"The applet below displays a small spin network, and computes the amplitudes it assigns to geometries with a range of curvatures. You can choose different network topologies from the menu at the top of the applet, or click anywhere else to see a new network with the same topology but a different set of spins labelling the edges."
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/SCHILD/Spin/Spin.html
Monday, May 31, 2010
Decoherence Applet - Greg Egan
"The applet below allows you to perform three simulated experiments, which show how quantum behaviour is hidden when a system becomes entangled, but can be recovered by observations on the complete system. (These are not realistic experiments, but they serve as simple illustrations of the basic idea. Real experiments have been performed to verify these principles, mostly using photons.)"
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/SCHILD/Decoherence/DecoherenceApplet.html
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/SCHILD/Decoherence/DecoherenceApplet.html
Spin Networks - Greg Egan
"Spin networks are states of quantum geometry in a theory of quantum gravity, discovered by Lee Smolin and Carlo Rovelli, which is the conceptual ancestor of the imaginary physics of Schild's Ladder."
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/SCHILD/Spin/SN.html
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/SCHILD/Spin/SN.html
Decoherence - Greg Egan
"The basic idea is this: a quantum system, A, in isolation, behaves in a characteristically quantum-mechanical fashion, exhibiting interference effects that reflect the phase difference between the various components of its state vector. For example, if A consists of an electron in a state that is a superposition of equal parts spin up and spin down, there will be measurements that can be performed on the electron that will be sensitive to the phase relationship between these two components. This is quite different from the classical notion of probability: there isn't merely a 50% chance for the electron's spin to be up or down; rather, both possibilities exist simultaneously, and the phase describes a relationship between them that would be meaningless if either was absent."
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/SCHILD/Decoherence/Decoherence.html
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/SCHILD/Decoherence/Decoherence.html
Appearance of the Border - Greg Egan
"The border of the novo-vacuum is a sphere expanding at half the speed of light. Its apparent size in the sky is affected by the fact that when you look away from the closest point on the border, you're looking back further in time, and seeing it when it was smaller."
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/SCHILD/Appearance/Appearance.html
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/SCHILD/Appearance/Appearance.html
Cordelia's Tour Applet - Greg Egan
"This applet will generate a view of the sky for an observer anywhere near, or inside, a black hole. By dragging the blue circle below the image, you can reposition the viewpoint relative to the hole; clicking on the distance slider takes the viewpoint straight to the point you click. You can also move by hitting the left or right arrow keys, with the shift key down for larger steps. (Before using the keyboard, you must first click somewhere within the grey control panel.)"
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/PLANCK/Tour/TourApplet.html
4 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/PLANCK/Tour/TourApplet.html
Cordelia's Tour - Greg Egan
"The view from near, and inside, a black hole
Below are views at various distances from a black hole. These are wide-angle shots, each about 127° across (the same apparent width as a 4-metre object just 1 metre away). Distances are given in the “Schwarzschild r” coordinate — the circumference of a circle centred on the hole, divided by 2 π — and in units of “M”, which is a scale determined by the mass of the hole. For Chandrasekhar, a twelve solar-mass hole, M = 17.6 km. The event horizon lies at r = 2 M."
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/PLANCK/Tour/Tour.html
Below are views at various distances from a black hole. These are wide-angle shots, each about 127° across (the same apparent width as a 4-metre object just 1 metre away). Distances are given in the “Schwarzschild r” coordinate — the circumference of a circle centred on the hole, divided by 2 π — and in units of “M”, which is a scale determined by the mass of the hole. For Chandrasekhar, a twelve solar-mass hole, M = 17.6 km. The event horizon lies at r = 2 M."
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/PLANCK/Tour/Tour.html
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Microphysics - Greg Egan
"In quantum mechanics, every particle has a phase: a kind of abstract vector which rotates like the hand of a clock, turning at a constant rate in the particle's reference frame. In flat spacetime, a straight worldline represents motion with a constant velocity, and any detour from this causes time dilation, shortening the time — and hence reducing the phase shift — that a particle experiences as it travels between two given points."
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/PLANCK/Micro/Micro.html
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/PLANCK/Micro/Micro.html
The Dust Theory FAQ - Greg Egan
"Why an FAQ?
Since Permutation City was published in 1994, many readers have raised the same issues with me, again and again. Although I have replied to these questions before — in discussion group posts, interviews, and individual email responses — I thought I'd finally put my thoughts on this all in one place. So, almost thirteen years later, here is a kind of self-interview on the most contentious aspects of the book.
Q1: In the novel, Paul Durham runs a Copy of himself out of temporal order, skipping its mental state forward in time by ten seconds and then computing the intervening states backwards. Surely leaping over ten seconds of time without computing the intervening states would be impossible?
A1: Yes, it would almost certainly be impossible to compute the state of a complex computer model of a human brain and body at time t=10 from its state at time t=0, without computing thousands of intermediate states. So why did I include these scenes? Because this seemed like the simplest way to dramatise the notion that the arrangement of the successive states of the Copy in time (or space) should not affect its subjective experience."
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/PERMUTATION/FAQ/FAQ.html
Since Permutation City was published in 1994, many readers have raised the same issues with me, again and again. Although I have replied to these questions before — in discussion group posts, interviews, and individual email responses — I thought I'd finally put my thoughts on this all in one place. So, almost thirteen years later, here is a kind of self-interview on the most contentious aspects of the book.
Q1: In the novel, Paul Durham runs a Copy of himself out of temporal order, skipping its mental state forward in time by ten seconds and then computing the intervening states backwards. Surely leaping over ten seconds of time without computing the intervening states would be impossible?
A1: Yes, it would almost certainly be impossible to compute the state of a complex computer model of a human brain and body at time t=10 from its state at time t=0, without computing thousands of intermediate states. So why did I include these scenes? Because this seemed like the simplest way to dramatise the notion that the arrangement of the successive states of the Copy in time (or space) should not affect its subjective experience."
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/PERMUTATION/FAQ/FAQ.html
Kem's Results on Symmetry - Greg Egan
"In Chapter 20 of Incandescence, Kem stumbles upon an invaluable insight into the consequences of symmetry in curved geometry:
“I've been thinking about symmetries,” Kem said. “If you look at the relationship between the direction of a natural path and a motion of symmetry, it should be the same all along the path.”
What the Splinterites have discovered here is an incredibly beautiful and powerful result, which is known to us as Killing's theorem."
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/INCANDESCENCE/Symmetry/Symmetry.html
“I've been thinking about symmetries,” Kem said. “If you look at the relationship between the direction of a natural path and a motion of symmetry, it should be the same all along the path.”
What the Splinterites have discovered here is an incredibly beautiful and powerful result, which is known to us as Killing's theorem."
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/INCANDESCENCE/Symmetry/Symmetry.html
Deriving the Simplest Geometry - Greg Egan
"I
n Chapter 12 of Incandescence, the Splinterites succeed in deriving a possible geometry for the spacetime they inhabit. They come up with the simplest possible geometry that conforms to Zak's principle (that the sum of the three perpendicular “weights”, or tidal accelerations, is zero, after the effects of spin have been removed) while explaining the fact that the ratio of the garm-sard weight to the shomal-junub weight is less than the apparent historical value of three.
The spacetime geometry that they discover is what we would call the Schwarzschild spacetime, which is the geometry of the vacuum around any spherically symmetrical body whose spin and electrical charge are zero, such as a non-rotating black hole. In the novel there is a rough sketch of how they performed their calculations; this page gives the details. Nothing here will require prior knowledge of general relativity, and anyone should be able to get the gist of it, but you'll need a bit of high-school level algebra, trigonometry and calculus if you want to verify every calculation along the way."
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/INCANDESCENCE/Schwarzschild/Schwarzschild.html
n Chapter 12 of Incandescence, the Splinterites succeed in deriving a possible geometry for the spacetime they inhabit. They come up with the simplest possible geometry that conforms to Zak's principle (that the sum of the three perpendicular “weights”, or tidal accelerations, is zero, after the effects of spin have been removed) while explaining the fact that the ratio of the garm-sard weight to the shomal-junub weight is less than the apparent historical value of three.
The spacetime geometry that they discover is what we would call the Schwarzschild spacetime, which is the geometry of the vacuum around any spherically symmetrical body whose spin and electrical charge are zero, such as a non-rotating black hole. In the novel there is a rough sketch of how they performed their calculations; this page gives the details. Nothing here will require prior knowledge of general relativity, and anyone should be able to get the gist of it, but you'll need a bit of high-school level algebra, trigonometry and calculus if you want to verify every calculation along the way."
5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/INCANDESCENCE/Schwarzschild/Schwarzschild.html
Friday, May 28, 2010
Schema Poetics and Speculative Cosmology - Peter Stockwell
"There is a difficulty, though, with the detailed analysis of schema poetics in science fiction. If schemas within the sf universe are newly constructed, how are they instantiated in the first place? How does the reader know that particular schema headers are indeed headers of a schema that has never been encountered before? Again, this is handled in hard sf by stylistic means. Here is a typical example from Permutation City:
‘There’s a cellular automaton called TVC. After Turing, von Neumann and Chiang. Chiang completed it around twenty-ten; it’s a souped-up, more elegant version of von Neumann’s work from the nineteen fifties.’
