Greg Egan

Greg Egan
BornGregory Mark Egan[1]
(1961-08-20) 20 August 1961 (age 63)[1]
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
OccupationWriter, former programmer[2]
Period1983–present (as a science fiction writer)
GenreScience fiction
Website
www.gregegan.net Edit this at Wikidata

Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961)[1] 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

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Egan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Western Australia.[2][3][4]

He published his first work in 1983.[5] 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.[6] His early stories feature strong elements of supernatural horror.

Egan's short stories have been published in a variety of genre magazines, including regular appearances in Interzone and Asimov's Science Fiction.

Mathematics

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In 2002, Egan co-authored two papers about Riemannian 10j symbols, spin networks appearing in Riemannian quantum gravity, together with John Baez and Dan Christensen. Spin networks also play a central role in his novel Schild's Ladder released the same year.

In 2014, Egan conjectured a generalization of the Grace–Danielsson inequality about the relation of the radii of two spheres and the distance of their respective centres to fit a simplex between them to also hold in higher dimensions, which later became known as the Egan conjecture. A proof of the inequality being sufficient was published by him in 2014 under a blog post of John Baez. They were lost due to a rearrangement of the website, but the central parts were copied into the original blog post. Further comments by Greg Egan on 16 April 2018 concern the search for a generalized conjecture involving ellipsoids.[7] A proof of the inequality also being necessary was published by Sergei Drozdov on 16 October 2023 on ArXiv.[8]

In 2018, Egan described a construction of superpermutations, thus giving an upper bound to their minimum length. On 27 February 2019, using ideas developed by Robin Houston and others, Egan produced a superpermutation of seven symbols of length 5906, breaking previous records.[9][10]

Personal life

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As of 2015, Egan lives in Perth. He is a vegetarian[2][11] and an atheist.[12]

Egan does not attend science fiction conventions,[13] does not sign books, and has stated that he appears in no photographs on the web,[14] though both SF fan sites and Google Search have at times mistakenly identified him as the subject of photos of other people with the same name.[15]

Awards

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Egan's work has won the Japanese Seiun Award for best translated fiction eight times.[6]

Teranesia was named the winner of the 2000 Ditmar Award for best novel, but Egan declined the award.[6]

Works

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Novels

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  • An Unusual Angle (1983), ISBN 0-909106-12-6
  • Quarantine (1992), ISBN 0-7126-9870-1
  • Permutation City (1994), ISBN 1-85798-174-X
  • Distress (1995), ISBN 1-85798-286-X
  • Diaspora (1997), ISBN 1-85798-438-2
  • Teranesia (1999), ISBN 0-575-06854-X
  • Schild's Ladder (2002), ISBN 0-575-07068-4
  • Incandescence (2008), ISBN 978-1-59780-128-7
  • Zendegi (2010), ISBN 978-1-59780-174-4
  • Dichronauts (2017), ISBN 978-1597808927
  • Perihelion Summer (2019), ISBN 978-1-250-31378-2
  • The Book of All Skies (2021), ISBN 978-1-922240-38-5
  • Scale (2023), ISBN 978-1-922240-44-6
  • Morphotrophic (2024), ISBN 978-1-922240-51-4

Orthogonal trilogy

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Main article: Orthogonal (series)

Collections

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Axiomatic (1995), ISBN 1-85798-281-9

Our Lady of Chernobyl (1995), ISBN 0-646-23230-4

Luminous (1998), ISBN 1-85798-551-6

Dark Integers and Other Stories (2008), ISBN 978-1-59606-155-2

Crystal Nights and Other Stories (2009), ISBN 978-1-59606-240-5

Oceanic (2009), ISBN 978-0-575-08652-4

The Best of Greg Egan (2019), ISBN 978-1-59606-942-8

Instantiation (2020), ISBN 978-1-922240-39-2

  • The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine (2017)
  • Zero For Conduct (2013)
  • Uncanny Valley (2017)[26]
  • Seventh Sight (2014)
  • The Nearest (2018)[27]
  • Shadow Flock (2014)
  • Bit Players (2014)[25]
  • Break My Fall (2014)[28]
  • 3-adica (2018)
  • The Slipway (2019)
  • Instantiation (2019)

Sleep and the Soul (2023), ISBN 978-1-922240-47-7

Phoresis and Other Journeys (2023), ISBN 978-1-922240-50-7

Other short fiction

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Excerpted

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Academic papers

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  • An Efficient Algorithm for the Riemannian 10j Symbols by Dan Christensen and Greg Egan[42]
  • Asymptotics of 10j Symbols by John Baez, Dan Christensen and Greg Egan[43]
  • Conic-Helical Orbits of Planets around Binary Stars do not Exist by Greg Egan[44]

Short movies

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The production of a short film inspired by the story "Axiomatic" commenced in 2015,[45] and the film was released online in October 2017.[46]

