 First edition (publ.Millennium) | |
| Author | Greg Egan |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction short stories |
| Publisher | Millennium |
Publication date | January 1, 1995 |
| ISBN | 978-1-857-98281-7 |
Axiomatic (ISBN 0-7528-1650-0) is a 1995 collection of shortscience fiction stories byGreg Egan.[1] The stories all delve into different aspects of self and identity.
The Guardian described it as "Wonderful mind-expanding stuff, and well-written too."[citation needed]
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SeveralAxiomatic 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 advancednanotechnology.
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 death.
Neural mods feature prominently in Greg Egan's first science fiction novel,Quarantine.
Two stories, "Learning to Be Me" and "Closer",[2] involve a different kind of neural implant called a "jewel"—a small computer inserted into the brain at birth that monitors its activity in order to learn how to mimic its behavior. By the time one reaches adulthood, the jewel's simulation is a near-perfect predictor of the brain's activity, and the jewel is given control of the person's body while the redundant brain is discarded. In this way, people with the jewel can eliminate the cognitive decline associated with aging by implementing their minds on a machine. Also, by transplanting the jewels into cloned bodies genetically altered to develop without brains, they can live youthfully forever.
"Learning to Be Me" explores the consequences of a man's jewel failing to synchronize with his brain, while in "Closer" a couple arranges to have the internal states of their jewels gradually made more similar so they can temporarily become a single person.
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Minds are transferred to computers in a different style in "A Kidnapping". People wishing to upload themselves into computer simulations to avoid death are periodically scanned so that a recent copy of the individual can be simulated in the event of death. Due to limited computing resources, however, uploaded people are simulated slower than their physical counterparts, making communication between them difficult.
This system of uploading minds features prominently in Greg Egan's novelPermutation City.
The collection consists of 18 stories from a number of sources:[3]
Danny Yee found thatAxiomatic has "more original ideas ... than [he'd] seen in a science fiction collection for ages, and anyone who likeshard science fiction will revel in them."[4]
On theEpihyte Book review website Christina Schulman wrote, "Egan's ideas stretch your head the way the bettercyberpunk does, without cyberpunk's self-indulgent grime and alienation."[5]
The production of a short film inspired by the story "Axiomatic" commenced in 2015,[6] and the film was released online in October 2017.[7]