Maria nodded uncertainly; she’d heard of all this, but it wasn’t her field. She did know that John von Neumann and his students had developed a two-dimensional cellular automaton, a simple universe in which you could embed an elaborate pattern of cells – a rather lego-like ‘machine’ – which acted as both a universal constructor and a universal computer. Given the right program – a string of cells to be interpreted as coded instructions rather than part of the machine – it could carry out any computation, and build anything at all. Including another copy of itself – which could build another copy, and so on. Little self-replicating toy computers could blossom into existence without end."
'Speculative cosmology is a sub-genre of science fiction that particularly focuses on the difficulties for the deployment of existing knowledge in reading. This article assesses the usefulness of competing models of world-monitoring in order to arrive at a usable framework for discussing the particular issues in science fictional reading. It is suggested that schema theory, while containing many flaws in general, nevertheless offers an appropriate degree of delicacy for the exploration of sf. Schema poetics - the application of the theory to the literary context - is used to discuss speculative cosmology, with a focus on the work of the Australian sf writer Greg Egan. The analysis investigates the connection between stylistic form and schema operation, and proposes an explanation of 'plausibility'. Specifically, sf tends to provide a readerly counterpart in the text, and thereby dramatizes schema refreshment as if it were mere schema accretion."
publication
Language and Literature - London
ISSN
0963-9470 electronic: 1461-7293
publisher
SAGE Publications
year - volume - issue - page
2003 - 12 - 3 - 252
4.5 out of 5
‘There’s a cellular automaton called TVC. After Turing, von Neumann and Chiang. Chiang completed it around twenty-ten; it’s a souped-up, more elegant version of von Neumann’s work from the nineteen fifties.’
Maria nodded uncertainly; she’d heard of all this, but it wasn’t her field. She did know that John von Neumann and his students had developed a two-dimensional cellular automaton, a simple universe in which you could embed an elaborate pattern of cells – a rather lego-like ‘machine’ – which acted as both a universal constructor and a universal computer. Given the right program – a string of cells to be interpreted as coded instructions rather than part of the machine – it could carry out any computation, and build anything at all. Including another copy of itself – which could build another copy, and so on. Little self-replicating toy computers could blossom into existence without end."
'Speculative cosmology is a sub-genre of science fiction that particularly focuses on the difficulties for the deployment of existing knowledge in reading. This article assesses the usefulness of competing models of world-monitoring in order to arrive at a usable framework for discussing the particular issues in science fictional reading. It is suggested that schema theory, while containing many flaws in general, nevertheless offers an appropriate degree of delicacy for the exploration of sf. Schema poetics - the application of the theory to the literary context - is used to discuss speculative cosmology, with a focus on the work of the Australian sf writer Greg Egan. The analysis investigates the connection between stylistic form and schema operation, and proposes an explanation of 'plausibility'. Specifically, sf tends to provide a readerly counterpart in the text, and thereby dramatizes schema refreshment as if it were mere schema accretion."
publication
Language and Literature - London
ISSN
0963-9470 electronic: 1461-7293
publisher
SAGE Publications
year - volume - issue - page
2003 - 12 - 3 - 252
4.5 out of 5
Iatrogenic Permutations: From Digital Genesis to the Artificial Other - Tama Leaver
"Discusses key issues concerning iatrogenic permutations from the artificial other to digital genesis. Examination of digital genesis from the perspectives of both embodied biological humans and their emergent digital counterparts; Taking digital existence and conscious software seriously and pushing logic consequences as far as possible; Implications on comparative literature studies."
Comparative Literature Studies; 2004, Vol. 41 Issue 3, p424-435, 12p
3.5 out of 5
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/comparative_literature_studies/v041/41.3leaver.html
Comparative Literature Studies; 2004, Vol. 41 Issue 3, p424-435, 12p
3.5 out of 5
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/comparative_literature_studies/v041/41.3leaver.html
Attempting Immortality: AI, A-Life, and the Posthuman in Greg Egan's "Permutation City" - Ross Farnell
A lengthy article.
"ABSTRACT
This paper argues that the combination of "hard" and "metaphysical" sf in Greg Egan's Permutation City provides a unique exploration of digital modes of being and immortality. His use of multiple paraspaces and subjective cosmologies challenges many assumptions regarding objectivity, the body, and identity, in a mediation of philosophy, theology, science, technology, and fantasy. The novel's spatio-temporal disruptions and the subjective fragmentation of digital topologies question what it is to be human, to be alive, and to be immortal. Juxtaposing AI Copies with evolved A-Life swarm-like entities, Egan explores the differences between these paradigms in the context of science fiction's quest to "live forever." Crossing the line between self-transformation and death, the Copies struggle against timeless time and trial by space, their panic bodies demonstrating ontological dislocation. Through abstraction, the Copies' non-bodies deny the most fundamental phenomenological experiences of corporeality, the viscer(e)al. Ultimately, they confirm that only the finite is bearable. The novel's A-Life reverse the logocentric (digital) gaze, removing the posthuman from center and exposing the Copies' hubris. Where the cybernetic posthuman falters, the non-human paradigms of A-Life adapt through enactive evolution to survive being immortal. Permutation City demonstrates how A-Life can offer sf a viable chance to narrate a true alien alterity divorced from Western metaphysical traditions, thus providing a valuable reflection on the human and the posthuman condition."
Attempting Immortality: AI, A-Life, and the Posthuman in Greg Egan's "Permutation City"
Ross Farnell
Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Mar., 2000), pp. 69-91
Published by: SF-TH Inc
4.5 out of 5
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4240849
"ABSTRACT
This paper argues that the combination of "hard" and "metaphysical" sf in Greg Egan's Permutation City provides a unique exploration of digital modes of being and immortality. His use of multiple paraspaces and subjective cosmologies challenges many assumptions regarding objectivity, the body, and identity, in a mediation of philosophy, theology, science, technology, and fantasy. The novel's spatio-temporal disruptions and the subjective fragmentation of digital topologies question what it is to be human, to be alive, and to be immortal. Juxtaposing AI Copies with evolved A-Life swarm-like entities, Egan explores the differences between these paradigms in the context of science fiction's quest to "live forever." Crossing the line between self-transformation and death, the Copies struggle against timeless time and trial by space, their panic bodies demonstrating ontological dislocation. Through abstraction, the Copies' non-bodies deny the most fundamental phenomenological experiences of corporeality, the viscer(e)al. Ultimately, they confirm that only the finite is bearable. The novel's A-Life reverse the logocentric (digital) gaze, removing the posthuman from center and exposing the Copies' hubris. Where the cybernetic posthuman falters, the non-human paradigms of A-Life adapt through enactive evolution to survive being immortal. Permutation City demonstrates how A-Life can offer sf a viable chance to narrate a true alien alterity divorced from Western metaphysical traditions, thus providing a valuable reflection on the human and the posthuman condition."
Attempting Immortality: AI, A-Life, and the Posthuman in Greg Egan's "Permutation City"
Ross Farnell
Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Mar., 2000), pp. 69-91
Published by: SF-TH Inc
4.5 out of 5
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4240849
Greg Egan - Gardner Dozois
From Supermen, Tales of the Posthuman Future:
"Looking back at the century that has just ended, it's obvious that Australian writer Greg Egan was one of the Big New Names to emerge in SF in the nineties, and is probably one of the most significant talents to enter the field in the last several decades. Already one of the most widely known of all Australian genre writers, Egan may well be the best new "hard science" writer to enter the field since Greg Bear, and he is still growing in range, power, and sophistication. In the last few years, he has become a frequent contributor to Interzone and Asimov's Science Fiction, and has made sales as well as to Pulphouse, Analog, Aurealis, Eidolon, and elsewhere. Many of his stories have also appeared in various "Best of the Year" series, and he was on the Hugo Final Ballot in 1995 for his story "Cocoon," which won the Ditmar Award and the Asimov's Readers Award. His first novel Quarantine appeared in 1992; his second novel Permutation City won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1994. He won the Hugo Award in 1999 for his novella "Oceanic." His other books include the novels Distress and Diaspora and three collections of his short fiction, Axiomatic, Luminous, and Our Lady of Chemobyl. His most recent book is a major new novel, Teranesia. He has a Web site at http://www.netspace.netau/^gregegan/.
Almost any story by Egan would have served perfectly well for this anthology. In fact, with the possible exception of Brian Stableford, Egan has probably written more about the posthuman future than any other writer of the last decade— being one of the key players in shaping current ideas about that future— and there were more than a dozen possibilities to choose from, including stories such as "Learning to Be Me," "Dust," "Fidelity," "Reasons to be Cheerful," "The Planck Dive," "Tap," "Oceanic," and many others ("Wang's Carpets" would have been perfect, but I had already used it in another of these anthologies). In fact, if I'd had room here to include two stories by any one author (which I didn't have), Egan would have been the one.
