrometry,
X-ray crystallography, high performance liquid chromatography. Nuclear magnetic
resonance. There's a level of cold-rooms and freezers. There's a level of equipment stores, and another for chemicals. Second-lowest is where they keep the computers. Four of them, big as elephants. And underneath them all is the animal house.


4 out of 5

Cairns : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

City in Queensland.


3 out of 5

Wellington : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

City in New Zealand.


3 out of 5

Brussels : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

City in Belgium.


3 out of 5

Belsen : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

A concentration camp.


3 out of 5

King's Cross : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

Haunt of prostitutes in Sydney.


3 out of 5

Surry Hills : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

Suburb in Sydney where the Australian Biotech Playground is located.


3.5 out of 5

Shuttle : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

The space shuttle.


3 out of 5

Billy : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

A tumour also known as Spinecrusher.


3 out of 5

Chief Oncologist : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

Head of the department working on the tumour.


3 out of 5

Demon : The Demon's Passage - Greg Egan

The first intelligent tumour.


4 out of 5

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Zendegi - Greg Egan

Novel

Number of words : 110000
Percent of complex words : 11.1
Average syllables per word : 1.5
Average words per sentence : 24.1


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 14.1
Flesch : 53.5
Flesch-Kincaid : 11.8


PEOPLE

Martin Seymour

An Australian foreign correspondent who gets an assignment in Tehran and ends up staying.

Nasim Golestani

An Iranian computer researcher in the USA who returns home after political changes. Also a cousin of Mahnoosh.

Javeed Seymour

Martin's young son.

Alice

A friend of Martin's.

Annie Lennox

Singer for the Eurythmics.

Liz

Martin's ex.

Peter Cook

A comedian and actor.

Haroun

A passenger on a flight who gives Martin music software advice.

Dariush Ansari

Founder of Hezb-e-Haalaa. Is killed.

Omar

Martin's neighbour and friend who will care for his son.

Hassan Jabari

A high-ranking Iranian jurist and politician who gets caught with a trans prostitute. Member of the Guardian Council.

Shoukouh

The trans prostitute whom Martin and Omar help.

Shah

A former ruler of Iran.

Ayatollah Khomeini

A former ruler of Iran.

Behrouz

Martin's fellow journalist, a local.

Kambiz

A student Martin met in the run-up to the election.

Zahra Amin

A reporter from the reformist weekly Emkaanha.

Fariba

A Tehran University student Martin interviews during a demonstration.

Majid

An accounting student demonstrator.

Jane Frampton

A science journalist and author of The Sociobiology of The Simpsons and The Metaphysics of Melrose Place.

Nate Caplan

A brilliant entrepreneur who approaches Nasim - fancies living forever via technology.

Professor John Redland

Faculty on the HCP.

Christopher

IT Tech support for the HCP.

Judith

Co-worker of Nasim's.

Mike

Co-worker of Nasim's. Recently dumped his girlfriend.

Shen

Co-worker of Nasim's.

Melville

An American author.

Proust

A French author.

Dinesh

A co-worker of Nasim's who comes up with HETE.

Sandra Knight

A foreign correspondent.

Mahnoosh

A march organiser who gives Martin information and later becomes his wife.

Rana

Omar's wife.

Mohsen

Rana's father-in-law.

Farshid

Rana and Omar's son.

Zachary Churchland

An octogenarian oil billionaire who had raised the possibility of funding his own brain-mapping project. Also fancies living forever via technology.

William S. Burroughs

An author.

Congressman Fitzwaller

Chairman of the Select Committee dealing with the HCP.

Kourosh Ansari

Brother of Dariush. Becomes President.

Mossadegh

An Iranian prime minister ousted by Churchill and Eisenhower and the CIA.

Karim

A young man who’d spotted Martin taking pictures near Abadan.

Nasim's mother

Left Iran when her husband was executed. Writes a book called After Oil and is headhunted by Kourosh Ansari as an adviser for the new Iran.

