Diaspora by Greg Egan
The human race has undergone significant restructuring since the Exodus in the twenty-first century. Most people opted for immortality and joined the political systems to become conscious software. Others choose gleisners, which are biodegradable, disposable robotic bodies that continue to interact with the physical world of force and friction. In fusion-drive starships, several of them have permanently left the solar system.
And then there are the holdouts: the fleshers who were abandoned in the mud and jungle of Earth. Some of them have evolved into dream monkeys, while others are having fun in the air or the oceans as the statics and bridgers work to forge a future that is roughly that of a human.
But when an unexpected catastrophe strikes the fleshers and makes it clear that the governments themselves could be in danger from strange astrophysical phenomena that appear to contradict basic rules of nature, the populace’s confidence is broken. Yatima, a digital being created from a mind seed, joins a group of citizens and flesher refugees in their quest to learn the information that will ensure their safety. This quest leads them to the ancient and elusive Transmuters, who have the ability to alter subatomic particles and enter the macro cosmos, where the known universe exists as a speck in a higher-dimensional vacuum.
Diaspora by Greg Egan
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In Diaspora, artificial intelligence (AI) systems, robots, and genetically modified people live on Earth. The ability to build genuine people who exist in biological bodies, robot bodies, high-capacity protected computers, virtual settings, and solar system exploration is a triumph of human achievement. We now have control over our genes, so those biological persons take on many different shapes. The ability to speak has been engineered out of some creatures, while others have gills and can swim under the sea.
Some biological individuals value things very differently than we do. They may also have an extremely deep understanding of biochemistry and strong senses of smell, which enable them to engage with a forest in a totally different way than we do. In this culture, there is little actual scarcity. People in this society have a great deal of freedom to think about the kind of life they want to lead because they are not dependent on having a job to provide for their needs. Furthermore, if you’re one of the AI systems, you have power over your own values.
