Permutation City

by Greg Egan

hardcover, 340 pages

Published April 14, 1994 by Orion Publishing Co.

ISBN:: 978-1-85798-174-2

(3 reviews)

Permutation City is a 1994 science-fiction novel by Greg Egan that explores many concepts, including quantum ontology, through various philosophical aspects of artificial life and simulated reality. Sections of the story were adapted from Egan's 1992 short story "Dust", which dealt with many of the same philosophical themes. Permutation City won the John W. Campbell Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year in 1995 and was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award the same year. The novel was also cited in a 2003 Scientific American article on multiverses by Max Tegmark.

7 editions

Abstract Reader reviewed Permutation City by Greg Egan

Did not make sense

2 stars

I did not finish this one. The whole premise seems to hinge on the idea that you can just arbitrarily reorder the steps of a deterministic computation. This clearly is not possible in general and the book does not even try to come up with an excuse why it should be possible in their setting. Am I just supposed to suspend my belief for that? It then goes on to expound lots of philosophy based on this premise, but it all rings rather hollow for me given that the lynch pin is so ridiculous.

Justin Younger reviewed Permutation City by Greg Egan

Review of 'Permutation City (Subjective Cosmology #2)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Tough read but very prescient.

loppear reviewed Permutation City by Greg Egan

I love the 90s scifi cover, "people on a chip" is not really what this is at all, although it is too.

5 stars

Speaking my language at 14 or 40, hard implications for immortality and self-redefinition in computationally simulated brain scans and artificially evolved life.