Donald Rumsfeld

Dodgy American politician.

Vin Diesel

An actor making a comeback The Chronicles of Kulos, to be shot in the Negev.

Robert Smith

Singer for The Cure.

Bahador

Nasim's chief engineer at Zendegi.

Nahid

Rana's mother-in-law.

Azimi

Iranian football captain and ex-player for Hoffenheim. Mapped as software for a Zendegi game as Virtual Azimi.

Gita Razavi

A critic for Generation 2012.

Michelle Bello

PR for the BSBSP.

Conrad Esch

Director for the BSBSP.

Farah, Chalipa, Asa and Azita

Women used in Nasim's Blank Fariba proxy testing.

Mark and Rachel

Australians who came to Martin's wedding.

Hojatoleslam Shahidi

An anti-AI cleric.

Dr Jobrani

Treats Martin's cancer.

Tim Ritchie

A 1980s 2JJJ presenter.

Reza

Man who buys Martin's shop on Enqelab Avenue to turn into a gym.

Solzhenitsyn

Russian author.

Dr Zahedi

Helps with the Martin proxy recording.

Jafar Falaki

Of Falaki Associates. Looks into the Zendegi security breach.

Arif Bahrani

A tech worker with Zendegi.

Milad

A Zendegi programmer.

Hamid

Nasim's ex-husband.

Bernard

Helped Martin with the scanning, planning on staying in Iran.

Rollo

The CHL hacker who meets with Nasim.

Ali and Zahra

A murdered Afghan family Martin knew in Bamyam Province.


MEDIA

Devo

A band.

The Residents

A band.

The Virgin Prunes

A band.

Elvis Costello

A singer and guitarist.

The Smiths

A band.

Eurythmics

A band.

Touch

A Eurythmics album.

Talking Heads

A band.

The Cure

A band.

The Pretenders

A band.

Paul Kelly

An Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist.

St Kilda to King's Cross

A Paul Kelly Song.

To Her Door

A Paul Kelly song about a break-up and reconciliation.

You Can't Take It With You

A Paul Kelly Song.

The Slave Girl and the Caliph

A story in Arabic.

Saturday Night Live

An American weekly comedy tv show.

Al Jazeera

Arab news channel.

IRIB

Iranian broadcaster.

You Can't Hurry Love

Song covered by Phil Collins.

Run Run Run

Hunters and Collectors song.

Dancing Queen

An ABBA song.

Hunters and Collectors

An Australian band.

Rusholme Ruffians

A Smiths song.

Teddy Bear

An Elvis Presley song.

Enter Sandman

A Metallica song.

LOLCat Diaries

A movie.

The Moor's Last Sigh

A Salman Rushdie novel.

U2

A band.

Shahnameh

A thousand year old Persian epic, popular in Zendegi. Martin and Javeed play this.

Murder in Manolos

A gossipy VR whodunnit set among North Tehran’s Mall Princess cliques.

Midnight Oil

An Australian band.

Carry Me

A Hunters and Collectors song.

Jailhouse Rock

A song covered by The Residents.

The Grapes of Wrath, Animal Farm, Catch-22, and Slaughterhouse-Five

Novels Martin chooses to keep dead tree versions of for his son as he sells his shop.

The Diary of Anne Frank, Down and Out in Paris and London, and The Gulag Archipelago

Non-fiction Martin chooses to keep dead tree versions of for his son as he sells his shop.

Harmony

A VR SF soap opera game.

Minions of Eblis

A Zendegi game.

Bedazzled

A Peter Cook deal with the devil movie.



TECHNOLOGY

Audacity

Open source sound editing software.

Groundhog Cage

Software Alice constructed that made thirty-day free-trial software think it was always on the first day of the trial.

Shalwar kameez

Iranian garment.

HCP

Human Connectome Project. A brain mapping project that Nasim worked on.