I finally settled on the dazzlingly imaginative story that follows, as it takes us as deep into that posthuman future as anything that Egan has yet written, for a compelling study of old loyalties and new possibilities."
4.5 out of 5
"Looking back at the century that has just ended, it's obvious that Australian writer Greg Egan was one of the Big New Names to emerge in SF in the nineties, and is probably one of the most significant talents to enter the field in the last several decades. Already one of the most widely known of all Australian genre writers, Egan may well be the best new "hard science" writer to enter the field since Greg Bear, and he is still growing in range, power, and sophistication. In the last few years, he has become a frequent contributor to Interzone and Asimov's Science Fiction, and has made sales as well as to Pulphouse, Analog, Aurealis, Eidolon, and elsewhere. Many of his stories have also appeared in various "Best of the Year" series, and he was on the Hugo Final Ballot in 1995 for his story "Cocoon," which won the Ditmar Award and the Asimov's Readers Award. His first novel Quarantine appeared in 1992; his second novel Permutation City won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1994. He won the Hugo Award in 1999 for his novella "Oceanic." His other books include the novels Distress and Diaspora and three collections of his short fiction, Axiomatic, Luminous, and Our Lady of Chemobyl. His most recent book is a major new novel, Teranesia. He has a Web site at http://www.netspace.netau/^gregegan/.
Almost any story by Egan would have served perfectly well for this anthology. In fact, with the possible exception of Brian Stableford, Egan has probably written more about the posthuman future than any other writer of the last decade— being one of the key players in shaping current ideas about that future— and there were more than a dozen possibilities to choose from, including stories such as "Learning to Be Me," "Dust," "Fidelity," "Reasons to be Cheerful," "The Planck Dive," "Tap," "Oceanic," and many others ("Wang's Carpets" would have been perfect, but I had already used it in another of these anthologies). In fact, if I'd had room here to include two stories by any one author (which I didn't have), Egan would have been the one.
I finally settled on the dazzlingly imaginative story that follows, as it takes us as deep into that posthuman future as anything that Egan has yet written, for a compelling study of old loyalties and new possibilities."
4.5 out of 5
A Plea To Save New Scientist - Greg Egan
"I wrote a letter to the magazine politely pointing out the relevant physics, but even in the event that this letter, or similar comments from other physics-literate readers are published, the underlying problem seems to be the editorial culture at the magazine that allows this kind of article to appear in the first place. Maybe it’s unrealistic to demand that every science writer who covers a physics story have a physics degree, but surely there’s some level of quality control that can be introduced, to ensure that claims that flatly contradict established and uncontroversial physical principles are either clearly flagged to the magazine’s readers as such, or (in cases of perpetual motion machines, magic anti-gravity devices, etc.) just not published at all."
5 out of 5
http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2006/09/a_plea_to_save_new_scientist.html
5 out of 5
http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2006/09/a_plea_to_save_new_scientist.html
Greg Egan - Brian Stableford
From his Historical dictionary of science fiction literature - Brian M. Stableford
3 out of 5
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=nzmIPZg5xicC&pg=PA71&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=164#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
3 out of 5
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=nzmIPZg5xicC&pg=PA71&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=164#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
Orbits and Tidal Accelerations - Greg Egan
"Suppose that a small body, such as a space station — too small to have a significant gravitational field of its own — is orbiting a planet in a perfectly circular orbit. Suppose that the space station has become “tidally locked” so that it always keeps the same face towards the body it's orbiting, just as the moon keeps the same face towards the Earth.
The centre of mass of the space station will move in a circle at a constant rate; anyone floating there will feel weightless, and will remain fixed relative to the walls around them. Now, suppose they place test particles a short distance away from the centre in various directions. If those particles are allowed to move freely, starting from rest (relative to the walls of the station), how will their motion look from within the station?"
5 out of 5
http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/INCANDESCENCE/Orbits/Orbits.html
The centre of mass of the space station will move in a circle at a constant rate; anyone floating there will feel weightless, and will remain fixed relative to the walls around them. Now, suppose they place test particles a short distance away from the centre in various directions. If those particles are allowed to move freely, starting from rest (relative to the walls of the station), how will their motion look from within the station?"
5 out of 5
http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/INCANDESCENCE/Orbits/Orbits.html
The Null Chamber - Greg Egan
"The Null Chamber is a cavern in the Splinter that contains a part of the Null Line, the line traced out by the orbit of the Splinter, where objects are perfectly weightless. Using the applet above, you can re-create the experiments that Zak and Roi conduct in the Null Chamber, and try out new ones of your own. The directions within the Splinter are:
garm = closer to the Hub (the unknown object that the Splinter orbits) / sard = further from the Hub;
rarb = the direction that the Splinter orbits / sharq = opposite the direction that the Splinter orbits;
shomal = above the plane of the orbit / junub = below the plane of the orbit."
4.5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/INCANDESCENCE/NullChamber/NullChamber.html
garm = closer to the Hub (the unknown object that the Splinter orbits) / sard = further from the Hub;
rarb = the direction that the Splinter orbits / sharq = opposite the direction that the Splinter orbits;
shomal = above the plane of the orbit / junub = below the plane of the orbit."
4.5 out of 5
http://www.gregegan.net/INCANDESCENCE/NullChamber/NullChamber.html
Biotech Bodies, Identity and Power in Works by Rebecca Ore, Pat Cadigan, Greg Egan and Greg Bear - Elisabeth Kraus
Mentioned in the bibliography of the Greenwood encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Volume 3.
Elisabeth Kraus. "Biotech Bodies, Identity and Power in Works by Rebecca Ore, Pat Cadigan, Greg Egan and Greg Bear .
Biotechnical and Medical Themes in Science Fiction, Thessaloniki, Greece: University Studio Press, 2002, 323-332.
Unseen.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=M_3kNDKhxIcC&pg=PA940&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=110#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
Elisabeth Kraus. "Biotech Bodies, Identity and Power in Works by Rebecca Ore, Pat Cadigan, Greg Egan and Greg Bear .
Biotechnical and Medical Themes in Science Fiction, Thessaloniki, Greece: University Studio Press, 2002, 323-332.
Unseen.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=M_3kNDKhxIcC&pg=PA940&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=110#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
New boundaries in political science fiction - Donald M. Hassler and Clyde Wilcox
Contains some commentary on Distress.
Unseen (mostly).
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=-8iD6iuO-iAC&pg=PA18&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=65#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
Unseen (mostly).
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=-8iD6iuO-iAC&pg=PA18&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=65#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
What is American?: new identities in U.S. culture - Walter Hölbling and Klaus Rieser-Wohlfarter
Commentary including Learning to be Me and Reasons To Be Cheerful.
Unseen.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=_Tn7LqhWI7IC&pg=PA301&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=61#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
Unseen.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=_Tn7LqhWI7IC&pg=PA301&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=61#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
Dust Lust and Other Messages From the Quantum Wonderland - Brian Atteberry
An essay in :
Nanoculture: implications of the new technoscience By N. Katherine Hayles
And you can see some of it at Google Book Search
Unseen (mostly)
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=cIk9GrYaZjQC&pg=RA1-PA168&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=53#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
Nanoculture: implications of the new technoscience By N. Katherine Hayles
And you can see some of it at Google Book Search
Unseen (mostly)
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=cIk9GrYaZjQC&pg=RA1-PA168&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=53#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
Orthogonal - Greg Egan
From Google Book Search
Title Orthogonal
Author Greg Egan
Publisher Victor Gollancz Limited, 2011
ISBN 0575095113, 9780575095113
Length 420 pages
"In Yalda's universe, light has mass, no universal speed, and its creation generates energy; on Yalda's world, plants make food by emitting light into the dark night sky. And time is different: an astronaut might measure decades passing while visiting another star, only to return and find that just weeks have elapsed for her friends.On the farm where she lives, Yalda sees strange meteors that are entering the planetary system at an immense, unprecedented speed - and it soon becomes apparent that more of this ultra-fast material is appearing all the time, putting her world in terrible danger. An entire galaxy is about to collide with their own.There is one hope: a fleet sent straight towards the approaching galaxy, as fast as possible. Though it will feel like weeks back home, on board, millennia will pass before the collision, time enough to raise new generations, and time enough to find a way to stop the ultra-fast material.Either way, they have a chance to save everyone back on the home world."
