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Comment by abra0 | Hacker News Reader

>The Autoverse is an artificial life simulator based on a cellular automaton complex enough to represent the substratum of an artificial chemistry. It is deterministic, internally consistent and vaguely resembles real chemistry. Tiny environments, simulated in the Autoverse and filled with populations of a simple, designed lifeform, Autobacterium lamberti, are maintained by a community of enthusiasts obsessed with getting A. lamberti to evolve, something the Autoverse chemistry seems to make extremely difficult.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permutation_City

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I read that a few years ago, probably because it was recommended here on HN. Absolutely wild book.

It seriously flipped my view of the world on it's head for a bit. Then I read it again right after lol

What a coincidence, I just reread that section of permutation city yesterday.

I wonder if there is an efficient cellular automata that vaguely approximates the behavior of real chemistry, just like the autoverse.

It's a shame the garden eden configuration plot point is kind of bunk.

Stephen Wolfram says yes.

This book is absolutely fantastic. Egan is a magnificent writer.

He is, but sometimes I go cross-eyed reading his books. He likes to explore some crazy topics, which makes for great reading but sometimes confusing reading too.

Yeah, that's why my favorite way of reading him is via his short stories. Just enough to get the big idea across and not get lost in too much detail.

Could you recommend one or two of these short stories? Thank you!

Pick up Axiomatic, try the first story (The Infinite Assassin) and see if it grabs you. It's got the best parts of something like Snow Crash, which drops you in without much exposition, and lets the visuals/action lead. Learning to Be Me from the same collection really stood out to me, it's a unique take on the "uploading your consciousness" trope.

My recollection from Infinite Assassin is that for someone not pretty literate in mathematics it would nearly be nonsense.

Into Darkness was another great one from Axiomatic. Also great action, and a seriously intense brooding atmosphere.

It's not a short story, but this is the first work of Egan's that I read and I loved it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(novel)

Thank you for letting me find my next read! Loved Egan's Diaspora years ago, looking forward to this one.

Diaspora is one of my all time favourite books

This was my first thought after looking at the project. Just finished the book.. wild!

Permutation city was my gateway drug for the excellent Greg Egan bibliography

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