AcTach

A reality-mining plug-in that learns about academic networking using physical proximity, along with email and calling patterns.

Tinkle

A femtoblogging service going through a beta trial.

Murmur

A lower-level platform that Tinkle and AcTach run on.

Lichtman-Livet-Sanes ‘Brainbow’ technique

Making neurons that fluoresce.

ATLUM

An Automatic Tape-collecting Lathe Ultra Microtom. A brain peeler used for mapping the grey matter..

Human Excrement Treatment Ecosystems

The aim of the HETE project was to develop a whole portfolio of microbial communities that could render human waste safe in almost any situation, with an absolute minimum of labour and no expensive infrastructure.

Slightly Smart mobile phones

Can do mesh networking.

PowerFlirt and HookMeUp

Speed dating software that works via location of the person.

Zendegi

A mutiplayer online virtual reality that Nasim works for.

Cyber-ketab

An ebook reader.

Blank Frank

A new computer Proxy and AI Nasim works on using her old research, to make it more advanced and capable of better reactions.

Blank Fariba

As Blank Frank, but a female version.

Ghal'eha

VR stations people rent time on in shops.

Proxies

Computer generated characters in virtual reality.



ORGANISATIONS

Eikonometrics

Swiss company who want to see if they can classify images by flashing them on a monitor subliminally and looking at the viewer’s brain activity.

Hezb-e-Haalaa

Iranian political party. Literally the Party of Now.

Hezbollah

The ‘Party of God’.

Guardian Council

Fascist fundamentalist ruling body in Iran.

Majlis

Iranian political body.

VEVAK

The Iranian intelligence service.

Basijis

Iranian militia thugs.

Hungry Mind Cafe

Near the HCP.

House Select Committee

Group of US politicians that deal with a particular area of importance.

Anglo-Iranian Oil Company

Used to control Abadan.

MEK

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq, the People’s Army of Iran - a nationalist group formed in opposition to the Shah.

Ministry of the Interior

Iranian government department.

Iranian-American Friendship Council

Nate Caplan donates to them to try and get Nasim on side.

Benign Superintelligence Bootstrap Project

Wants to start off an AI singularity.

Alcor

A cryonics company. Have Zachary Churchland's corpsicle.

People of the Book

Martin's bookshop.

Cyber-Jahan

Succesful major VR competitor of Zendegi's.

Happy Universe

Another VR provider.

Crowds and Power

Games effect subcontractor.

CHL

The Cis-Humanist League. Opposes the Zendegi AI research and hacks the environment.

FLOPS House

A computing service provider in Europe.



PLACES

Tehran

Capital of Iran.

Changi Airport

In Singapore.

Glebe

Suburb of Sydney.

Valiasr Street

One of Tehran's main thoroughfares.

Quetta

Pakistan city.

Ferdowsi Square

Site of an election demonstration in Tehran.

Shiraz

Site of a big demonstration in Iran while Nasim is in the US.

Jomhuri-ye-Eslami Avenue

A broad, elegant street, with a stately row of fountains where it met Baharestan Square in Tehran.

Cinema Europa and Cinema Hafez

In Tehran.

Saf Street

A protest march detour.

Sa'di Station

In Tehran.

Reagan Airport

In Washington DC.

Abadan

Ansari's birth town. Fifty kilometres inland from the Persian Gulf.

Arvand River

Renamed Shatt al-Arab when you crossed it. Goes to Southern Iran. Upstream is Basra.

Evin Prison

On the line where the northern suburbs of Tehran gave way, abruptly, to the Alborz Mountains.

Khavaran Cemetery

Where Behrouz's murdered brother was buried.

Section 240

A political wing of Evin prison.

Karbala

City in Iraq.

Kashmir

Indian-Pakistani region.

Bamyan

A province in Afghanistan.

Houston

US city and site of an anti-AI terrorist attack.

Kabul

Capital of Afghanistan.