Unseen.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=RQCxPwAACAAJ&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=47
Title Orthogonal
Author Greg Egan
Publisher Victor Gollancz Limited, 2011
ISBN 0575095113, 9780575095113
Length 420 pages
"In Yalda's universe, light has mass, no universal speed, and its creation generates energy; on Yalda's world, plants make food by emitting light into the dark night sky. And time is different: an astronaut might measure decades passing while visiting another star, only to return and find that just weeks have elapsed for her friends.On the farm where she lives, Yalda sees strange meteors that are entering the planetary system at an immense, unprecedented speed - and it soon becomes apparent that more of this ultra-fast material is appearing all the time, putting her world in terrible danger. An entire galaxy is about to collide with their own.There is one hope: a fleet sent straight towards the approaching galaxy, as fast as possible. Though it will feel like weeks back home, on board, millennia will pass before the collision, time enough to raise new generations, and time enough to find a way to stop the ultra-fast material.Either way, they have a chance to save everyone back on the home world."
Unseen.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=RQCxPwAACAAJ&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=47
Greg Egan - John Clute
From the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited with Peter Nicholls
"Australian writer who began publishing work of genre interest with his first novel, An Unusual Angle (1983), a fantasy, and whose first short stories were also fantasy. From the mid-1980s, however, he has increasingly concentrated on sharply written sf with an emphasis on BIOLOGY and CYBERNETICS, assembled in 2 collections, Axiomatic (coll 1995 UK) and Our Lady of Chernobyl (coll 1995); the best of them - tales like
"The Caress" (1990) and "Learning to Be Me" (1990) - raised considerable expectations for his first sf novel, Quarantine (1992 UK), which effectively, and literally, encapsules a near-future private-eye plot, of the sort familiar to readers of CYPERPUNK, within a solar system enclosed by a vast enigmatic Bubble. The unfoldings of the plot, and of its implications about human identity in a world (or worlds) controllable at the quantum level through COMPUTER-augmented brain functions, is extremely intricate; this multifacetedness also marks Permutation City (1994 UK), which searchingly examines the implications - in terms involving mathematics, computer science and cosmology - behind the construction of binding VIRTUAL REALITIES. GE has become a dauntingly successful investigator of the new worlds-microscopic and macrocosmic - with which sf increasingly finds itself required to daeal."
3.5 out of 5
"Australian writer who began publishing work of genre interest with his first novel, An Unusual Angle (1983), a fantasy, and whose first short stories were also fantasy. From the mid-1980s, however, he has increasingly concentrated on sharply written sf with an emphasis on BIOLOGY and CYBERNETICS, assembled in 2 collections, Axiomatic (coll 1995 UK) and Our Lady of Chernobyl (coll 1995); the best of them - tales like
"The Caress" (1990) and "Learning to Be Me" (1990) - raised considerable expectations for his first sf novel, Quarantine (1992 UK), which effectively, and literally, encapsules a near-future private-eye plot, of the sort familiar to readers of CYPERPUNK, within a solar system enclosed by a vast enigmatic Bubble. The unfoldings of the plot, and of its implications about human identity in a world (or worlds) controllable at the quantum level through COMPUTER-augmented brain functions, is extremely intricate; this multifacetedness also marks Permutation City (1994 UK), which searchingly examines the implications - in terms involving mathematics, computer science and cosmology - behind the construction of binding VIRTUAL REALITIES. GE has become a dauntingly successful investigator of the new worlds-microscopic and macrocosmic - with which sf increasingly finds itself required to daeal."
3.5 out of 5
Greg Egan - Don D'Ammassa
From the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction he edited :
"The Australian writer Greg Egan began his career with a surrealistic fantasy novel in 1982, but soon turned to science fiction. A steady stream of respectable stories appeared during the 1980s and early 1990s, and he twice won awards in his native Australia although he had not yet established a significant presence elsewhere. Quarantine (1992), his first SF novel, was impressive not so much for its plot as for its execution. Aliens have cut off human access to the stars, and the human race, turning inward, is plagued by violence and religious excesses.
Egan's second novel, Permutation City (1995), would make an even stronger statement. A kind of immortality has been achieved by copying individual personalities into a vast computer network, where they can live on in a shared virtual reality. Eventually some of those artificial personalities despair of their confined existence and seek to terminate themselves; but they are opposed by their originals, who see the recorded version of themselves as their only way to cheat death. Egan handled the theme intelligently and thoughtfully, and Permutation City is an intriguing and perhaps underrated novel.
Distress (1995) was an uneven thriller involving a new drug and a conference of scientific philosophers. It includes some wonderfully inventive speculation, but the plot is unevenly paced. With Diaspora (1997), Egan took up a theme similar to that of Permutation City. Humans have begun exploring the universe by creating various types of robots and computers equipped with minds of their own, and as these diverging forms of humanity propagate, they encounter an alien race whose existence triggers a major crisis. Egan's output of short stories slowed but did not stop as he turned to novels; indeed, the short stories became steadily better. ``The Mitochondrial Eve,'' ``Our Lady of Chernobyl,'' and ``Transition Dreams'' attracted considerable favorable attention. His next novel, Teranesia (1999), was less successful, although the biological oddities of the setting, a remote island evolutionarily isolated from the rest of the world, similar to the Galápagos, are interesting. Schildt's Ladder (2002) is an ambitious space opera, similarly uneven, mixing imaginative scenes with routine melodrama. The best of Egan's short fiction can be found in Axiomatic (1995) and Luminous (1998)."
3.5 out of 5
"The Australian writer Greg Egan began his career with a surrealistic fantasy novel in 1982, but soon turned to science fiction. A steady stream of respectable stories appeared during the 1980s and early 1990s, and he twice won awards in his native Australia although he had not yet established a significant presence elsewhere. Quarantine (1992), his first SF novel, was impressive not so much for its plot as for its execution. Aliens have cut off human access to the stars, and the human race, turning inward, is plagued by violence and religious excesses.
Egan's second novel, Permutation City (1995), would make an even stronger statement. A kind of immortality has been achieved by copying individual personalities into a vast computer network, where they can live on in a shared virtual reality. Eventually some of those artificial personalities despair of their confined existence and seek to terminate themselves; but they are opposed by their originals, who see the recorded version of themselves as their only way to cheat death. Egan handled the theme intelligently and thoughtfully, and Permutation City is an intriguing and perhaps underrated novel.
Distress (1995) was an uneven thriller involving a new drug and a conference of scientific philosophers. It includes some wonderfully inventive speculation, but the plot is unevenly paced. With Diaspora (1997), Egan took up a theme similar to that of Permutation City. Humans have begun exploring the universe by creating various types of robots and computers equipped with minds of their own, and as these diverging forms of humanity propagate, they encounter an alien race whose existence triggers a major crisis. Egan's output of short stories slowed but did not stop as he turned to novels; indeed, the short stories became steadily better. ``The Mitochondrial Eve,'' ``Our Lady of Chernobyl,'' and ``Transition Dreams'' attracted considerable favorable attention. His next novel, Teranesia (1999), was less successful, although the biological oddities of the setting, a remote island evolutionarily isolated from the rest of the world, similar to the Galápagos, are interesting. Schildt's Ladder (2002) is an ambitious space opera, similarly uneven, mixing imaginative scenes with routine melodrama. The best of Egan's short fiction can be found in Axiomatic (1995) and Luminous (1998)."
3.5 out of 5
Greg Egan - Janeen Webb
From the MUP Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Paul Collins.
"writes extrapolative fiction that is focused on a cluster of ideas central to the philosophy of science, particularly as it relates to quantum mechanics, biotechnology and the post-human condition.
Egan has published one fantasy novel and three science fiction novels. Quarantine (1992) and Permutation City (1994) won Ditmar awards for best Australian science fiction novel in 1993 and 1995; Distress (1995) won an Aurealis Award. Egan has also won Ditmar awards for best Australian short science fiction for 'Closer' (1992) in 1993 and 'Cocoon' (1994) in 1995.
Egan's early genre work includes An Unusual Angle (1983), a slightly stream-of-consciousness fantasy concerned with the moral and social responsibilities of film and television. This theme is evident in short stories such as 'Tangled Up' (1985), 'Mind Vampires' (1986). `Scatter My Ashes' (1988),'Neighbourhood Watch' (1986) and 'Beyond the Whistle Test' (1969).
Egan's background in computer programming for medical research is reflected in works concerned with interaction between the biological human and the computer. His post-human Australian futures feature the 'downloading' of the self, or its augmentation through 'neural modifications'. Short stories such. as 'Learning to be Me' (1990), 'Transition Dreams' (1993) and 'Chaff' (1993) explore these themes, which are extended in the novel Quarantine (1992), where bioengineering allows people to modify their mindsas they wish, through software 'mods'. Egan uses the common science fiction plot device of the private detective protagonist to explore this fictional sociery and to provide a platform for examination of the ethical implications of biomodific trion.
The title refers to the Bubble enclosure of our solar system by alien forces seeking to protect other life forms from human choice-based logic, which depletes the universe of its infinite possibilities.
In Pertuntation City (1994), which derives partly from the 1992 story 'Dust', Egan further extrapolates the post-human condition, exploring human consciousness, questioning the distinctions between self-transformation and death and postulating non-human evolution. The novel's thesis is that human minds can be downloaded into virtual environments where the resultant copies can exist forever as virtual people, provided the world's computer networks remain stable.
