The same caveat applies to this book as to every other Egan novel. If you are neither inherently fascinated by mathematics and physics taken past the bleeding edge, nor willing to tolerate possibly pages of physics discussion that you don't get, then don't read this novel. It's not the book, it's you - and that's ok, it's just not worth your while getting frustrated.That said, if you're willing to dive in, I think this is another of Egan's awesome novels. Spoilers coming.The premise is that at the end of the 30th century, there are some humans we would see as 'normal' - called fleshers here; there are more 'people' who inhabit the polises, which are basically massive computers - so yes, they're virtual, from our current perspective. And there are also gleisners, who inhabit robot bodies. The plot is driven by the perspective of a couple of polis citizens; indeed it begins with the creation of an 'orphan', a citizen in a polis created with no input from any parental guidelines but by the polis itself, basically to test new possibilities. This orphan, who becomes Yatima, is a primary protagonist. Some reviewers over on goodreads have been frustrated by the lack of fiction, or plot, in this story, and I can see where they're coming from. However, there is a plot, and even if sometimes it takes something of a backseat to the ideas - well, that's kinda the deal with an Egan story. But it's not superfluous in any way. So what is it? Well, a gleisner astronomical survey indicates that two neutron stars are about to collapse into each other, several million years earlier than they ought to. They're frighteningly close to the earth, and it does indeed do very bad things to the planet when the gamma rays etc get here. From this, eventually, there is a diaspora as people (broadly understood) attempt to understand this event and how to survive future ones and also, just Going Out into the universe as humanity has always dreamed of doing. Interesting things are discovered, of course.This brings me to a rant about the blurb. It suggests that Yatima is searching for a world where no "acts of God" will occur. Um, no. If anyone is searching for that it's Orlando, a flesher who goes into a polis after the catastrophe. But even that does absolutely no justice to anyone's motivation. So... all I can think is that the blurber had no idea what to say about the book, and was told to focus on the plot (which they didn't understand) rather than the ideas. This is my contempt you're feeling right now. And then there are the big questions Egan plays with. Some of these are things he's actively working through over the novel, while others are things he simply takes for granted. For me, as always, his approach to gender is the most striking on a plot level. Because it's one of the issues he simply takes for granted. Humanity living in a software-created virtual world? Why on earth would they keep to rigid binary (yes I know, all the caveats about it not actually being binary) understandings of gender? So most of the polis citizens are referred to as "ve" - and things happen to "ver" while belongings are "vis", which is very neat. There are some who are gendered; Orlando, perhaps understandably, can't shed his original gendered self perception; there are some polis-born citizens who also insist on it, and they're regarded as frankly a bit weird. I adore this aspect.The virtual nature of much of the story could lead to a complete divorcing from the physical, which is an issue I've been thinking a lot about since reading Nike Sulway's Tiptree speech: the issue of divorcing matter and mind. However, I think Egan does a good job here of not doing so - and indeed of interrogating the issue. The polis inhabitants do still interact with matter, and it is important to them; there are discussions about the importance, or not, of interacting with the real and whether postulating crazy things like more dimensions than we can see or interact with is just offensive. Most polis citizens respect the material world even if they experience it differently from fleshers. And the diaspora, even if it takes places as (basically) flying computers, also interacts with the real and physical in important, fundamental and profound ways. So, go you, Egan, for not just going the lazy cyberpunk route. Did I mention that this book takes place quite seriously over about two millennia, and then speeds up at the end to encompass even more time? What a head spin.Some of the physics stuff he discusses: astronomy - especially the neutron star bits; extrasolar planets; alien life, including evolution and non-carbon-based possibilities; wormholes; quarks, leptons, fermions etc; and the possibility of other universes and how they would interact, or not, with the one we inhabit.On that note, I can't help but feel that this must to some extent be Egan's answer to, or take, on Flatland. Indeed he references the idea of "flatland" at one stage. Because some of the characters are forced to interact with beings existing in 5 dimensions, and how are you going to do that? So that's a really nice aspect for those who have read that somewhat obscure adventure into dimensional maths. Some of the other ideas that Egan confronts: human evolution, both 'natural' and deliberate, and what that will mean for the various branches communicating with each other; the place of art and of mathematics; cloning, and its possibilities; parenthood and the nature of being an orphan; individuality and community. I told you this was a dense, complex, and - I mean it - ambitious work, right?