CONCEPTS

Farsi

Persian language.

Dari

The Afghani dialect of Farsi.

Noruz

The Persian New Year.

Urdu

Pakistani muslim language.

Femtoblogging

Like microblogging, only snappier. It tells everyone in your network where you are and how you’re feeling, once a minute.

Thirty-Second Pitch

A thought game about selling yourself to a company with outlandish ideas.

Bioinformatics

The application of statistics and computer science to the field of molecular biology.

Sufi

A religion.

Muezzin

Person who leads the call to prayer at a mosque.

Velayat-e-faqih

Religious role of Iranian clerics as guardians of society.

Simorgh

Mythological giant bird with a dog's head.

Zal

An infant the Simorgh thinks looks tasty but decides to rear instead.

News Five Point Oh

Current iteration of journalism in the 2020s.

HigherTribe

Worse than News Five Point Oh.

Ta'arof

Ritual of gift giving and refusal.

Toman

A toman was ten Iranian rials. Five million tomans was about ten thousand US dollars.


ANIMALS

Zebra finch

A type of small bird. Lots of them used in the HCP.


FOOD

Ragout

A stew.

Khoresht sabzi

An Iranian fried meat and vegetable dish. http://www.iranchamber.com/recipes/meat/khoresht_qormeh_sabzi.php



PLOT

A simpler book for Egan.

This one follows two characters. Martin, an Australian journalist and foreign correspondent in Iran, and Nasim, an Iranian researcher studying artificial intelligence in the USA.

While Martin is there a conservative Iranian politician is caught with a tranvestite hooker. An even which becomes a trigger for protest and for the reformers to bring enough pressure to bear on the corrupt power-hungry regime of the mullahs to force elections and constitutional change.

It then skips forward in time to where Martin has married an Iranian woman he met during this time, and they have a son. Nasim moved back to help with the new Iran, along with her mother, and now works for a virtual reality MMO called Zendegi. She is also a cousin of Martin's wife.

Other organisations work towards superintelligent AI.

A breakthrough leads her to putting some of her old academic research to use in building proxy personalities for use in gaming. When Martin's wife is killed in a car accident, and he is diagnosed with serious liver cancer, he asks for Nasim's help in trying to build a proxy personality of him to help raise his son, who is still under double figures.

As the sophistication of these artificial personalities grows, so does opposition to them - on both religious and 'you will put a lot of us out of work' grounds.



4 out of 5

Khoresht sabzi : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An Iranian fried meat and vegetable dish. http://www.iranchamber.com/recipes/meat/khoresht_qormeh_sabzi.php


4 out of 5

Ragout : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A stew.


3 out of 5

Zebra finch : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A type of small bird. Lots of them used in the HCP.


4 out of 5

Toman : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A toman was ten Iranian rials. Five million tomans was about ten thousand US dollars.


4 out of 5

Ta'arof : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Ritual of gift giving and refusal.


3.5 out of 5

HigherTribe : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Worse than News Five Point Oh.


3 out of 5

News Five Point Oh : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Current iteration of journalism in the 2020s.


3 out of 5

Zal : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An infant the Simorgh thinks looks tasty but decides to rear instead.


4 out of 5

Simorgh : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Mythological giant bird with a dog's head.


4 out of 5

Proxies : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Computer generated characters in virtual reality.


4 out of 5

Velayat-e-faqih : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Religious role of Iranian clerics as guardians of society.


3 out of 5

Muezzin : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Person who leads the call to prayer at a mosque.


3 out of 5

Sufi : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A religion.


3 out of 5

Bioinformatics : Zendegi - Greg Egan

The application of statistics and computer science to the field of molecular biology.


4 out of 5

Thirty-Second Pitch : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A thought game about selling yourself to a company with outlandish ideas.


4 out of 5

Femtoblogging : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Like microblogging, only snappier. It tells everyone in your network where you are and how you’re feeling, once a minute.


