"Wang's Carpets" is a

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

short story by

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 Aus ...

writer

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 Lo ...

, first published in ''New Legends'' edited by

Greg Bear Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American science fiction writer. His work covered themes of Interstellar_war, galactic conflict (''The Forge of God, Forge of God'' books), parallel universes (''The Way (Greg Bear ...

and Martin H. Greenberg on 5 April 1995. It was later included in '' The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection'' in 1996 and '' Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction'' in 2005, both edited by

Gardner Dozois Gardner Raymond Dozois ( ; July 23, 1947 – May 27, 2018) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the founding editor of '' The Year's Best Science Fiction'' anthologies (1984–2018) and was editor of '' Asimov's Science Fict ...

, as well as '' The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction'' edited by Mike Ashley in 2006. The short story was also included in Egan's novel ''

Diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

'' (but minorly reworked). The title refers to the mathematician Wang Hao (or Hao Wang in western order).

Plot

When the polis Carter-Zimmermann reaches the planet Orpheus in orbit around the star

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, and ...

alien life Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially, aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms ...

is found in its oceans. An attempt for first contact fails, but micro probes sent down reveal their structure to be that of carpets made out of 20,000 unique polysaccarides. Closer inspection reveals, that the carpets are growing by adding new lines of polysaccarides and that they are resembling

Wang tiles Wang tiles (or Wang dominoes), first proposed by mathematician, logician, and philosopher Hao Wang in 1961, is a class of formal systems. They are modeled visually by square tiles with a color on each side. A set of such tiles is selected, and ...

. According to a theorem by Hao Wang, any

Turing machine A Turing machine is a mathematical model of computation describing an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite the model's simplicity, it is capable of implementing any computer algori ...

can be described this way with new lines corresponding to new iterations of the calculation. A Fourier transformation uncovers, that the carpets are simulating a sixteen-dimensional universe and squid-like aliens living within. Even though contacting them is impossible, the characters reflect that them waiting on aliens to communicate with and seeing these ones as isolated also applies the exact other way around.

Reception

Reviews

Rich Horton, writing in the ''

Locus Magazine ''Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field'', founded in 1968, is an American magazine published monthly in Oakland, California. It is the news organ and trade journal for the English-language science fiction and fantasy fields. ...

'', compares Egan's other short story "3-adica" to "Wang's Carpets" and calls the latter "one of his very best". Greg Johnson, writing for the ''

SF Site ''SF Site'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine edited by Rodger Turner. It is among the oldest of websites dedicated to science fiction and primarily publishes book reviews. It has won the Locus Award and received nominations for ...

'', states that "the references to 'Gleisner body' and 'physiological model', in the context of Egan's universe, are very revealing" and that "Egan's technical and scientific language works to a double purpose," since "it contributes to the story's

worldbuilding Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world or setting (narrative), setting, sometimes associated with a fictional universe. Developing the world with coherent qualities such as a history, geography, culture and ecology is a k ...

and adds to characterization."

Awards

The short story was nominated for the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Short Story in 1995. Egan's other short stories "Mister Volition" and "Luminous" were also nominated with the latter winning the award that year.

External links

ISFDB - Greg Egan bibliography

( Croatian translation)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang's Carpets Australian science fiction short stories 1995 short stories Short stories by Greg Egan