Diaspora

A Novel

by Greg Egan

In the future, most of earth's human population has rid themselves of their troublesome corporeal bodies. Instead, they live as minds within giant computers. The few humans who choose to remain outside the computers are referred to as "fleshers." This novel follows the development of an "orphan"--a mind born without a human precursor--named Yatima, and the quest to save the fleshers from a cosmological tragedy .

Editions of Diaspora

	ISBN 9780061052811	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Harpercollins	Date 1998	Price $2.75	Very Good
	ISBN 9780061057984	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Harpercollins	Date 1999	Price $7.20	Very Good

Publisher Notes

The boldest and most wildly speculative writer of our time, Greg Egan has envisioned a quantum Brave New World-a masterful saga of a time when not only human life, but fleshly reality itself, will be nothing but a memory...

It is the thirtieth century. The "world" has evolved into a vast network of probes, satellites, and servers knitting the solar system into one scape from the outer planets to the sun. Humanity, too, has reconfigured itself. Most people have chosen immortality, joining the polises to become conscious software. Others have opted for disposable, renewable robotic bodies that remain in contact with the physical world. A few holdouts stubbornly remain fleshers struggling to shape an antiquated existence in the muck and jungle of Earth.

And then there is the Orphan, a genderless digital being grown from a mind seed.

When an unforeseen disaster ravages the fleshers, it awakens the polises to the possibility of their own extinction from bizarre astrophysical processes that seemingly violate fundamental laws of nature. It is up to the Orphan and a group of refugees to find the knowledge that will save them all--a search that will lead them on a quantum adventure to a higher dimension beyond the macrocosmos....

Media Reviews

"This is science fiction with an emphasis on science."

First Line

Yatima surveyed the Doppler-shifted stars around the polis, following the frozen, concentric waves of color across the sky from expansion to convergence. Ve wondered what account they should give of themselves when they finally caught up with their quarry.

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