Permutation City

by Greg Egan

If the pattern in question was not an isolated object, though, but a self-contained world, complete with at least one observer to join up the dots from within

By a quarter to eight, Maria was thinking about logging off and grabbing some food. She was still on a high, but she could feel how close she was coming to the point where she’d be useless for the next thirty-six hours if she pushed herself any further.

He thought of jumping – almost believing that he could land unhurt, or almost believing that he wouldn’t care – but there was a grey clarity underneath those delusions, and an engine in his skull a billion years old which only wanted to survive.

him.‘I love you, you know. But would I tell you that? Or would you be stupid enough to pretend that I had?’ Warm, sweet rain began to fall. He said, ‘I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care.’

‘You must read this warning carefully. Your brain model will be directly examined for evidence of complete understanding before we proceed to the next stage.’ It was a thousand

a twentieth-century opera called Einstein on the Beach.

He wasn’t drunk any more. She believed he understood everything she was feeling – the whole knot of confusion and shame – and all he wanted to do was smooth it away.

Only the promise of eternal growth made sense of eternal life.