Notes

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  1. ^ Singleton introduced the concept of the Qusp, which was later used in the novel Schild's Ladder.
  2. ^ Dust was incorporated into the novel Permutation City as the first few chapters in one narrative thread.
  3. ^ Wang refers to the mathematician Hao Wang – the carpets are living embodiments of Wang tiles. This story, minorly reworked, became a section of the novel Diaspora.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Egan, Greg". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
  2. ^ a b c Burnham, Karen (30 April 2014). Greg Egan. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07993-1. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  3. ^ Booker, M. Keith (1 October 2014). Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 98. ISBN 978-0810849389. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  4. ^ "UWA Award Verification Service". Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  5. ^ "Bibliography". Gregegan.net. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Greg Egan Awards". Science Fiction Awards Database. Mark R. Kelly and the Locus Science Fiction Foundation.
  7. ^ John Baez (1 July 2014). "Grace–Danielsson Inequality". Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  8. ^ Sergei Drozdov (2023). "Egan conjecture holds". arXiv:2310.10816 [math.MG].
  9. ^ Egan, Greg. "Superpermutations". Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  10. ^ Klarreich, Erica (5 November 2018). "Mystery Math Whiz and Novelist Advance Permutation Problem". Quanta Magazine. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  11. ^ Egan, Greg (19 October 2008). "Iran Trip Diary: Part 2, Esfahan". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  12. ^ Egan, Greg (2009). "Born Again, Briefly". In Blackford, Russell; Schüklenk, Udo (eds.). 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists. Sussex: Wiley–Blackwell.
  13. ^ Farr, Russell (September 1997). "Interviews". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  14. ^ "Photos of Greg Egan, science fiction writer". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  15. ^ Egan, Greg (24 August 2012). "Google, the Stupidity Amplifier". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  16. ^ Egan, Greg (April 1992). "Closer". eidolon.net. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  17. ^ Egan, Greg (31 December 2006). "Riding the Crocodile". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  18. ^ Egan, Greg (October 2007). "Dark Integers". Asimovs.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  19. ^ "Harper Voyager Books: FREE HUGO SHORT STORIES: Ken Macleod and Greg Egan". Outofthiseos.typepad.com. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  20. ^ Egan, Greg (27 January 2009). "Interzone: Science Fiction & Fantasy – Crystal Nights". TTA Press. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  21. ^ Egan, Greg (15 October 2007). "Steve Fever | MIT Technology Review". Technologyreview.com. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  22. ^ Egan, Greg (8 August 2002). "Singleton". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  23. ^ Egan, Greg (12 November 2000). "Oracle". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  24. ^ Egan, Greg (12 April 1999). "Border Guards". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  25. ^ a b Egan, Greg (2014). "Bit Players". Subterranean Press. Archived from the original on 27 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  26. ^ a b Egan, Greg (9 August 2017). "Uncanny Valley". Tor.com. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  27. ^ Egan, Greg (19 July 2018). "The Nearest". Tor.com. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  28. ^ Alexander, Niall (12 June 2014). "Step into the Stars: Reach for Infinity, ed. Jonathan Strahan". Tor.com. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  29. ^ Egan, Greg (1 October 2020). "You and Whose Army?". Clarkesworld Magazine, issue 169, October 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  30. ^ Egan, Greg (25 September 2019). "Zeitgeber". Tor.com. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  31. ^ Egan, Greg (21 March 2020). "Tangled Up". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  32. ^ Egan, Greg (29 May 2001). "Mind Vampires". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  33. ^ Egan, Greg (16 May 2001). "Scatter My Ashes". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  34. ^ Egan, Greg (August 1990). "The Extra". eidolon.net. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  35. ^ Egan, Greg (December 1990). "The Vat". eidolon.net. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  36. ^ Egan, Greg (July 1991). "The Demon's Passage". eidolon.net. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  37. ^ Egan, Greg (1992). "Worthless – a short story". Infinityplus.co.uk. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  38. ^ Egan, Greg (1997). "Yeyuka – a short story". Infinityplus.co.uk. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  39. ^ Egan, Greg (9 August 2000). "Only Connect". Nature. 403 (6770). Gregegan.net: 599. Bibcode:2000Natur.403..599E. doi:10.1038/35001162. PMID 10688177. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  40. ^ Egan, Greg (23 September 2013). "In the Ruins". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  41. ^ Egan, Greg (10 June 2002). "Orphanogenesis". Gregegan.net. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  42. ^ Christensen, J Daniel; Egan, Greg (24 January 2002). "An efficient algorithm for the Riemannian 10j symbols". Classical and Quantum Gravity. 19 (6): 1185–1194. arXiv:gr-qc/0110045. Bibcode:2002CQGra..19.1185C. doi:10.1088/0264-9381/19/6/310. S2CID 14908906.
  43. ^ Baez, John C; Christensen, J Daniel; Egan, Greg (4 November 2002). "Asymptotics of 10j symbols". Classical and Quantum Gravity. 19 (24): 6489. arXiv:gr-qc/0208010. Bibcode:2002CQGra..19.6489B. doi:10.1088/0264-9381/19/24/315. S2CID 10556245.
  44. ^ Egan, Greg (19 October 2015). "Conic-Helical Orbits of Planets around Binary Stars do not Exist". Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy. 130 (130): 5. arXiv:1510.05345. Bibcode:2018CeMDA.130....5E. doi:10.1007/s10569-017-9803-7. S2CID 119235670.
  45. ^ Axiomatic at IMDb
  46. ^ "Axiomatic". Film shortage. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
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