Permutation City is deliberately clever, with chapter headings that are anagrams of the title and of each other, and an opening poem constructed of anagrammatical permutations.Virtual characters in the Sanctuary act out endless permutations of their meta-lives until the virtual construct begins to collapse. The Lam,bertians, a non-human biological race created in a meta-construct, the Autoverse, evolve towards a different concept of reality that threatens their creators.
Distress (1995), which continues Egan's theme of human logic as contagion, is centred on Theories of Everything, further extending Egan's philosophical exploration of current scientific thought. The investigator protagonist, science journalist Andre'' Worth, provides the narrative links. Set in 2055, Distress portrays a future where questions of gender arc obsolete: available sexual options range from. gendered augmentation to complete physical and mental neutrality as 'neural asex'."
4 out of 5
"writes extrapolative fiction that is focused on a cluster of ideas central to the philosophy of science, particularly as it relates to quantum mechanics, biotechnology and the post-human condition.
Egan has published one fantasy novel and three science fiction novels. Quarantine (1992) and Permutation City (1994) won Ditmar awards for best Australian science fiction novel in 1993 and 1995; Distress (1995) won an Aurealis Award. Egan has also won Ditmar awards for best Australian short science fiction for 'Closer' (1992) in 1993 and 'Cocoon' (1994) in 1995.
Egan's early genre work includes An Unusual Angle (1983), a slightly stream-of-consciousness fantasy concerned with the moral and social responsibilities of film and television. This theme is evident in short stories such as 'Tangled Up' (1985), 'Mind Vampires' (1986). `Scatter My Ashes' (1988),'Neighbourhood Watch' (1986) and 'Beyond the Whistle Test' (1969).
Egan's background in computer programming for medical research is reflected in works concerned with interaction between the biological human and the computer. His post-human Australian futures feature the 'downloading' of the self, or its augmentation through 'neural modifications'. Short stories such. as 'Learning to be Me' (1990), 'Transition Dreams' (1993) and 'Chaff' (1993) explore these themes, which are extended in the novel Quarantine (1992), where bioengineering allows people to modify their mindsas they wish, through software 'mods'. Egan uses the common science fiction plot device of the private detective protagonist to explore this fictional sociery and to provide a platform for examination of the ethical implications of biomodific trion.
The title refers to the Bubble enclosure of our solar system by alien forces seeking to protect other life forms from human choice-based logic, which depletes the universe of its infinite possibilities.
In Pertuntation City (1994), which derives partly from the 1992 story 'Dust', Egan further extrapolates the post-human condition, exploring human consciousness, questioning the distinctions between self-transformation and death and postulating non-human evolution. The novel's thesis is that human minds can be downloaded into virtual environments where the resultant copies can exist forever as virtual people, provided the world's computer networks remain stable.
Permutation City is deliberately clever, with chapter headings that are anagrams of the title and of each other, and an opening poem constructed of anagrammatical permutations.Virtual characters in the Sanctuary act out endless permutations of their meta-lives until the virtual construct begins to collapse. The Lam,bertians, a non-human biological race created in a meta-construct, the Autoverse, evolve towards a different concept of reality that threatens their creators.
Distress (1995), which continues Egan's theme of human logic as contagion, is centred on Theories of Everything, further extending Egan's philosophical exploration of current scientific thought. The investigator protagonist, science journalist Andre'' Worth, provides the narrative links. Set in 2055, Distress portrays a future where questions of gender arc obsolete: available sexual options range from. gendered augmentation to complete physical and mental neutrality as 'neural asex'."
4 out of 5
Distress - Greg Egan
"author's note
Among many works which inspired me in the writing of this novel, I must single out Dreams of a Final Theory by Steven Weinberg, Culture and Imperialism by Edward W. Said, and "Out of the Light, Back Into the Cave" by Andy Robertson (Interzone 65, November 1992). The excerpt from the poem Technoliberation is modeled on a passage from Aime Cesaire's Notebook of a Return to the Native Land."
4 out of 5
Among many works which inspired me in the writing of this novel, I must single out Dreams of a Final Theory by Steven Weinberg, Culture and Imperialism by Edward W. Said, and "Out of the Light, Back Into the Cave" by Andy Robertson (Interzone 65, November 1992). The excerpt from the poem Technoliberation is modeled on a passage from Aime Cesaire's Notebook of a Return to the Native Land."
4 out of 5
The teeth of the new cockatoo: mutation and trauma in Greg Egan's Teranesia - Chris Palmer
In
World weavers : globalization, science fiction, and the cybernetic revolution / edited by Wong Kin Yuen, Gary Westfahl and Amy Kit-sze Chan
Hong Kong : Hong Kong University Press,
307 pages 2005 English
Unseen.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/25546757
World weavers : globalization, science fiction, and the cybernetic revolution / edited by Wong Kin Yuen, Gary Westfahl and Amy Kit-sze Chan
Hong Kong : Hong Kong University Press,
307 pages 2005 English
Unseen.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/25546757
Greg Egan - David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Introduction to the story Wang's Carpets, in The Hard SF Renaissance :-
"Greg Egan (born 1961) is the most prominent SF writer from Australia on the world stage. He has a degree in mathematics and has worked as a computer programmer, mostly in jobs supporting medical research. He remains socially isolated from the SF field — almost no one in the field has met him in person — and he has written a strongly worded attack on national identities in SF. He does not identify himself as an Australian SF writer, but as a writer of SF in the English language who happens to live in Australia. His Web site (www.netspace.net.au/˜gregegan) reprints several interviews that yield some further insight into Egan, perhaps the most interesting hard SF writer to emerge in the 1990s. He says, “I have a vision of a universe that we’re increasingly able to understand through science — and that includes understanding who we are, where we came from, and why we do the things we do. What drives me is the desire to explore both the details of this vision, for their own sake — things like quantum mechanics and cosmology, simply because they’re beautiful and elaborate and fascinating — but also the ways in which we can adapt to this situation, and use what we’re learning constructively.” And “I don’t think SF will ever be enough, but it’s the easiest place to start examining new technologies, a few decades (or centuries, sometimes) before anyone else is discussing them.”
His first novel (not SF) was published in 1983. His SF writing burst into prominence in 1990 along with several fine stories that focussed attention on his science fiction and launched his books. His SF novels to date are Quarantine (1992), Permutation City (1994), Distress (1995), Diaspora (1997), Teranesia (1999), and Schild’s Ladder (2001), a disaster novel on a cosmic scale. His short story collections are Our Lady of Chernobyl (1995), Axiomatic (1995), and Luminous (1999).
“Wang’s Carpets” first appeared in editor Greg Bear’s flagship SF anthology, New Legends (1995) (which, along with Far Futures [ed. Gregory Benford], was one of the two most ambitious and important original anthologies of the decade for hard SF). It is one of Egan’s finest stories to date. Though “Wang’s Carpets” is most memorable for the image of a naturally-occurring computer program in which exists virtual life, this is contrasted with a solipsistic transhumanity: nearly immortal post-humans who search the universe for non-human intelligence because their survival depends on finding that the universe is not just all about them. Identity and gender are changed at will; physical appearance is manifested at will. Their identities have become so fluid that they search for an Other to define themselves in opposition to.
Stories such as this seem far beyond the political issues of today, though Egan is not apolitical. Egan said, “When I write about the far future, I’m not interested in pretending that all our current problems — things like disease, poverty, war and racism — are going to be with us for the next ten thousand years. Human nature is a physical thing, and eventually we’ll transform it as much as we like. But those ‘temporary’ problems are still enormously important to us, right now. So, although I’ve written a couple of short stories since Diaspora which share the idea that in the long run we’ll find software the most convenient form — especially for space travel — I’m backing off now, and concentrating on the near future.”
There is a literary politics implicit in the subtext of “Wang’s Carpets”: The solipsism of what remains of humanity might be seen to stand in for the post-modern/post-structuralist lit-crit point of view that the world as we perceive it, and even science, is a symbolic construct of language; it’s contrasted here to the scientific stance that there is a real universe out there to which words must refer and which they can only in part represent — mathematics is the foundation of science. Being a hard SF writer, Egan of course comes down on the side of science."
4 out of 5
"Greg Egan (born 1961) is the most prominent SF writer from Australia on the world stage. He has a degree in mathematics and has worked as a computer programmer, mostly in jobs supporting medical research. He remains socially isolated from the SF field — almost no one in the field has met him in person — and he has written a strongly worded attack on national identities in SF. He does not identify himself as an Australian SF writer, but as a writer of SF in the English language who happens to live in Australia. His Web site (www.netspace.net.au/˜gregegan) reprints several interviews that yield some further insight into Egan, perhaps the most interesting hard SF writer to emerge in the 1990s. He says, “I have a vision of a universe that we’re increasingly able to understand through science — and that includes understanding who we are, where we came from, and why we do the things we do. What drives me is the desire to explore both the details of this vision, for their own sake — things like quantum mechanics and cosmology, simply because they’re beautiful and elaborate and fascinating — but also the ways in which we can adapt to this situation, and use what we’re learning constructively.” And “I don’t think SF will ever be enough, but it’s the easiest place to start examining new technologies, a few decades (or centuries, sometimes) before anyone else is discussing them.”
