Luminous
by Greg Egan · first published 1900
71% recommend29% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short stories built on hard science and mathematics, with the title story centered on number theory and provability. It serves as a strong entry point to Egan's short fiction for readers of ideas-driven sci-fi.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Greg Egan is the author of some of the most surprising and intuitive short fictions in the genre. His stories range from near future predictions to far future, far space improvisations and this new collection of ten stories includes 'The Planck Dive', Transition Dreams', 'Our Lady of Chernobyl', 'Cocoon' and the title store 'Luminous'.
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Anyone read Luminous by this author? It's an action packed short story about math truths. Super good. > A truly wonderful story in which two math grad students discover that the things we consider to be "truths" in…
on “Random 4Chan User proves lower bound on Super permutations” ↗The "applied" number theory reminds me of a couple other stories: -the Laundry novels (Charlie Stross). Here's one novella: http://www.goldengryphon.com/Stross-Concrete.html -Luminous/Dark Integers (Greg Egan).
on “The Secret Number” ↗…conclusions. It is real hard sci-fi. If you do discover similar authors, please let me know. Recommended reading: All his short stories are amazing. I'd highly recommend them: http://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Greg-Egan-ebook/dp/B00E84BABW http://www.amazon.com/Axiomatic-Greg-Egan-ebook/dp/B00FDWOBZ... Some of his novels are hit and miss, but certainly worth checking out. This is probably my favourite: http://www.amazon.com/Permutation-City-Greg-Egan-ebook/dp/B0...
on “Why 'Her' will dominate UI design even more than 'Minority Report'” ↗Here for $2.99: http://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Greg-Egan-ebook/dp/B00E84BABW... Get this collection as well: http://www.amazon.com/Axiomatic-Greg-Egan-ebook/dp/B00FDWOBZ...
on “Why 'Her' will dominate UI design even more than 'Minority Report'” ↗…http://www.amazon.com/Diaspora-A-Novel-Greg-Egan/dp/15978054... * * * If you want a softer approach to Egan's fiction, check out his short stories. Reasons to be Cheerful is my favorite one as well as Egan's. It's part of the Luminous collection, available as a $3 kindle ebook: http://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Greg-Egan-ebook/dp/B00E84BABW...
on “Foundations by Greg Egan (1998)” ↗…You'll wake up in the morning, none the wiser. Edit: Only scary part is staying conscious after the cutover. Greg Egan gets into some of this with excellent short stories in Axiomatic (The Jewel) and Luminous (Transition Dreams). But that's still not really much worse than benzos.
on “A Dying Young Woman’s Hope in Cryonics and a Future” ↗If we're talking about Greg Egan, then I'll go ahead and also suggest his short stories Luminous and Dark Integers. They postulate a similarly tight connection between physical processes and mathematical theorems, and then go on to consider the implications of the fact that such a system can't prove…
on “Shut up and calculate: an extreme mathematical universe” ↗I have never read Glasshouse but I loved Permutation City (though I think Diaspora and Schild's Ladder were even better. Luminous/Dark Integers and Palimpsest are tied in my mind for "best short story") I would posit that since you like Greg Egan, I consider Egan one of my 3 fav. authors, and Accelerando was the book that...well...…
on “Accelerando (2005)” ↗"Luminous" was what got me hooked on Greg Egan. Of his recent fiction, I enjoyed "Zeitgeber" [1] and "The Nearest" [2]. I found the latter to be an interesting exploration of what happens when you suddenly discover…
on “Foundations (1997-2000)” ↗Luminous, Chaff, Axiomatic, Learning to be Me, The Cutie, The Moat. The Best of Greg Egan is a perfectly respectable place to start.
on “Foundations (1997-2000)” ↗Big Fan of Egan's short stories. I feel like they are his strongest work and maybe because they can lean more on ideas. Luminous about math grad students discovering some secrets in math is pretty great. Wang's Carpets which became Diaspora is mind blowing. Zendegi is an interesting novel by him I never see anyone mention. I…
on “Permutation City (1994)” ↗Egan's short stories are great. Luminous is an excellent collection. I've never been huge fan of his long form novels, and will remember forever the sex scene in one of them that ends with a cramped testicle. Why Greg, why?
on “Permutation City (1994)” ↗Seconding this, Greg Egan is one of the best of all time. The short stories "Luminous" and "Dark Integers", the novels "Diaspora" and "Schild's Ladder". So good. qntm (another author) hits somewhat similarly.
on “Perceptually lossless (talking head) video compression at 22kbit/s” ↗…some commenters pointed out, is an alternate version of Greg Egan's short story "learning to be me", now easily found in one of his short story compilations. If you haven't yet read Axiomatic as well as Luminous, I highly recommend both.
on “Astronauts describe persistent 'observer' sensation after 6 month missions” ↗Also read Greg Egan's short story Luminous :)
on “Physicists Solve a Muon Mystery. Now, Old Results Don't Add Up” ↗