I might have missed something in Neuropath. What I got from it was mostly a technotriller plot using near-future brain surgery to give people creepier versions of the sorts of Oliver Sacks delusions people already get when they get brain damage. The possibility of doing this doesn’t seem like a very radical thesis if you already take it as given that the brain runs on physics.
I’d agree with the description of Permutation City as philosophically shocking, it had a very strange core idea in it that still wasn’t obviously wrong.
I might have missed something in Neuropath. What I got from it was mostly a technotriller plot using near-future brain surgery to give people creepier versions of the sorts of Oliver Sacks delusions people already get when they get brain damage. The possibility of doing this doesn’t seem like a very radical thesis if you already take it as given that the brain runs on physics.
I’d agree with the description of Permutation City as philosophically shocking, it had a very strange core idea in it that still wasn’t obviously wrong.
Jryy gur fubpxvat vqrn va Arhebcngu vf gung bhe ‘srryvatf’ bs univat serr jvyy, bs univat zbeny vaghvgvbaf, bs orvat n fhowrpg jvgu ‘dhnyvn’ naq bs univat vagragvbanyvgl (cersreraprf, oryvrsf, tbnyf, rgp.) ner whfg xvaqf bs angheny nabfbtabfvnf, dhvexf bs irel fcrpvsvp naq sentvyr arhebculfvbybtvpny qrsvpvgf unaqrq gb hf ol ribyhgvbanel nppvqrag—naq gung rira fznyy inevngvbaf va zvaq qrfvta fcnpr jvyy bzvg gurfr guvatf pbzcyrgryl.
Cbfguhznaf znl irel jryy unir ab ‘rkcrevrapr bs dhnyvn’ be bs ‘serr jvyy’ be rira bs orvat vagragvbany flfgrzf—naq guvf jbhyq or qhr abg gb cngubybtl ohg gb qrfvta hctenqrf bire gur jrgjner cebivqrq ol ribyhgvba. Fb ba guvf gurbel, gur cvpgher bs gur shgher tvira va Qvnfcben sbe vafgnapr, jurer cbfguhznaf unir svefg crefba crefcrpgvirf naq fhowrpgvivgl pbhyq or frra nf anviryl bcgvzvfgvp naguebcbzbecuvfz.
Have you read Blindsight? It explicitly mentions this idea, and is generally very nice.
If by “nice” you mean “a good book” then I agree.
Not coincidentally, that is the next novel on my summer reading list.
Vg frrzf vapbafvfgrag gb qrfpevor gur rkpvfvat bs svefg-crefba fhowrpgvivgl nf na hctenqr juvyr nyfb pnyyvat cerqvpgvbaf bs vgf pbagvahrq rkvfgrapr bcgvzvfgvp. (Gubhtu znlor gung’f jul lbh hfrq gur ‘anvir’ dhnyvsvre?)
Vf gur fpranevb bar jurer jr’q cersre gb xrrc svefg-crefba fhowrpgvivgl, ohg jr’er sbeprq gb tvir vg hc qhr gb fbzr bgure pbafgenvag?