4 out of 5

Urdu : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Pakistani muslim language.


3.5 out of 5

Noruz : Zendegi - Greg Egan

The Persian New Year.


3.5 out of 5

Dari : Zendegi - Greg Egan

The Afghani dialect of Farsi.


3.5 out of 5

Farsi : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Persian language.


4 out of 5

Kabul : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Capital of Afghanistan.


3 out of 5

Houston : Zendegi - Greg Egan

US city and site of an anti-AI terrorist attack.


3 out of 5

Bamyan : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A province in Afghanistan.


3.5 out of 5

Kashmir : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Indian-Pakistani region.


3 out of 5

Karbala : Zendegi - Greg Egan

City in Iraq.


3 out of 5

Section 240 : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A political wing of Evin prison.


4 out of 5

Khavaran Cemetery : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Where Behrouz's murdered brother was buried.


3.5 out of 5

Evin Prison : Zendegi - Greg Egan

On the line where the northern suburbs of Tehran gave way, abruptly, to the Alborz Mountains.


4 out of 5

Arvand River : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Renamed Shatt al-Arab when you crossed it. Renamed Shatt al-Arab when you crossed it. Goes to Southern Iran. Upstream is Basra.


3.5 out of 5

Abadan : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Ansari's birth town. Fifty kilometres inland from the Persian Gulf.


4 out of 5

Reagan Airport : Zendegi - Greg Egan

In Washington DC.


3 out of 5

Sa'di Station : Zendegi - Greg Egan

In Tehran.


3 out of 5

Saf Street : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A protest march detour.


3 out of 5

Cinema Europa and Cinema Hafez : Zendegi - Greg Egan

In Tehran.


3 out of 5

Jomhuri-ye-Eslami Avenue : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A broad, elegant street, with a stately row of fountains where it met Baharestan Square in Tehran.


3.5 out of 5

Shiraz : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Site of a big demonstration in Iran while Nasim is in the US.


3.5 out of 5

Ferdowsi Square : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Site of an election demonstration in Tehran.


4 out of 5

Quetta : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Pakistan city.


3 out of 5

Valiasr Street : Zendegi - Greg Egan

One of Tehran's main thoroughfares.


3.5 out of 5

Glebe : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Suburb of Sydney.


3 out of 5

Changi Airport : Zendegi - Greg Egan

In Singapore.


3 out of 5

Tehran : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Capital of Iran.


4 out of 5

FLOPS House : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A computing service provider in Europe.


3 out of 5

CHL : Zendegi - Greg Egan

The Cis-Humanist League. Opposes the Zendegi AI research and hacks the environment.


4 out of 5

Crowds and Power : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Games effect subcontractor.


3 out of 5

Happy Universe : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Another VR provider.


3 out of 5

Cyber-Jahan : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Succesful major VR competitor of Zendegi's.


3.5 out of 5

People of the Book : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Martin's bookshop.


4 out of 5

Alcor : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A cryonics company. Have Zachary Churchland's corpsicle.


3 out of 5

Benign Superintelligence Bootstrap Project : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Wants to start off an AI singularity.


3.5 out of 5

Iranian-American Friendship Council : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Nate Caplan donates to them to try and get Nasim on side.


3 out of 5

Ministry of the Interior : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Iranian government department.


3.5 out of 5

MEK : Zendegi - Greg Egan

The Mujahedin-e-Khalq, the People's Army of Iran - a nationalist group formed in opposition to the Shah.


3 out of 5

Anglo-Iranian Oil Company : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Used to control Abadan.


3 out of 5

House Select Committee : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Group of US politicians that deal with a particular area of importance.


3 out of 5

Hungry Mind Cafe : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Near the HCP.


3.5 out of 5

Basijis : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Iranian militia thugs.


3.5 out of 5

VEVAK : Zendegi - Greg Egan

The Iranian intelligence service.


