Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...

writer and amateur 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 The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...

, and the

Locus Award The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine ''Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. In addition to the p ...

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 Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

. Other themes include genetics,

simulated reality The simulation theory is the hypothesis that reality could be simulated—for example by quantum computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds that may or may not know that they live i ...

posthuman Posthuman or post-human is a concept originating in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy that means a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human. The concept aims at addressing a variety of ...

ism,

mind uploading Mind uploading is a speculative process of whole brain emulation in which a brain scan is used to completely emulate the mental state of the individual in a digital computer. The computer would then run a simulation of the brain's information pr ...

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied wi ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

, and the superiority of

rational Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reasons. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an abili ...

naturalism to religion. He often deals with complex technical material, like new physics and epistemology. He is a

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 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 ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publication ...

''.

Mathematics

In 2018, Egan described a construction of superpermutations, thus giving an upper bound to their length. On 27 February 2019, using ideas developed by Robin Houston and others, Egan produced a superpermutation of ''n'' = 7 symbols of length 5906, breaking previous records.

Personal life

As of 2015, Egan lives in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. He is a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

and an atheist. Egan does not attend science fiction conventions, does not sign books, and has stated that he appears in no photographs on the web, though both SF fan sites and

Google Search Google Search (also known simply as Google) is a search engine provided by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is also the most-visited website in the world. The ...

have at times mistakenly represented photos of other people with the same name as those of the writer.

Awards

* ''

Permutation City ''Permutation City'' is a 1994 science-fiction novel by Greg Egan that explores many concepts, including quantum ontology, through various philosophical aspects of artificial life and simulated reality. Sections of the story were adapted from E ...

'': John W. Campbell Memorial Award (1995) * ''

Oceanic Oceanic may refer to: *Of or relating to the ocean *Of or relating to Oceania **Oceanic climate **Oceanic languages **Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)" Places * Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...

'':

, Asimov's Readers' Award (1999) * '' Distress'': Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis as Best Foreign Fiction (2000) Egan's work has won the Japanese Seiun Award for best translated fiction seven times. '' Teranesia'' was named the winner of the 2000 Ditmar Award for best novel, but Egan declined the award.

Works

Novels

* '' An Unusual Angle'' (1983), * '' Quarantine'' (1992), * ''

'' (1994), * '' Distress'' (1995), * ''

Diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews afte ...

'' (1997), * '' Teranesia'' (1999), * ''

Schild's Ladder In the theory of general relativity, and differential geometry more generally, Schild's ladder is a first-order method for ''approximating'' parallel transport of a vector along a curve using only affinely parametrized geodesics. The method is ...

'' (2002), * ''

Incandescence Incandescence is the emission of electromagnetic radiation (including visible light) from a hot body as a result of its high temperature. The term derives from the Latin verb ''incandescere,'' to glow white. A common use of incandescence is ...

'' (2008), * '' Zendegi'' (2010), * '' Dichronauts'' (2017), * ''The Book of All Skies'' (2021), * ''Scale'' (2023),

Orthogonal trilogy

* ''The Clockwork Rocket'' (2011), * ''The Eternal Flame'' (2012), * ''The Arrows of Time'' (2013),

Collections

Axiomatic An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or ...

(1995), Our Lady of Chernobyl (1995), Luminous (1998), Dark Integers and Other Stories (2008), Crystal Nights and Other Stories (2009),

(2009), The Best of Greg Egan (2019), Instantiation (2020)

Other short fiction

Excerpted

* ''

'': ** "Orphanogenesis" in '' Interzone'' issue 123, September 1997

Academic papers

* ''An Efficient Algorithm for the Riemannian 10j Symbols'' by Dan Christensen and Greg Egan * ''Asymptotics of 10j Symbols'' by John Baez, Dan Christensen and Greg Egan * ''Conic-Helical Orbits of Planets around Binary Stars do not Exist'' by Greg Egan

Short movies

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

Notes

References

External links

* *
Greg Egan
at Library of Congress Authorities — with 11 catalog records
Stories currently online
at ''Free Speculative Fiction Online'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Egan, Greg 1961 births 20th-century Australian male writers 20th-century Australian non-fiction writers 20th-century Australian novelists 20th-century Australian short story writers 21st-century Australian male writers 21st-century Australian non-fiction writers 21st-century Australian novelists 21st-century Australian short story writers Amateur mathematicians Australian atheists Australian computer programmers Australian horror writers Australian human rights activists Australian humanists Australian male non-fiction writers Australian male novelists Australian mathematicians Australian science fiction writers Australian social commentators Cultural critics Hugo Award-winning writers Living people Social critics Sentientists University of Western Australia alumni Writers about activism and social change Writers from Perth, Western Australia