Diaspora (novel)

Diaspora is a 1997 science fiction novel by Australian writer Greg Egan.

Related Topics:
1997 - Science fiction - Australia - Greg Egan

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In Diaspora, most human beings have uploaded into virtual reality-based communities, called polises (Greek for city), where they live as infomorphs.

Related Topics:
Upload - Virtual reality - Greek - City - Infomorph

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An unprecedented range of possibilities and experiences then opens to humanity, free from the constraints of the physical world. The novel attempts to depict day-to-day life in such an environment.

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The novel title derives from the main quest that one of the polises, Carter-Zimmerman, begins in the physical world (much to the amusement of the other polises), to find the reason for a paradoxical acceleration of a cosmic event that wiped out the remaining body-bound humans ("fleshers") on earth, in the process discovering a message from a previous civilization. This discovery leads to knowledge of an even more threatening problem: the end of life in the Milky Way, together with the means of escaping the coming catastrophe by leaving the universe altogether.

Related Topics:
Paradox - Acceleration - Cosmic - Earth - Civilization - Milky Way - Universe

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In this novel, Egan deftly invents several new kinds of physics, each stranger than the one before. He also predicts a knowledge repository similar to Wikipedia.

Related Topics:
Physics - Wikipedia

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