3.5 out of 5

Majlis : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Iranian political body.


3.5 out of 5

Guardian Council : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Fascist fundamentalist ruling body in Iran.


3.5 out of 5

Hezbollah : Zendegi - Greg Egan

The ‘Party of God’.


3 out of 5

Hezb-e-Haalaa : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Iranian political party. Literally the Party of Now.


4 out of 5

Eikonometrics : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Swiss company who want to see if they can classify images by flashing them on a monitor subliminally and looking at the viewer’s brain activity.


3.5 out of 5

Ghal'eha : Zendegi - Greg Egan

VR stations people rent time on in shops.


4 out of 5

Blank Fariba : Zendegi - Greg Egan

As Blank Frank, but a female version.


4 out of 5

Blank Frank : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A new computer Proxy and AI Nasim works on using her old research, to make it more advanced and capable of better reactions.


4 out of 5

Cyber-ketab : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An ebook reader.


4 out of 5

Zendegi : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A mutiplayer online virtual reality that Nasim works for.


4 out of 5

PowerFlirt and HookMeUp : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Speed dating software that works via location of the person.


4 out of 5

Slightly Smart mobile phones : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Can do mesh networking.


4 out of 5

Human Excrement Treatment Ecosystems : Zendegi - Greg Egan

The aim of the HETE project was to develop a whole portfolio of microbial communities that could render human waste safe in almost any situation, with an absolute minimum of labour and no expensive infrastructure.


4 out of 5

ATLUM : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An Automatic Tape-collecting Lathe Ultra Microtom. A brain peeler used for mapping the grey matter..


3.5 out of 5

Lichtman-Livet-Sanes ‘Brainbow’ technique : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Making neurons that fluoresce.


3.5 out of 5

Murmur : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A lower-level platform that Tinkle and AcTach run on.


3.5 out of 5

Tinkle : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A femtoblogging service going through a beta trial.


3.5 out of 5

AcTach : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A reality-mining plug-in that learns about academic networking using physical proximity, along with email and calling patterns.


3.5 out of 5

HCP : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Human Connectome Project. A brain mapping project that Nasim worked on.


4 out of 5

Shalwar kameez : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Iranian garment.


3.5 out of 5

Groundhog Cage : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Software Alice constructed that made thirty-day free-trial software think it was always on the first day of the trial.


3.5 out of 5

Audacity : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Open source sound editing software.


4 out of 5

Monday, November 22, 2010

Minions of Eblis : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Zendegi game.


3 out of 5

Harmony : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A VR SF soap opera game.


3 out of 5

The Diary of Anne Frank, Down and Out in Paris and London, and The Gulag Archipelago : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Non-fiction Martin chooses to keep dead tree versions of for his son as he sells his shop.


3 out of 5

The Grapes of Wrath, Animal Farm, Catch-22, and Slaughterhouse-Five : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Novels Martin chooses to keep dead tree versions of for his son as he sells his shop.


3 out of 5

Jailhouse Rock : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A song covered by The Residents.


3 out of 5

Carry Me : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Hunters and Collectors song.


3 out of 5

Midnight Oil : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An Australian band.


3 out of 5

Murder in Manolos : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A gossipy VR whodunnit set among North Tehran’s Mall Princess cliques.


3 out of 5

Shahnameh : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A thousand year old Persian epic, popular in Zendegi. Martin and Javeed play this.


4 out of 5

The Moor's Last Sigh : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Salman Rushdie novel.


3 out of 5

Enter Sandman : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Metallica song.


3 out of 5

Teddy Bear : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An Elvis Presley song.


3 out of 5

Rusholme Ruffians : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Smiths song.


3 out of 5

Hunters and Collectors : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An Australian band.


3.5 out of 5

Dancing Queen : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An ABBA song.


3 out of 5

Run Run Run : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Hunters and Collectors song.


3 out of 5

You Can't Hurry Love : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Song covered by Phil Collins.


