A Brief Explanation of Greg Egan’s Dust Theory
This article doesn&#x27;t actually <i>explain</i> Dust Theory to someone who hasn&#x27;t read the book. I haven&#x27;t found a good standalone explanation of the theory that explains it in a compact manner so my recommendation to people is to read the book.<p>Permutation City is among my top 5 favorite books because I found Dust Theory so mind blowingly amazing from a philosophical standpoint. I haven&#x27;t seen it discussed elsewhere outside the lesswrong.com forums (which are famous for creating Roko&#x27;s Basilisk). It&#x27;s only $3 on Amazon so it&#x27;s worth picking up if you&#x27;re a fan of hard sci-fi that gets into the philosophy of uploading: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Permutation-City-Greg-Egan-ebook&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B00FDWCPV2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Permutation-City-Greg-Egan-ebook&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B...</a><p>Dust Theory also provides an interesting option for people who want to achieve True Immortality. That is, immortality that can survive the heat death of the universe without violating the First or Second Laws of Thermodynamics. It also provides a hard sci-fi version of the concept of Subliming from Iain Banks&#x27; Culture novels where a civilization leaves this universe once they become sufficiently advanced. (Sublimation in the Culture books is similar to Ascension in the Stargate universe or Transcendence in Babylon 5.)