Permutation City by Greg Egan My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was an excellent recommendation from my son. Written in 1992, it is prescient of the modern day, and the crevasse we are attempting to cross in the world of AI. The book covers many philosophical points of consciousness and embodiment. People can make digital ‘copies’ of themselves and allow their alter egos to live on in a digital world that has all the depth and colour of our world, yet is a captive to physical constraints of computing power. Copies can think, and exhibit all that one might ascribe to a conscious being. They can also work and manipulate virtual worlds, and those become sophisticated universes of their own. At times the book’s chronology is confusing, and intentionally blurs the lines between the present, the parallel present, and the far future. It is an engaging read, and a worthy addition to the sci-fi canon. I gave it five stars. View all my reviews
Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure by Monisha Rajesh My rating: 2 of 5 stars I almost gave this one star. The writer is very dismissive of her fellow travellers and of many of the places she goes. I suggest she reads some Paul Theroux or Bruce Chatwin and learns the craft of travel writing. One star was coming even before she dismissed Singapore in a poorly thought-through sentence: 'a starchy, characterless city with the superficial appeal of Dubai, and the same brutal levels of heat', yet gave pages to the (interesting) account of North Korea. In places, the writing is poor, yet there is some humour, which raised the review to two stars. I was angry about the Singapore comment for much of the book. She refers to a chap she met in London who had been interned at Changi during WW2, and uses his recollections and reflections a few times to add some historical context to the section on the death railway. She could have gone ...