Distress
A Novel
by Greg Egan · first published 1995
58% recommend42% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Hard science fiction set on a governmentless artificial island, blending physics, future media, and questions of identity and illness. Its near-future social ideas make it a fit for fans of rigorous SF.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
It is 2055 and the world is far better--and infinitely worse.
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…problem if "healing" is optional. Political dissidence has been categorize as an illness in the past. In the Soviet Union, for instance. The same with sexual preferences. In the science fiction novel "Distress", by Greg Egan, appears a character that it's a highly functioning autistic that don't want to be "healed". I have the book here. This idea has been with me since I read it: "What's the most patronising…
I'm too materialistic for taking those views seriously, but I recommend a nice Science Fiction book that deal with this: "Distress" by Greg Egan [1]. 1. http://www.gregegan.net/DISTRESS/DISTRESS.html
on “Do Our Questions Create the World?” ↗…Peace War, Marooned in Realtime. All great novels, but start from A Fire Upon the Deep (I read that in 2008) if you haven't read Vinge before, it's the best introduction. Greg Egan, Diaspora, Quarantine, Distress. Egan is the best hardcore SF author out there. _Diaspora_ is a fascinating take on shared simulated reality that's very different from the usual fare. Quarantine will appeal to your inner quantum mechanical…
on “Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?” ↗This idea features in Greg Egan's novel "Distress" as one of the dystopian elements. It's a great novel; but this idea is pretty horrifying.
on “Launch HN: Tavus (YC S21) – AI-generated personalized videos for sales outreach” ↗Try Greg Egan's Distress for an interesting take on an artificial island without a government in the Pacific called "Stateless". (Plus the Theory-of-Everything, future media, genderless humans and autistic-spectrum rights).
on “20,000 Nations Above the Sea: Is floating the last, best hope for liberty?” ↗And Egan's other book Distress. Which goes further into the OP's second point. Not actually needing to calculate everything.
on “Shut up and calculate: an extreme mathematical universe” ↗Science Fiction author Greg Egan wrote a novel called Distress[0] where the main character is a science journalist who makes documentaries. He uses software exactly like this. The book was published in 1995. It's a very good book and I highly recommended it and basically…
on “Algorithm allows video editors to modify talking-head videos as if editing text” ↗I’m non-tech so I immediately though this might be re: Distress, Greg Egan, 1995. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distress_(novel) Advanced geekery / skullduggery on the artificial island home of an illegal unrepresentable (rogue) state (as in country) amid a global…
on “Making Illegal States Unrepresentable” ↗Greg Egan's works, mainly permutation City and Distress. These books go far beyond just LLMs and Greg Egan's novels really put the "hard" in hard sci-fi. But they describe a world where compute is extremely important. The first half of Permutation city especially…
on “Ask HN: Science Fiction books that predict where ChatGPT might lead us?” ↗I’ve liked every Egan book I read but also want to mention Distress. I got shipped it accidentally when I ordered Diaspora and the seller told me to keep it. It’s set in the “near future” so probably 2020 since it was published in 1998 and does a good job, I think, of…
on “Permutation City (1994)” ↗…the Reality might invent new laws when people look for them, and doesn't bother with laws when no one observes them There are several books from Greg Egan with this idea in mind: Permutation City and Distress. The latter one is exactly about this idea.
on “Physicists Solve a Muon Mystery. Now, Old Results Don't Add Up” ↗…good. "Rama" is good too, but the sequels do not hold up. Greg Egan is very obtuse, you need a very good level of math to understand some of his work. But not all of his novels are intractable. I loved "Distress", it introduced me to a very different way to think about gender identity. I'll second The Tchaikovsky recommendation from OP ("Children of Time") It's very high on my Sci-fi tier list. I'm surprised…
on “Science Fiction Books Everyone Should Read” ↗…cooling attacks, resistive/optic-fibre security meshes. Another amusing idea would be to use a GPS receiver to ensure that data can only be viewed from a given physical location[2]. [2] This gets used in _Distress_ by Greg Egan, although I'd thought about it myself long before reading the book. Edit: [3] I just remembered about Flexplay (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Flexplay), which was a DVD…
on “Confirmed: All Wikileaks Cables to be Released in next 24 hours” ↗I think you're talking about Distress by Greg Egan? Was the book about the announcement of a Theory of Everything on an artificial island?
on “Neurodiversity” ↗…enough to not really need daily meds but went through a few supplement/nootropic phases and was surprised by how boring, mundane, and unsolved the sorting and taking pills problem is. I remember reading Distress by Greg Egan and people had a “pharm” machine that would print out specific meds they need. Including things like mixing caffeine and vitamins to make up for a hangover or massive infection. I wish I…
on “Amazon PillPack – Your medication, sorted and delivered” ↗