Permutation City (1994) - Greg Egan
I had no idea what I was getting into when I started this book, but it turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. In general I like hard scifi that goes as in-depth as possible about the fictional science. I think this book kind of took that concept to the next level. There are still characters in this book, but I think it is about 90% descriptions of fictional science and 10% story. It is extremely dense with technical details. There are whole pages talking about the chemical composition of molecules or the inner workings of simulated physics. The author seems to have a background in computer science and uses this knowledge to extrapolate where computers might be in the distant future. I don’t think it is actually intended to be some kind of prediction. It’s just something that is interesting to think about. The book hinges on the idea of being able to perfectly scans someones brain and then play it back on a computer as a kind of simulation. But while they can perfectly scan your brain they don’t have enough computer power to play it back at full speed.
At any rate I look forward to reading some more of Greg Egan’s books. I hope the others are as fun of thought experiments as this one.
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