Status Updates From Permutation City

Hooked.

This story is deep, really deep, but fascinating in ways I've never experienced before. This goes far beyond a sentient Clone living inside an AI environment... it's the birth of a new universe inside the AI Realm that is as mind blowing as anything I've ever read. Wow

Dust Theory is one of the most interesting things I've ever read about. It gives you a whole new way to think about the world - like Einstein's theory of General Relativity. This book is one of the most enlightening books I've ever read, plus it's a page-turning thriller. As a fiction, this is hard to beat.

This book is THE BOMB.

It's a thriller like Inception, but -- I think -- with a much more interesting high-concept premise. It's especially interesting to read as a dated speculative sci-fi to see how well this book has aged.

Philosophically - this is one of the more interesting world's and thought experiments that I've encountered. The fact that it's wrapped up in a good thriller is a nice bonus.

"...you're a node in a logical data space, your physical location is entirely irrelevant..."

There's more ideas in the first thirty pages than 500 of my most other sci fi writers. And really, "chemistry" sci fi? How cool is that?

If Black Mirror had one whole season based on a single storyline Permutation City should be the one.

Meh

Francesca said, “But don’t you see? We talk about God for the simple reason that we still want to . There’s a deeply ingrained human compulsion to keep using that word, that concept – to keep honing it, rather than discarding it – despite the fact that it no longer means what it did five thousand years ago.”

“I didn’t realize you’d grown so cynical, so quickly. AI isn’t a branch of pure mathematics; it’s an empirical science. Assumptions have to be tested. Confirming the so-called ‘obvious’ isn’t such a dishonorable thing, is it? And if it’s all so straightforward, why should you be afraid?”

So, let's suppose you were God, and you'd done such a good job of creating the world that you couldn't break your own laws and make miracles happen, but you'd actually only created the solar system and a bit of space around it. Then if you wanted to manifest yourself, wouldn't it make sense to manipulate the external boundary conditions and appear as an alien in a UFO? I don't know why I never thought of that.

The worst part of creating an artificial universe is that it can easily evolve beings intelligent enough to be able to figure out that they, or their distant ancestors, or their world, must be designed. Then what do you do? You're kind of morally obligated to tell them where they came from, but if you choose that path then you've probably screwed up the experiment. No wonder so few people want to be God.

So you're a simulated person who's just been switched on, and your first thought is that you remember you're a perfect copy of another simulated person who's created you to undertake a hazardous one-way mission. What do you do?

a) Just head off towards the abyss, this was the plan all along.

b) Try to kill your creator and escape.

c) Offer to flip a coin, loser goes on the mission and winner stays behind.

Well, the city sounds intriguing, but I'm pretty dubious about the permutations. They requires more suspension of disbelief than Julian Barbour, and I don't say that lightly.

I want to know more about the relationship between the Church of the God Who Makes No Difference and the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. Has there been a schism or something?

- So when does this info-dump end?

- Honey, the whole book is an info-dump. Relax and enjoy the ride.

Don't you just hate it when you wake up and discover that you're not you, but just a copy of you that you decided to run in a simulated universe? You're sitting there thinking how unfair it is that you're in this crappy computer while you're having fun out there in the real world. Why couldn't you have been you instead?

Well, so far so good, but I bet it gets more complicated soon.

No, ma il solo modo di "sistemare" le cose è avere minore impatto sul pianeta, non maggiore. Invece di strologare questi progetti grandiosi per rimettere tutto a posto con la forza, dovremmo smetterla, lasciare stare, dare alla natura la possibilità di guarire. Novembre 2050

This book is really remarkable. It's exploring the idea of identity from every angle possible, and asking some questions I've never seen asked anywhere else.

One of the most instantly captivating first chapters of a book I've ever read. I can already tell that this is one of the most "up my alley" books I'll ever read. I'm a bit worried that I will be less interested in the Autoverse plotline, but I'm only one chapter in so I will reserve judgment for now.

"In fact, if Durham was right [...] then those events would happen regardless. It could make no difference what anyone did in the world. The whole Garden of Eden project was superfluous." Yep, it occurred to me.

Hum... So the software model of the brain is perfectly deterministic?

I've only finished its half but it seems I will give 70 stars out 5.

Meta bioquímica, informática y física cuántica en la coctelera y agite hasta que le explote el cerebro. Si ve que lo va digiriendo bien, meta más multiversos y 6 dimensiones, ya puestos.

La madre que le parió.

"[She] mentally urged the process on - if not straight toward the target (since she had no idea what that was), then at least outward, blindly, into the space of all possible mistakes."

left off at chapter 14

"Paul decidió rápidamente que todo el debate era una distracción. Para cualquier humano, la demostración absoluta de la capacidad de sentir de una Copia era imposible. Para cualquier Copia, la verdad era evidente: cogito ergo sum. Final de la discusión".

I've tried to slog through it but the molasses-like pacing and dryness of the narrative have gotten the better of me. I'm dropping this book.

Currently reading more from this crazy author. His concepts are so fascinating! Why does he have to be so pretentious?!

Trying another book by this crazy author. His concepts are so fascinating! Why does he have to be so pretentious?!