Comienzo del libro:El comienzo del libro es duro, definitivamente es duro y puede disuadir a más de uno a seguir leyendo (aunque no a mí).La originalidad de la propuesta del autor (no se parece a nada de lo que yo haya leído hasta ahora, que no es poco) es uno de los alicientes que me impulsó a seguir, ya que el lector comparte la confusión inicial del protagonista cuando viene al mundo, un mundo con una Humanidad muy distinta (y diversa) a la que se plantea en la SciFi generalmente.En este principio que llevo leído la terminología del libro (muy próxima al mundo de la Inteligencia Arrificial) tiene el mayor peso de entre todos los elementos.Confío en que a partir de ahora el esfuerzo de lectura vaya siendo cada vez menor... Con el 27% leído:Puedo decir que o yo me he ajustado o el nivel de exigencia de la obra se ha reducido un poco, pudiendo leer pasajes más largos sin quedar con la cabeza zumbando. Me explico: la obra sigue manteniendo exigencias de corte matemático, físico y astrofísico al lector, unas exigencias que no podríamos considerar menores. Sin embargo, a partir del 10% podemos decir que los personajes ya son reconocidos como tales, con sus motivaciones y demás características psicológicas que los distinguen del panorama general de la obra.Ya a esta altura del 27% uno tiene un conocimiento de la propuesta evolutiva que Greg propone para el ser humano en tres derivaciones: ciudadanos, gleisners y carnosos, resultando en una tensión de plausibilidad soportable. Es una propuesta que enlaza las tres derivaciones en un momento de conflicto, a la vez que va desgranando aquí y allá pistas históricas que explican su génesis, en una suerte de ejercicio intelectual para que el lector no pierda la visión de conjunto.Me ha costado, pero a estas alturas ya puedo decir que me está gustando :-)A la mitad del libroSe puede decir que el lector ya tiene todas las claves precisas para poder afrontar el libro (creo), y a partir de aquí se desarrolla toda la historia de la Diáspora en sí.La introducción de las variables psicológicas en los personajes (a pesar de la distancia entre las diversas formas humanas) es un hecho asentado, y permite ir viendo la evolución de los mismos según se van enfrentando a las situaciones. Quien pensabas que iba a ir en una determinada dirección se estanca y al más abstracto lo ves refugiándose en las emociones más humanas para poder ofrecer soluciones a los problemas intelectuales que obstaculizan la salvación de la especie... todo dentro de los límites de la naturaleza de dichos personajes, claro está...Con el 75% leídoAlgunos de los personajes secundarios pasan a ser los principales, sin perder referencias a los ya conocidos, por lo que el lector no pierde referencias a estas alturas, se siente acompañado y familiar con los mismos. Y eso que esta parte del libro ya va incorporando muchas novedades en la exploración del Universo, revelando posibilidades no demasiado mencionadas en las novelas Sci-Fi al uso, entrando en el detalle científico a la hora de explicarlas.Me llama la atención la consideración de lo psicológico del autor, como lo que sin duda nos define como seres humanos, y los matices que se aprecian entre los ciudadanos, gleisners y carnosos... Dichos matices no son cortes gruesos que impidieran a un ser humano poder cambiar entre esas "formas", aunque sí transforman su campo de experiencia, sobre todo a nivel fenomenológico.Con el 100% leídoLa historia se cierra con el final de la exploración, no hay pie para secuelas, aunque posiblemente no es el final que la mayoría esperábamos. Al menos no yo. Confieso que me pareció un poco solipsista, y que el reduccionismo que subyace al modelo psicológico de la Humanidad descrita me ha parecido un poco frustrante, aunque opino que nunca terminan de creérselo del todo aquellos defensores de esas posturas. Parece quedar algún lugar para las emociones, aunque siempre de forma atenuada, supeditadas al ejercicio cognitivo.En fin, me ha parecido un gran libro, en el que la lectura es difícil, pero superada esa primera parte, es sobrellevable, y la expectativa de la resolución del argumento nos da alas. Es todo un viaje en busca de un destino cuya recompensa es terminarlo, de una manera elegante y simétrica.Extra: Me ha encantado una de las conclusiones de este libro tan denso, que ya se ha podido ilustrar a estas alturas del libro: la vida no entiende de atajos. Y me ha gustado porque la llevo en mi acervo particular desde hace muchos años, como una constatación de una especie de ley del karma que realmente funciona... aunque a veces estemos ofuscados y no nos lo parezca ;-)
Do You like book Diaspora (2000)?