3 out of 5

IRIB : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Iranian broadcaster.


3.5 out of 5

Al Jazeera : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Arab news channel.


3 out of 5

Saturday Night Live : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An American weekly comedy tv show.


3 out of 5

The Slave Girl and the Caliph : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A story in Arabic.


3.5 out of 5

You Can't Take It With You : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Paul Kelly Song.


3 out of 5

To Her Door : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Paul Kelly song about a break-up and reconciliation.


3.5 out of 5

St Kilda to King's Cross : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Paul Kelly Song.


3 out of 5

Paul Kelly : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist.


4 out of 5

The Pretenders : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A band.


3 out of 5

The Cure : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A band.


3 out of 5

Talking Heads : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A band.


3 out of 5

Touch : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Eurythmics album.


3 out of 5

Eurythmics : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A band.


3.5 out of 5

The Smiths : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A band.


3 out of 5

Elvis Costello : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A singer and guitarist.


3 out of 5

The Virgin Prunes : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A band.


3 out of 5

The Residents : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A strange musical act.


3 out of 5

Devo : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A band.


3 out of 5

Ali and Zahra : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A murdered Afghan family Martin knew in Bamyam Province.


3 out of 5

Rollo : Zendegi - Greg Egan

The CHL hacker who meets with Nasim.


3 out of 5

Bernard : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Helped Martin with the scanning, planning on staying in Iran.


3 out of 5

Hamid : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Nasim's ex-husband.


3 out of 5

Milad : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Zendegi programmer.


3 out of 5

Arif Bahrani : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A tech worker with Zendegi.


3 out of 5

Jafar Falaki : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Of Falaki Associates. Looks into the Zendegi security breach.


3 out of 5

Dr Zahedi : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Helps with the Martin proxy recording.


3 out of 5

Solzhenitsyn : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Russian author.


3 out of 5

Reza : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Man who buys Martin's shop on Enqelab Avenue to turn into a gym.


3 out of 5

Tim Ritchie : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A 1980s 2JJJ presenter.


3 out of 5

Dr Jobrani : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Treats Martin's cancer.


3 out of 5

Hojatoleslam Shahidi : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An anti-AI cleric.


3 out of 5

Mark and Rachel : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Australians who came to Martin's wedding.


3 out of 5

Farah, Chalipa, Asa and Azita : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Women used in Nasim's Blank Fariba proxy testing.


3 out of 5

Conrad Esch : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Director for the BSBSP.


3 out of 5

Michelle Bello : Zendegi - Greg Egan

PR for the BSBSP.


3 out of 5

Gita Razavi : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A critic for Generation 2012.


3 out of 5

Azimi : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Iranian football captain and ex-player for Hoffenheim. Mapped as software for a Zendegi game as Virtual Azimi.


3 out of 5

Nahid : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Rana's mother-in-law.


3 out of 5

Bahador : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Nasim's chief engineer at Zendegi.


3.5 out of 5

Robert Smith : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Singer for The Cure.


3 out of 5

Vin Diesel : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An actor making a comeback The Chronicles of Kulos, to be shot in the Negev.


3 out of 5

Donald Rumsfeld : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Dodgy American politician.


3 out of 5

Nasim's mother : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Left Iran when her husband was executed. Writes a book called After Oil and is headhunted by Kourosh Ansari as an adviser for the new Iran.


3.5 out of 5

Karim : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A young man who’d spotted Martin taking pictures near Abadan.


3 out of 5

Mossadegh : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An Iranian prime minister ousted by Churchill and Eisenhower and the CIA.


3 out of 5

Kourosh Ansari : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Brother of Dariush. Becomes President.


3 out of 5

Congressman Fitzwaller : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Chairman of the Select Committee dealing with the HCP.


3 out of 5

William S. Burroughs : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An author.