His first novel (not SF) was published in 1983. His SF writing burst into prominence in 1990 along with several fine stories that focussed attention on his science fiction and launched his books. His SF novels to date are Quarantine (1992), Permutation City (1994), Distress (1995), Diaspora (1997), Teranesia (1999), and Schild’s Ladder (2001), a disaster novel on a cosmic scale. His short story collections are Our Lady of Chernobyl (1995), Axiomatic (1995), and Luminous (1999).
“Wang’s Carpets” first appeared in editor Greg Bear’s flagship SF anthology, New Legends (1995) (which, along with Far Futures [ed. Gregory Benford], was one of the two most ambitious and important original anthologies of the decade for hard SF). It is one of Egan’s finest stories to date. Though “Wang’s Carpets” is most memorable for the image of a naturally-occurring computer program in which exists virtual life, this is contrasted with a solipsistic transhumanity: nearly immortal post-humans who search the universe for non-human intelligence because their survival depends on finding that the universe is not just all about them. Identity and gender are changed at will; physical appearance is manifested at will. Their identities have become so fluid that they search for an Other to define themselves in opposition to.
Stories such as this seem far beyond the political issues of today, though Egan is not apolitical. Egan said, “When I write about the far future, I’m not interested in pretending that all our current problems — things like disease, poverty, war and racism — are going to be with us for the next ten thousand years. Human nature is a physical thing, and eventually we’ll transform it as much as we like. But those ‘temporary’ problems are still enormously important to us, right now. So, although I’ve written a couple of short stories since Diaspora which share the idea that in the long run we’ll find software the most convenient form — especially for space travel — I’m backing off now, and concentrating on the near future.”
There is a literary politics implicit in the subtext of “Wang’s Carpets”: The solipsism of what remains of humanity might be seen to stand in for the post-modern/post-structuralist lit-crit point of view that the world as we perceive it, and even science, is a symbolic construct of language; it’s contrasted here to the scientific stance that there is a real universe out there to which words must refer and which they can only in part represent — mathematics is the foundation of science. Being a hard SF writer, Egan of course comes down on the side of science."
4 out of 5
Subjective cosmology and the regime of computation : intermediation in Greg Egan's fiction - N. Katherine Hayles
My mother was a computer : digital subjects and literary texts / N. Katherine Hayles.
Chicago : University of Chicago Press,
290 pages 2005 English
Unseen.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/29754825
Chicago : University of Chicago Press,
290 pages 2005 English
Unseen.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/29754825
Greg Egan - Russell Blackford and Van Ikin and Sean McMullen
An article about this writer in: (Which is an incredibly expensive book, so I'll try and quote some later.
"Strange constellations : a history of Australian science fiction / Russell Blackford, Van Ikin, and Sean McMullen
Author
Blackford, Russell, 1954-
Subjects
Science fiction, Australian - History and criticism.
Contents
I. Australian Science Fiction to 1925. 1. Early Romances. 2. Utopian and Dystopian Works. 3. Novels of Racial Invasion
II. 1926-59: The Rise of Traditional Science Fiction in Australia. 4. 1926-39: Forerunners of Modern Australian Science Fiction. 5. 1940-59: Local Expansion. 6. A. Bertram Chandler. 7. Wynne Whiteford
III. 1960-74: International Recognition and the New Wave. 8. The 1960s. 9. The Early 1970s
IV. 1975-84: Small Presses and Growing Reputations. 10. Aussiecon and After. 11. Writers of the 1970s. 12. George Turner. 13. Damien Broderick. 14. The Early 1980s
V. 1985-98: Serious Recognition. 15. Aussiecon 2 and After. 16. Greg Egan. 17. Writers of the 1990s
Conclusion: Into the Unknown."
5 out of 5
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/9216144?q=greg+egan&c=book
"Strange constellations : a history of Australian science fiction / Russell Blackford, Van Ikin, and Sean McMullen
Author
Blackford, Russell, 1954-
Subjects
Science fiction, Australian - History and criticism.
Contents
I. Australian Science Fiction to 1925. 1. Early Romances. 2. Utopian and Dystopian Works. 3. Novels of Racial Invasion
II. 1926-59: The Rise of Traditional Science Fiction in Australia. 4. 1926-39: Forerunners of Modern Australian Science Fiction. 5. 1940-59: Local Expansion. 6. A. Bertram Chandler. 7. Wynne Whiteford
III. 1960-74: International Recognition and the New Wave. 8. The 1960s. 9. The Early 1970s
IV. 1975-84: Small Presses and Growing Reputations. 10. Aussiecon and After. 11. Writers of the 1970s. 12. George Turner. 13. Damien Broderick. 14. The Early 1980s
V. 1985-98: Serious Recognition. 15. Aussiecon 2 and After. 16. Greg Egan. 17. Writers of the 1990s
Conclusion: Into the Unknown."
5 out of 5
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/9216144?q=greg+egan&c=book
Greg Egan's Mathematical Stories - Phillip Leonard Keller
"One of the most exciting subgenres of science fiction are mathematical science fiction stories. The popularization of mathematics in the last decade has given this field new impetus. Unfortunately often the mathematics was only half-understood by the author and many times also quite trivial and so we were (and still are) treated ad nauseum with stories about the butterfly effect, and fractals and Mandelbrot sets pop up without point or reason. But when the author knows what he is writing about, mathematical sf stories can be very rewarding and indeed, some of the very best sf stories belong to this subgenre, for example "And he Built a Crooked House" by R.A. Heinlein, "Tangents", by Greg Bear or Neverness by David Zindell.
Often mathematical sf stories are written so that the plot revolves around a surprising mathematical property. They can be much fun but they are essentially gimmick stories. The most famous example is probably the already mentioned "And he Built a Crooked House". But the most successful stories are those where the mathematics is an integral part of a wider plot. Although I am no author I assume that these stories are much more difficult to write than the former. Famous examples are William F. Orr's "Euclid Alone" and Greg Bear's "Tangents".
The mathematical sf stories of Greg Egan belong to the very best yet written in this subgenre, ranging in topic from the moral dilemma of double blind testing in "Blood Sisters" to arcane properties of the Cantor set in "The Infinite Assassin". The mathematics is never the raison d'etre of the plot but rather an important part in the background."
4 out of 5
http://web.archive.org/web/20020105164948/www.sam.math.ethz.ch/~pkeller/Egan-MathStories.html
Often mathematical sf stories are written so that the plot revolves around a surprising mathematical property. They can be much fun but they are essentially gimmick stories. The most famous example is probably the already mentioned "And he Built a Crooked House". But the most successful stories are those where the mathematics is an integral part of a wider plot. Although I am no author I assume that these stories are much more difficult to write than the former. Famous examples are William F. Orr's "Euclid Alone" and Greg Bear's "Tangents".
The mathematical sf stories of Greg Egan belong to the very best yet written in this subgenre, ranging in topic from the moral dilemma of double blind testing in "Blood Sisters" to arcane properties of the Cantor set in "The Infinite Assassin". The mathematics is never the raison d'etre of the plot but rather an important part in the background."
4 out of 5
http://web.archive.org/web/20020105164948/www.sam.math.ethz.ch/~pkeller/Egan-MathStories.html
This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 232) - Greg Egan
A forum discussion :-
"Would it be correct to assume that the ordinary tangent vector p still
transforms in the usual way? In other words, suppose I'm living in a
2+1 dimensional universe, and there's a point particle with rest mass m
and hence energy-momentum vector in its rest frame of p=m e_0. If I
cross its world line with a certain relative velocity, there's an
element g of SO(2,1) which tells me how to map the particle's tangent
space to my own. Would I measure the particle's energy-momentum to be
p'=gp? (e.g. if I used the particle to do work in my own rest frame)
Would there still be no upper bound on the total energy, i.e. by making
our relative velocity close enough to c, I could measure the particle's
kinetic energy to be as high as I wished?"
5 out of 5
http://www.mathforum.com/kb/message.jspa?messageID=4734121&tstart=0
"Would it be correct to assume that the ordinary tangent vector p still
transforms in the usual way? In other words, suppose I'm living in a
2+1 dimensional universe, and there's a point particle with rest mass m
and hence energy-momentum vector in its rest frame of p=m e_0. If I
cross its world line with a certain relative velocity, there's an
element g of SO(2,1) which tells me how to map the particle's tangent
space to my own. Would I measure the particle's energy-momentum to be
p'=gp? (e.g. if I used the particle to do work in my own rest frame)
Would there still be no upper bound on the total energy, i.e. by making
our relative velocity close enough to c, I could measure the particle's
kinetic energy to be as high as I wished?"
