Subject: Review: DIASPORA by Greg Egan

From: "cranialjax" <[email-masked]>
Date: 26 Feb 1998 14:40:10 -0500

"Diaspora" by Greg Egan.
	Published in the UK by: Millenium, 1997, isbn1-85798-438-2

Krit9801.txt - one of the Kritikal series.
by [email-masked]

"Diaspora" is both an entertaining and wonder-inspiring flit across
millenia of human development, starting from some time soon at a computer
near you.

In this story most humans migrate into computers, abandoning their
physical bodies to live wholly in virtual reality (although a useful few
hang back in robot bodies or even actual flesh).  A disaster comes along
and the VR humans have to deal with the outside world. In the course of
this they chase through multiple universes populated with aliens in a fast
paced techno romp.  The most interesting thing about the book however is
Egans's treatment of developing consciousness.  This is cutting edge
psychology that addresses the big question that all us shrinks wanna know
the answer to (yeah, i'm a shrink) - anyway the big question being "WHAT
THE HELL IS CONSCIOUSNESS ANYWAY!!?" or more specifically, define its
mechanism, how it arises and works.  Egan seems to have an instinctive
grasp of the not-too-easy work that has been done in this field, and he
presents it in a way that shouts, "Look! It's easy. Brains work like
this!".  Remarkable.

Egan's tale is long on fine accurate science extrapolations, with some
artistic licence of course. I don't know about physicists or astronomers,
but this psychopunk recommends "Diaspora" as an inspirational and
understandable account of mind, and a damn good space yarn.

CJ

"Kritikal" is an ocassional series of literary reviews by
cranialjax. They MAY be carried by any information storage and retrieval
system in any format whatsoever provided the textual content is not
substantially altered, the author is credited, and it is not for monetary
gain. "Kritkal" is copyright 1998.