3 out of 5

Zachary Churchland : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An octogenarian oil billionaire who had raised the possibility of funding his own brain-mapping project. Also fancies living forever via technology.


3 out of 5

Farshid : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Rana and Omar's son.


3 out of 5

Mohsen : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Rana's father-in-law.


3 out of 5

Rana : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Omar's wife.


3 out of 5

Mahnoosh : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A march organiser who gives Martin information and later becomes his wife.


3.5 out of 5

Sandra Knight : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A foreign correspondent.


3 out of 5

Dinesh : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A co-worker of Nasim's who comes up with HETE.


3 out of 5

Proust : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A French author.


3 out of 5

Melville : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An American author.


3 out of 5

Shen : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Co-worker of Nasim's.


3 out of 5

Mike : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Co-worker of Nasim's. Recently dumped his girlfriend.


3 out of 5

Judith : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Co-worker of Nasim's.


3 out of 5

Christopher : Zendegi - Greg Egan

IT Tech support for the HCP.


3 out of 5

Professor John Redland : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Faculty on the HCP.


3 out of 5

Nate Caplan : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A brilliant entrepreneur who approaches Nasim - fancies living forever via technology.


3.5 out of 5

Jane Frampton : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A science journalist and author of The Sociobiology of The Simpsons and The Metaphysics of Melrose Place.


3 out of 5

Majid : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An accounting student demonstrator.


3 out of 5

Fariba : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Tehran University student Martin interviews during a demonstration.


3 out of 5

Zahra Amin : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A reporter from the reformist weekly Emkaanha.


3 out of 5

Kambiz : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A student Martin met in the run-up to the election.


3 out of 5

Behrouz : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Martin's fellow journalist, a local.


3.5 out of 5

Ayatollah Khomeini : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A former ruler of Iran.


3 out of 5

Shah : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A former ruler of Iran.


3 out of 5

Shoukouh : Zendegi - Greg Egan

The trans prostitute whom Martin and Omar help.


3 out of 5

Hassan Jabari : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A high-ranking Iranian jurist and politician who gets caught with a trans prostitute. Member of the Guardian Council.


3 out of 5

Omar : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Martin's neighbour and friend who will care for his son.


3.5 out of 5

Dariush Ansari : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Founder of Hezb-e-Haalaa. Is killed.


3 out of 5

Haroun : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A passenger on a flight who gives Martin music software advice.


3 out of 5

Bedazzled : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A Peter Cook deal with the devil movie.


3 out of 5

Peter Cook : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A comedian and actor.


3 out of 5

Liz : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Martin's ex.


3 out of 5

Annie Lennox : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Singer for the Eurythmics.


3 out of 5

Alice : Zendegi - Greg Egan

A friend of Martin's.


3 out of 5

Javeed Seymour : Zendegi - Greg Egan

Martin's young son.


3.5 out of 5

Nasim Golestani : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An Iranian computer researcher in the USA who returns home after political changes. Also a cousin of Mahnoosh.


4 out of 5

Martin Seymour : Zendegi - Greg Egan

An Australian foreign correspondent who gets an assignment in Tehran and ends up staying.


4 out of 5

An Unusual Beginning - Karen Burnham

A short article about Egan's first mainstream novel :-

"But mostly there’s a kid in high school (the story covers four out of five years of schooling), way too bright for his classes, bored almost literally out of his skull. There are no characters other than the narrator; some of the teacher’s get names but they’re just archetypes. None of his classmates even get names. There’s no real antagonist here except “the system,” probably another reflection of those counter-culture mainstays. The (unnamed) narrator is disgusted by criticism and depicts in-class lit crit as an act of disgusting vivisection. He often uses scientific imagery, and he’s always way more precise about it than your average writer: he specifies that someone’s enthusiasm is “1000 watts (RMS),” and if you don’t understand what that means you can at least see that for most people it’s enough to say “1000 Watts” without specifying the measurement system."


3.5 out of 5

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