5 out of 5
http://www.mathforum.com/kb/message.jspa?messageID=4734121&tstart=0
Looking awry at cyberpunk through antipodean eyes - Andrew Macrae
Title
Looking awry at cyberpunk through antipodean eyes / Andrew Macrae.
Author
Macrae, Andrew.
Published
[St. Lucia, Qld.], 1998.
Physical Description
157 p. ; 31 cm.
Subjects
Egan, Greg, 1961- -- Criticism and interpretation.
University of Queensland. Dept. of English -- Thesis -- MA.
Science fiction -- Australia.
Notes
Thesis (M.A.) - University of Queensland, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references.
Unseen.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/33156666?q=greg+egan&c=book
Looking awry at cyberpunk through antipodean eyes / Andrew Macrae.
Author
Macrae, Andrew.
Published
[St. Lucia, Qld.], 1998.
Physical Description
157 p. ; 31 cm.
Subjects
Egan, Greg, 1961- -- Criticism and interpretation.
University of Queensland. Dept. of English -- Thesis -- MA.
Science fiction -- Australia.
Notes
Thesis (M.A.) - University of Queensland, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references.
Unseen.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/33156666?q=greg+egan&c=book
Thursday, May 27, 2010
An efficient algorithm for the Riemannian 10j symbols - Greg Egan and Dan Christensen
"The 10j symbol is a spin network that appears in the partition function for the Barrett-Crane model of Riemannian quantum gravity. Elementary methods of calculating the 10j symbol require order(j^9) or more operations and order(j^2) or more space, where j is the average spin. We present an algorithm that computes the 10j symbol using order(j^5) operations and order(j^2) space, and a variant that uses order(j^6) operations and a constant amount of space. An implementation has been made available on the web. Comments: 9 pages, 5 postscript figures. This is the version that is to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity. See also this http URL
Subjects: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
Journal reference: Class.Quant.Grav. 19 (2002) 1185-1194"
5 out of 5
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0110045
Subjects: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
Journal reference: Class.Quant.Grav. 19 (2002) 1185-1194"
5 out of 5
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0110045
Wikipedia.sv - Greg Egan
Online Swedish encyclopedia entry.
Greg EganGreg Egan
Född 20 augusti 1961
Perth, Australien, Western Australia
Yrke Författare, f d programmerare
Nationalitet australiensisk
Verksam 1990-talet - fortfarande
Genrer Fantastisk litteratur
Ämnen Hård science fiction
Greg Egans webbsida Officiell webbplats
Greg Egan, född 20 augusti 1961 i Perth, är en australiensisk science fiction-författare och programmerare. Han är skoningslöst idédriven och skarpt kritisk till postmodernismen.
Egan specialiserar sig på hård science fiction berättelser med matematik- och kvantmystikteman, inklusivemedvetandets natur. Andra teman omfattar genetics, simulerad verklighet, posthumanism, sexualitet, artificiell intelligens och rationell metafysisk naturalism överlägsenhet över religion. Han är en vinnare och ytterligare trefaldigt nominerad av Hugopriset. Han har även vunnit John W Campbell Memorial Award för bästa roman. Några av hans tidiga noveller bjuder på starka inslag av övernaturlig skräck, medan hans mer populära science fiction gjort honom känd för att ta upp komplexa och högtekniska ämnen som ny fysik och epistemologi på ett grundligt sätt.
Egan's noveller har publicerats i en mängd genremagasin, mer regelbundet i Interzone och Asimov's Science Fiction.
Egan har en kandidatexamen i matematik från University of Western Australia och är för närvarande bosatt i Perth. Han har engagerat sig för behandlingen av flyktingar i Australien.
Egan är vegetarian och i övrigt en mycket tillbakadragen författare[1], han deltar inte i science fiction-kongresser[2] och signerar inte böcker.Innehåll [göm]
1 Bibliografi
1.1 Romaner
1.2 Samlingar
1.3 Noveller
1.3.1 Berättelser samlade i Axiomatic
1.3.2 Berättelser samlade i Luminous
2 Noter och referenser
Bibliografi [redigera]
Egan behandlar frågor om vår osäkra framtid som: Om man kopierar ett medvetande, hur skiljer man kopian från originalet (om det då finns någon skillnad)? Om en medicin har biverkningen att den "förhindrar" homosexualitet, bör den då få användas? Om man kan köpa nanomaskiner som förändrar ens etiska ställningstaganden, ska man använda den möjligheten?
Romaner [redigera]
An Unusual Angle (1983), ISBN 0-909106-11-8 (ej science fiction)
Quarantine (1992), ISBN 0-7126-9870-1
Permutation City (1994), ISBN 1-85798-174-X
Distress (1995), ISBN 1-85798-286-X
Diaspora (1997), ISBN 1-85798-438-2
Teranesia (1999), ISBN 0-575-06854-X
Schild's Ladder (2002), ISBN 0-575-07068-4
Incandescence (2008), Night Shade Books (US) och Gollancz (UK))[1]
Samlingar [redigera]
Axiomatic (1995), ISBN 1-85798-281-9
Our Lady of Chernobyl (1995), ISBN 0-646-23230-4
Luminous (1998), ISBN 1-85798-551-6
Oceanic and Other Stories (2000), ISBN 4-15-011337-8
Reasons to Be Cheerful and Other Stories (2003), ISBN 4-15-011451-X
Noveller [redigera]
Berättelser samlade i Axiomatic [redigera]
"The Infinite Assassin"
"The Hundred Light-Year Diary"
"Eugene"
"The Caress"
"Blood Sisters"
"Axiomatic"
"The Safe-Deposit Box"
"Seeing"
"A Kidnapping"
"Learning to Be Me"
"The Moat"
"The Walk"
"The Cutie"
"Into Darkness"
"Appropriate Love"
"The Moral Virologist"
"Closer"
"Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies"'
Berättelser samlade i Luminous [redigera]
"Chaff"
"Mitochondrial Eve"
"Luminous"
"Mister Volition"
"Cocoon"
"Transition Dreams"
"Silver Fire"
"Reasons to Be Cheerful"
"Our Lady of Chernobyl"
"The Planck Dive"
Noter och referenser [redigera]
^ Science Fiction Book Club
^ Intervjuer
3.5 out of 5
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Egan
Greg EganGreg Egan
Född 20 augusti 1961
Perth, Australien, Western Australia
Yrke Författare, f d programmerare
Nationalitet australiensisk
Verksam 1990-talet - fortfarande
Genrer Fantastisk litteratur
Ämnen Hård science fiction
Greg Egans webbsida Officiell webbplats
Greg Egan, född 20 augusti 1961 i Perth, är en australiensisk science fiction-författare och programmerare. Han är skoningslöst idédriven och skarpt kritisk till postmodernismen.
Egan specialiserar sig på hård science fiction berättelser med matematik- och kvantmystikteman, inklusivemedvetandets natur. Andra teman omfattar genetics, simulerad verklighet, posthumanism, sexualitet, artificiell intelligens och rationell metafysisk naturalism överlägsenhet över religion. Han är en vinnare och ytterligare trefaldigt nominerad av Hugopriset. Han har även vunnit John W Campbell Memorial Award för bästa roman. Några av hans tidiga noveller bjuder på starka inslag av övernaturlig skräck, medan hans mer populära science fiction gjort honom känd för att ta upp komplexa och högtekniska ämnen som ny fysik och epistemologi på ett grundligt sätt.
Egan's noveller har publicerats i en mängd genremagasin, mer regelbundet i Interzone och Asimov's Science Fiction.
Egan har en kandidatexamen i matematik från University of Western Australia och är för närvarande bosatt i Perth. Han har engagerat sig för behandlingen av flyktingar i Australien.
Egan är vegetarian och i övrigt en mycket tillbakadragen författare[1], han deltar inte i science fiction-kongresser[2] och signerar inte böcker.Innehåll [göm]
1 Bibliografi
1.1 Romaner
1.2 Samlingar
1.3 Noveller
1.3.1 Berättelser samlade i Axiomatic
1.3.2 Berättelser samlade i Luminous
2 Noter och referenser
Bibliografi [redigera]
Egan behandlar frågor om vår osäkra framtid som: Om man kopierar ett medvetande, hur skiljer man kopian från originalet (om det då finns någon skillnad)? Om en medicin har biverkningen att den "förhindrar" homosexualitet, bör den då få användas? Om man kan köpa nanomaskiner som förändrar ens etiska ställningstaganden, ska man använda den möjligheten?