After reading that Greg Egan book, coming back down to reality is... unnerving. Not in a scary sense, but in a compacting-the-world-into-20th-century-3-dimensions sense. Like information is being lost, and I remember seeing in ways I can't now. The physics and mathematics concepts may cause you to hesitate reading this book. Don't. Egan does a good job explaining the concepts. Even if they go over your head, the relationships between protagonists, the very human talents and perspectives they bring to the problems they face, and the epic scope of the journey are what lie at the heart of this book. You don't need a degree in robotics to enjoy "Blade Runner", you don't need to grasp the intricacies of astrophysics to enjoy "Contact", and the same applies to this book. You can certainly try, and I encourage you to do so, but if it winds up your mind just can't grasp it, don't worry. Just enjoy the solid story Egan spins for you.
—Steven
As far as I can tell, this is a prequel to the stories "Glory" and "Ride the Crocodile." It documents the early days of interstellar exploration by post-singularity humankind. If this really is a prequel, that means the later Amalgam stories do not take place in our universe. I can't recall if there were explicit references to our galaxy in either of those short stories, but in the end it doesn't really matter.Scope is not one thing this novel lacks. It takes place across more than a trillion different universes, which has to be a new record or something.I won't talk about the plot too much, except to say that you definitely can't anticipate the direction its going in. In a way, that's the book's greatest failing. It is extremely disjointed, sometimes feeling like a series of linked short stories more than a novel. It begins and ends with the same POV character, Yatima, but in between you spend chapters with a number of other characters. They all orbit around Yatima in one way or another, but I would hardly say that it's really his story as a result.As is usual for Greg Egan, there is a lot of science in this book. There is no "action," except for the excitement of scientific discovery. I found the procedural investigations riveting for the most part.The opening, while interesting, is a bit much. The first 30 pages describe in intricate detail the process by which virtual citizens procreate. You are lead through the development of a conscious mind. It's all very interesting, but it was a lot to wade through before you even get to start with the plot.So, I liked this much more than Distress. I think Egan's talents are better suited to short stories and novellas, however.
—Noah M.
Ever since I read Permutation City, Egan has been one of my favorite hard sci-fi authors, and when I cracked open this book and saw that the first forty pages were a hardcore blow-by-blow of an AI becoming self- aware that would do Marvin Minsky proud, I knew that I would love it too. Brief plot synopsis: in the near future where humanity has trifurcated into AIs, sentient robots, and flesh-bound transhumans, an unexplained binary neutron star collision and subsequent gamma ray burst forces the remnants of civilization to colonize the galaxy in order to prevent such an extinction event from ever happening again. While Diaspora is of course filled with laugh-out-loud clumsy infodumps ("Say, can you tell me about your trans-universal particle physics model?" "Not until I brief you on hyperdimensional topology!"), it was also a surprisingly strong exploration of how humans – no matter if they're flesh and blood or sentient programs – cope with death and loss. I suppose that this is a common theme in Egan's works, and some of the AI characters do seem somewhat reprised from Permutation City, but Diaspora connects the deaths of individuals to the extinction of human life in a clever and meaningful way, and also ties that into personal and societal maturity (what happens when you want to simply stop exploring?) in a way that reminded me of Stanislaw Lem's Cyberiad, which is high praise. Science fiction at its best uses both existing and imaginary technology to explore old human issues in new ways, and it's a shame Egan isn't more famous because he does that as well as anyone.
—Aaron Arnold
