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Axiomatic (Egan Book)
''Axiomatic'' () is a 1995 collection of short science fiction stories by Greg Egan. The stories all delve into different aspects of self and identity. ''The Guardian'' described it as "Wonderful mind-expanding stuff, and well-written too." Neural mods Several ''Axiomatic'' stories involve "neural mods", usually presented as small tubes containing powder inhaled through the nose, which alter the brains of their users in highly specific ways with advanced nanotechnology. In the collection's eponymous story "Axiomatic", the protagonist enters a store selling mods not only for every variety of psychedelic experiences, but for altering one's personality traits, sexual orientation, and even religion. The protagonist seeks a custom-made mod that will suspend his moral convictions long enough for him to murder his wife's killer. In " The Walk", an executioner offers his victim a mod that will cause him to accept the executioner's personal philosophy, and thus help him cope with his d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg Egan
Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction writer and mathematician, best known for his works of hard science fiction. Egan has won multiple awards including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the Locus Award. Life and work Egan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Western Australia. He published his first work in 1983. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind uploading, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism to religion. He often deals with complex technical material, like new physics and epistemology. He is a Hugo Award winner (with eight other works shortlisted for the Hugos) and has also won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. His early stories feature strong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of Genetic engineering techniques, technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms. New DNA is obtained by either isolating and copying the genetic material of interest using recombinant DNA methods or by Artificial gene synthesis, artificially synthesising the DNA. A Vector (molecular biology), construct is usually created and used to insert this DNA into the host organism. The first recombinant DNA molecule was made by Paul Berg in 1972 by combining DNA from the monkey virus SV40 with the Lambda phage, lambda virus. As well as inserting genes, the process can be used to remove, or "Gene knockout, knock out", genes. The new DNA can either be inserted randomly or Gene targeting, targeted to a spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberware, juxtaposed with societal collapse, dystopia or decay. Much of cyberpunk is rooted in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when writers like Philip K. Dick, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, John Brunner (novelist), John Brunner, J. G. Ballard, Philip José Farmer and Harlan Ellison examined the impact of technology, drug culture, and the sexual revolution while avoiding the utopian tendencies of earlier science fiction. Comics exploring cyberpunk themes began appearing as early as Judge Dredd, first published in 1977. Released in 1984, William Gibson's influential debut novel ''Neuromancer'' helped solidify cyberpunk as a genre, drawing influence from punk subculture and early hacker culture. Frank Miller's ''Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hard Science Fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell's ''Islands of Space'' in the November issue of ''Astounding Science Fiction''. The complementary term ''soft science fiction'', formed by analogy to the popular distinction between the "hard" (natural science, natural) and "soft" (social science, social) sciences,) first appeared in the late 1970s. Though there are examples generally considered as Hard and soft science, "hard" science fiction such as Isaac Asimov's Foundation (book series), ''Foundation'' series, built on mathematical sociology, science fiction critic Gary Westfahl argues that while neither term is part of a rigorous Taxonomy (general), taxonomy, they are approximate ways of characterizing stories that reviewers and commentators have found useful. History Stories revolving around scientific and technical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unstable Orbits In The Space Of Lies
"Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies" is a Science fiction, science-fiction short story by Australian writer Greg Egan, first published in ''Interzone (magazine), Interzone'' #61 in July 1992. The short story was included in the collections ''Axiomatic (Egan book), Axiomatic'' in 1995 and ''The Best of Greg Egan'' in 2019. Plot An unexplained event causes humans to adapt the beliefs of their surrounding humans, creating sharp boundaries in culture and religion as well as the appearance of attractors working similar to gravity. Although the protagonist prefers to travel in between them through a post-apocaliptic world with damaged infrastructure to avoid being sucked in, and in particular experiences the ancient clash between science and religion or tugs to rationality, solipsism and nihilism, it only leads to the realization to also be stuck in a belief system that manifests itself as paths instead of stable locations.Burnham 14, p. 130/131 Translations The short story was t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, preventable disease. It can be managed with treatment and become a manageable chronic health condition. While there is no cure or vaccine for HIV, Management of HIV/AIDS, antiretroviral treatment can slow the course of the disease, and if used before significant disease progression, can extend the life expectancy of someone living with HIV to a nearly standard level. An HIV-positive person on treatment can expect to live a normal life, and die with the virus, not of it. Effective #Treatment, treatment for HIV-positive people (people living with HIV) involves a life-long regimen of medicine to suppress the virus, making the viral load undetectable. Treatment is recommended as soon as the diagnosis is made. An HIV-positive person who has an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Moral Virologist