Romaner [redigera]
An Unusual Angle (1983), ISBN 0-909106-11-8 (ej science fiction)
Quarantine (1992), ISBN 0-7126-9870-1
Permutation City (1994), ISBN 1-85798-174-X
Distress (1995), ISBN 1-85798-286-X
Diaspora (1997), ISBN 1-85798-438-2
Teranesia (1999), ISBN 0-575-06854-X
Schild's Ladder (2002), ISBN 0-575-07068-4
Incandescence (2008), Night Shade Books (US) och Gollancz (UK))[1]
Samlingar [redigera]
Axiomatic (1995), ISBN 1-85798-281-9
Our Lady of Chernobyl (1995), ISBN 0-646-23230-4
Luminous (1998), ISBN 1-85798-551-6
Oceanic and Other Stories (2000), ISBN 4-15-011337-8
Reasons to Be Cheerful and Other Stories (2003), ISBN 4-15-011451-X
Noveller [redigera]
Berättelser samlade i Axiomatic [redigera]
"The Infinite Assassin"
"The Hundred Light-Year Diary"
"Eugene"
"The Caress"
"Blood Sisters"
"Axiomatic"
"The Safe-Deposit Box"
"Seeing"
"A Kidnapping"
"Learning to Be Me"
"The Moat"
"The Walk"
"The Cutie"
"Into Darkness"
"Appropriate Love"
"The Moral Virologist"
"Closer"
"Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies"'
Berättelser samlade i Luminous [redigera]
"Chaff"
"Mitochondrial Eve"
"Luminous"
"Mister Volition"
"Cocoon"
"Transition Dreams"
"Silver Fire"
"Reasons to Be Cheerful"
"Our Lady of Chernobyl"
"The Planck Dive"
Noter och referenser [redigera]
^ Science Fiction Book Club
^ Intervjuer
3.5 out of 5
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Egan
This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 215) - Greg Egan
Discussion about the Klein's Quartic Curve Application.
4 out of 5
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=1109879
4 out of 5
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=1109879
Hammer Blows to the Ego: Greg Egan's Rational Materialism - Russell Blackford
Hammer Blows to the Ego: Greg Egan’s Rational Materialism, (ar) Nova Express Spr/Sum 2000
Unseen.
Unseen.
Mathematical Fiction - Alex Kasman
A list of Egan's work that falls under this subject :
4 out of 5
http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/search.php?go=yes&author=Greg%20Egan&orderby=title
4 out of 5
http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/search.php?go=yes&author=Greg%20Egan&orderby=title
White Holes are time-reversed black holes? - Greg Egan
A forum discussion :-
"Hawking radiation is not, and never has been, the "dominant model"
for "powerful emission sources in the universe"."
5 out of 5
http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.physics.research/2006-08/msg00250.html
"Hawking radiation is not, and never has been, the "dominant model"
for "powerful emission sources in the universe"."
5 out of 5
http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.physics.research/2006-08/msg00250.html
Greg Egan - Russell Blackford
A Companion to Science Fiction
Published Online: 26 Nov 2007
Editor(s): David Seed
Print ISBN: 9781405112185 Online ISBN: 9780470997055
"In 1983, Australian author Greg Egan (1961–) commenced his career as a science fiction writer with the publication of his first short story, “Artifact.” Through the 1 980s, he produced a body of work – one novel, and a total of eight short stories – that showed talent and literary promise, combining exceptionally lucid, deceptively simple prose with bizarre storylines that frequently crossed into metafiction or surrealism. This work gained him reprints in major Year’s Best anthologies in the fantasy and horror fields. However, he gave the impression of being only a marginal SF writer whose strongest interests were in cinema, horror, and experimental forms of narrative. He appeared likely to have a respectable, but relatively modest, career in the SF genre.
Then, at the start of the 1 990s, that changed completely. He altered the subject matter of his work, pursued new thematic concerns, and adapted his flexible and essentially sound literary style to new purposes. From this time on, Egan’s work presents extraordinary situations with relentless verisimilitude; its realism of narrative technique places it within the main SF tradition.
This changed approach opened commercial markets, and Egan’s published writing became far more prolific. Such was the intellectual intensity and scientific rigor of the stories and novels that he produced in the 1 990s, and the sense it created of a writer positioned at the genre’s cutting edge, that Damien Broderick was able write with some plausibility that Egan had become “perhaps the most important SF writer in the world” (Broderick 1998: 50)."
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/summary/117348500/SUMMARY?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
5 out of 5
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=HO_z5WFKwpoC&pg=PR7&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=175#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
Published Online: 26 Nov 2007
Editor(s): David Seed
Print ISBN: 9781405112185 Online ISBN: 9780470997055
"In 1983, Australian author Greg Egan (1961–) commenced his career as a science fiction writer with the publication of his first short story, “Artifact.” Through the 1 980s, he produced a body of work – one novel, and a total of eight short stories – that showed talent and literary promise, combining exceptionally lucid, deceptively simple prose with bizarre storylines that frequently crossed into metafiction or surrealism. This work gained him reprints in major Year’s Best anthologies in the fantasy and horror fields. However, he gave the impression of being only a marginal SF writer whose strongest interests were in cinema, horror, and experimental forms of narrative. He appeared likely to have a respectable, but relatively modest, career in the SF genre.
Then, at the start of the 1 990s, that changed completely. He altered the subject matter of his work, pursued new thematic concerns, and adapted his flexible and essentially sound literary style to new purposes. From this time on, Egan’s work presents extraordinary situations with relentless verisimilitude; its realism of narrative technique places it within the main SF tradition.
This changed approach opened commercial markets, and Egan’s published writing became far more prolific. Such was the intellectual intensity and scientific rigor of the stories and novels that he produced in the 1 990s, and the sense it created of a writer positioned at the genre’s cutting edge, that Damien Broderick was able write with some plausibility that Egan had become “perhaps the most important SF writer in the world” (Broderick 1998: 50)."
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/summary/117348500/SUMMARY?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
5 out of 5
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=HO_z5WFKwpoC&pg=PR7&dq=greg+egan&lr=&cd=175#v=onepage&q=greg%20egan&f=false
Sydney Morning Herald - Greg Egan
"The case of Cornelia Rau demonstrates an extraordinary level of inhumanity and incompetence.
No detention centre in Australia is equipped to care for mentally ill detainees, yet in the case of Ms Rau and many others, Baxter is constantly misused in this way.
Ms Rau was plainly psychotic and chronically distressed. She deserved professional psychiatric care from the start, whatever her nationality.
The Department of Immigration says it went to "great lengths" to establish Ms Rau's identity, but apparently it failed to contact the missing persons registry in more than one state. Sadly, many people have been detained for a great deal longer than 10 months on equally flimsy grounds.
To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Having built a $40 million high-security detention centre, the department sees everyone it gets its hands on as a suitable detainee. Until that culture changes, these abuses will continue.
Greg Egan, Tuart Hill (WA), February 6."
5 out of 5
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Letters/Common-decency-lost-in-the-name-of-security/2005/02/06/1107625061605.html
No detention centre in Australia is equipped to care for mentally ill detainees, yet in the case of Ms Rau and many others, Baxter is constantly misused in this way.
Ms Rau was plainly psychotic and chronically distressed. She deserved professional psychiatric care from the start, whatever her nationality.
The Department of Immigration says it went to "great lengths" to establish Ms Rau's identity, but apparently it failed to contact the missing persons registry in more than one state. Sadly, many people have been detained for a great deal longer than 10 months on equally flimsy grounds.
To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Having built a $40 million high-security detention centre, the department sees everyone it gets its hands on as a suitable detainee. Until that culture changes, these abuses will continue.
Greg Egan, Tuart Hill (WA), February 6."
5 out of 5
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Letters/Common-decency-lost-in-the-name-of-security/2005/02/06/1107625061605.html
The Age - Greg Egan
"As a refugee advocate who has been in contact with dozens of detainees for the past 2½ years, I don't doubt the assertion by Labor's new immigration spokesman, Laurie Ferguson, that a proportion of asylum seekers make false claims (The Age, 28/10). In any system where there's a benefit, some claims will be false, and this is true for everything from Centrelink to specialists rorting Medicare.
What I also don't doubt, though, is that dozens of people have been detained for four, five and six years who have been entirely honest and deserving in their asylum claims but have suffered from poor decision-making.
I do not advocate that asylum claims are not checked. I advocate that they are checked competently, with all the care required to ensure that no genuine claimants have their lives ruined by a bad decision. In recent months, more than 60 long-term detainees have been found to be refugees. Whatever cost the Australian community has borne because some false refugee claims have succeeded, there has been far greater damage done to long-term detainees whose claims are genuine.
If the quality of immigration decisions was improved, the numbers of false claims accepted and genuine claims refused would be reduced.
Greg Egan, Tuart Hill, WA"
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/28/1098667906181.html?from=storylhs
What I also don't doubt, though, is that dozens of people have been detained for four, five and six years who have been entirely honest and deserving in their asylum claims but have suffered from poor decision-making.
I do not advocate that asylum claims are not checked. I advocate that they are checked competently, with all the care required to ensure that no genuine claimants have their lives ruined by a bad decision. In recent months, more than 60 long-term detainees have been found to be refugees. Whatever cost the Australian community has borne because some false refugee claims have succeeded, there has been far greater damage done to long-term detainees whose claims are genuine.
If the quality of immigration decisions was improved, the numbers of false claims accepted and genuine claims refused would be reduced.
Greg Egan, Tuart Hill, WA"
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/28/1098667906181.html?from=storylhs
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