Comment on Reading is consciousness-altering and a bit toxic.
trigg@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Okay but your last meal also changed your internal chemistry and probably changed your outlook too. It’s insane to believe you can remain unchanged by everything in life.
Bags@piefed.social 1 week ago
It's ironic that I have an anecdote that I recently read that feels very fitting here.
Permutation City by Greg Egan. Post-human digital consciousness via uploaded brain-scan becomes possible, and there are interesting questions about how the "sense of self" is derived, and how much someone can change themselves before they are no longer the same person. There are many different characters that deal with a newfound immortality in different ways, and either embrace, or shun, the ability to change themselves at a whim to fit their needs or wants. It's a very prominent part of the overall plot and is prevalent right up until the last sentence.
Also, separate from that, I have the exact opposite feeling as OP. When I'm reading a book, I feel like my world is expanded in new directions. I tend to see certain things from slightly different perspectives in the context of what I'm reading. I've been reading Greg Egan's entire body of work (after reading Diaspora and absolutely fucking loving it), and some insight and thoughts I had about the book Quarrantine actually pushed me to make positive changes in my life that have been really hugely impactful, and I don't think I would have had the courage or drive to make them had I not been thinking about my life in such an abstract manner.
Plesiohedron@lemmy.cafe 1 week ago
Permutation City blew my mind too. Such great ideas.
Diaspora, and other Egan too, ya. But PC nost of all. I’ve read it like 6 times. It’s got that proper scifi vibe. The walls of reality crumble.
Bags@piefed.social 1 week ago
I think it was just an odd way of making him seem more human and normal. Also the fact that he doesn't mention anything about it carrying over from his previous lives leaves an interesting open question that could either lend credence or hinder his whole backstory... At least that's how I interpreted it.
Plesiohedron@lemmy.cafe 1 week ago
Another thing.
One of the private universes went bad. So they locked the door. A deeply scary idea. A sealed cellular automaton based universe. Perfectly! Deterministic therefore ultimately incapable of escaping its history. Perfectly sealed. Therefore, incapable of salvation from the outside. And once the gate is lost, perfectly lost forever.
It’s similar to solipsistic Nation guy. Trapped in a personal universe where he’s enjoying climbing a skyscraper forever.
I think about that a bit. It’s got a deep scariness
Plesiohedron@lemmy.cafe 1 week ago
Here’s a story that explores similar ground. Divided by Infinity It’s in The Perseids and Other Stories By Robert Charles Wilson
Plesiohedron@lemmy.cafe 1 week ago
Maybe it was a mark of his alienness. A fundamental human pleasure tendered painful. He was on his hundredth universe after all.