"The Moral Virologist" is a science fiction short story by Greg Egan. It was first published in September 1990 in '' Pulphouse Magazine'', and subsequently republished in 1991's ''The Best of Pulphouse'', in the Summer 1993 issue of ''Eidolon'' magazine, and in Egan's 1995 collection ''Axiomatic''. An Italian-language version, "Il Virologo Morale", was published in 2003. Synopsis John Shawcross is a fundamentalist Christian who is disappointed that safe sex has limited the spread of HIV/AIDS, which he considers to be God's punishment for sexual immorality. Consequently, he becomes a virologist, so that he may create a new and more lethal virus. His new virus evolves in four steps by encoding the RNA of the person infected into its own, thereby rendering universal vaccination impossible. The host is killed, if their virus detects a new sexual partner or one of the same sex. Only homosexual incest between identical twins stays unpunished. John Shawcross spreads the virus and retur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appropriate Love
"Appropriate Love" is a science-fiction short story by Australian writer Greg Egan, first published in '' Interzone'' #50 in August 1991. The short story was included in the collection ''Axiomatic'' in 1995 and ''The Best of Greg Egan'' in 2019. Plot After a horrible car crash, which completely shattered the body of her husband Chris Perrini, his wife Carla Perrini is offered a strange solution to restore his former life as their insurance only covers the cheapest option: By enclosing his brain in a fluid-filled membrane, putting it inside her uterus and connecting it to her bloodflow, it can be kept alive while a new brainless body is cloned for him. The process takes two years in total. Chris wakes up in his new body and expresses his love for Carla. When they sleep together again, she begins to realize, that the fake pregnancy and his youthful body causes her to begin loving him like a son. Translation The short story was translated into French by Sylvie Denis and Francis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Into Darkness (novelette)
"Into Darkness" is a science-fiction novelette by Australian writer Greg Egan, first published in ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' in January 1992. The novelette was included in the collections ''Axiomatic'' in 1995 and '' The Best of Greg Egan'' in 2019. Plot A strange wormhole is randomly jumping around on the surface of the Earth, but seems to be drawn to crowded areas. No reason for its sudden appearance is known, but some assume it to be an experiment by aliens from the future to get into the past with both ends of the wormhole accidentally collapsing towards their common barycenter in spacetime. The wormhole is composed of two shells, the outer with a radius of one kilometer being called "The Intake" and the inner one with a radius of two hundred meters being called "The Core". Going over "The Intake" forces macroscopic objects like people (with microscopic expections like the flow of blood possible) to only travel further towards "The Core", which allows to leave the wormhole. E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cutie
"The Cutie" is a science-fiction short story by Australian writer Greg Egan, first published in '' Interzone #29'' in May/June 1989. It was his first to be published in ''Interzone''. The short story was included in the collection ''Axiomatic'' in 1995. It also appeared in the anthology ''Interzone: The 4th Anthology'' edited by John Clute, David Pringle and Simon Ounsley in 1989. Plot A lonely man with a desperate wish to be a father undergoes a medical procedure to impregnate himself with a "Cutie", a child with reduced mental capacities (including the inability to speak), reduced legal status (regarded to be more like a pet) and a lifespan of only four years. When she unexpectedly succeeds to speak simple words, the man begins to form a stronger attachment to her and even unsuccessfully tries to postpone the early death integrated into her genetics. After her death, the mourning father is left wondering, whether her death would have meant this much to him if she never had att ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genetic Testing
Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or through biochemical analysis to measure specific protein output. In a medical setting, genetic testing can be used to diagnose or rule out suspected genetic disorders, predict risks for specific conditions, or gain information that can be used to customize medical treatments based on an individual's genetic makeup. Genetic testing can also be used to determine biological relatives, such as a child's biological parentage (genetic mother and father) through DNA paternity testing, or be used to broadly predict an individual's ancestry. Genetic testing of plants and animals can be used for similar reasons as in humans (e.g. to assess relatedness/ancestry or predict/diagnose genetic disorders), to gain information used for selective breed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bird's-eye View
A bird's-eye view is an elevated view of an object or location from a very steep viewing angle, creating a perspective (graphical), perspective as if the observer were a bird in flight looking downward. Bird's-eye views can be an aerial photography, aerial photograph, but also a drawing, and are often used in the making of blueprints, floor plans and maps. Before crewed flight was common, the term "bird's eye" was used to distinguish views drawn from direct observation at high vantage locations (e.g. a mountain or tower), from those constructed from an imagined bird's perspectives. Bird's eye views as a genre have existed since classical times. They were significantly popular in the mid-to-late 19th century in the United States and Europe as photographic printing, photographic prints. Terminology The terms aerial view and aerial viewpoint are also sometimes used synonymous with bird's-eye view. The term ''aerial view'' can refer to any view from a great height, even at a wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
