…is that life, therefore can be digitally defined. And I'm very influenced at the moment by the Australian Science fiction writer Greg Egan, who has brought me to the understanding that code is code, whether it's being run by ribosomes, whether it's being…

…to it. You know we are inside some kind of engine of narrative, I believe you know some science fiction writers such as Greg Egan and others have suggested that this could even be a form of recorded medium. You can see the thumbprints of editors on our…

…lot about a very wide range of topics. What a unique person he was. Okay, now, for all of our fellow saloners who are Greg Egan fans, geeks like me, that is. I hope you picked up on that little bit about seven minutes into his talk. Wherever Terrence…

…but also recommended it quite highly. However, this particular workshop recording that we're going to hear was made four years before Egan published that book and two years before Egan published the short story that the book was based on. Permutation City,…

…particular workshop recording that we're going to hear was made four years before Egan published that book and two years before Egan published the short story that the book was based on. Permutation City, as you'll recall, has a subplot where some human…

…Oh, well, I'm never going to be able to explain this very well, so let's just listen to Terence now. And if you are a Greg Egan fan, well, I hope that this makes you smile as much as it obviously did for me. The problem with determinism is it says…

…the intelligence there is on the planet. I recently discovered a science fiction writer. I was not familiar with this guy, Greg Egan, who wrote a thing called Permutation City, and that's a technology 50 years in the future where people routinely copy…

…shamanic, more gestalt kind of historical mode. Would I be interested? Would I buy? Well, if you like William Gibson, you should give Greg Egan a try. Neuromancer came out in 1984. How long ago is that? 14 years. Hard to believe. It's a work of ancient…

…believe. It's a work of ancient history. History, Neuromancer, a thing of another stratum in the arcology of the 20th century. Greg Egan, thinking along the same lines, imagines downloads, where it's not that you put on goggles and gloves, but that you…

…the middle of where we left off with Terrence last week, I should warn you that he is talking about the plot of a Greg Egan science fiction novel and not about a real medical procedure. I'll start it right now and you will understand in a moment what…

…Rucker is one of an expanding number of science fiction writers who are running harder than usual to stay in place, thanks to Greg Egan, who has raised the bar of science fiction higher than I thought it would rise before the close of the millennium. I…

…science fiction higher than I thought it would rise before the close of the millennium. I don't know if I've directly pitched Greg Egan to you. I've mentioned him several times. But if you only bother to read one science fiction author a year, you might…

…of the insights that I've been reading different people this year maybe you can tell and one of the people I've been reading is Greg Egan who I talked about last year but now I've read more now I've read diaspora and the ones where he makes no effort…