Diaspora is an intensely interesting and
involving novel by
Greg Egan that supposes a very believeable
future in which
humanity has
evolved into three distinct "classes":
The
Polis - super powerful networks of
digitized and
artificially created human minds that can reshape themselves at will. The
Polis memebers have the ability to change their
perception of time and remotely inhabit the shells of "dead" robot bodies.
The
Fleshers - the bioengineered descendents of humanity. They alter their bodies with the same
freedom as the members of the
Polis do, but in the "
physical" world using advanced genetic technologies.
The
Androids - really a branch of the
Polis that believed that all of the
Polis were losing touch with "
reality" because they no longer inhabited bodies. Thus this fragment made the choice to inhabit
robot bodies in order to be closer to their
flesher origins.
This book will really twist your mind. I am frankly
astonished at the
author's ability to actually describe what it is like to perceive 5
dimensions. I mean ;I read it, I experienced that perception of an
alternate reality and immeadiatly lost that wonderously wierd feeling after I had passed the chapter. A truly gifted writer.