Reality Check
Dive into our curated 'Reality Check' book list, exploring mind-bending fiction and nonfiction that question our perception of the world. Featuring Vernor Vinge's cyberpunk classic 'True Names' and Greg Egan's 'Permutation City', these thought-provoking books offer the ultimate reality-bending reading experience.
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True Names and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier
by Vernor Vinge
A collection of articles and essays about the new frontier of the Internet, especially a direct interface between brain and computer that enables game players of the future to actually experience the world of their fantasies.
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Permutation City
by Greg Egan
The story of a man with a vision - immortality : for those who can afford it is found in cyberspace. Permutation city is the tale of a man with a vision - how to create immortality - and how that vision becomes something way beyond his control. Encompassing the lives and struggles of an artificial life junkie desperate to save her dying mother, a billionaire banker scarred by a terrible crime, the lovers for whom, in their timeless virtual world, love is not enough - and much more - Permutation city is filled with the sense of wonder.
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The Futurological Congress (from the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy)
by Stanisław Lem
Bringing his twin gifts of scientific speculation and scathing satire to bear on that hapless planet, Earth, Lem sends his unlucky cosmonaut, Ijon Tichy, to the Eighth Futurological Congress. Caught up in local revolution, Tichy is shot and so critically wounded that he is flashfrozen to await a future cure. Translated by Michael Kandel.
