Comment on Reading is consciousness-altering and a bit toxic.
Plesiohedron@lemmy.cafe 1 week agoPermutation 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.