Diaspora
by Greg Egan

Once again, Greg Egan has shown that he has 'big' thoughts as shown in this book, Diaspora.

Into this novel, he has 'squeezed' ideas on artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, exploration of space and, as the 'topping', exploration of a nearly infinite number of multi-dimensional universes.

In Egan's world of the future, humanity has been divided into three; the 'fleshers' who are humans in 'normal' biological form (although some have gone for severe genetic engineering), the 'gleisners' (who are AI with robotics bodies that maintain contact with the 'real world') and 'citizens' (who are AIs who live in virtual domains). Egan implies an event in the past that has all but severed ties between the three groups.

The novel starts of by showing the 'birth' and 'growth' of an artificial intelligent 'citizen' in a virtual environment and the coming of age when ver (Egan's non-gender personal verb) achieves self-awareness and takes on the name Yatima.

In subsequent chapter, Egan expands on Yatima's education and subsequent crises when it is discovered that a nearby (about 100 light years away) pair of neutron stars is about to collide, via unknown physical processes, releasing enough radiation to destroy the Earth's ecosystem.

In the aftermath, the three communities realise that despite their enormous technological knowledge, they don't know enough about how the universe works as shown by the colliding neutron stars. One of the 'polis' (a huge computer system in which the citizens 'live') on Earth decides to clone itself and spread throughout the galaxy, in an attempt to understand enough to protect the Earth from further surprises.

What they discover is even more chilling; a disaster that will destroy the entire galaxy. The only way to save themselves is to go in search of the Transmuters, a race that left them a way to escape; by literally moving to a new universe. Their search of the Transmuters will leave you feeling quite heady.

This is a demanding novel; demanding in that the reader needs to have some knowledge of physics and mathematics to appreciate it. You'll be thrown fascinating ideas like the idea that sub-atomic particles may be the mouths of wormholes (apparently first proposed by physicist John Wheeler) and how to see in a universe with five spatial dimensions!

If you like your stories 'hard' (lots of believable and mind-stretching physics), this is a wonderful book to read. You'll probably learn all you never wanted to know about multi-dimensional universes and the physics of such universes.

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Diaspora by Greg Egan

Diaspora
by Greg Egan