History Literature / Diaspora

* GenderNeutralWriting: Most characters are genderless, and referred to with an invented set of third-person singular pronouns that Egan has also used in his other novels: "Ve" for subjective, "ver" for objective, and "vis" for possessive.

* DuplicateDivergence: A natural consequence of the Carter-Zimmerman Polis's titular Diaspora
-->After the first fifty years, his Earth-self had begun to hold things back; by the time news reached Earth of the Fomalhaut clone's demise, the messages had become pure gestalt-and-linear monologues. Paolo understood. It was only right; they'd diverged, and you didn't send mind grafts to strangers.
* {{Expy}}: The Fleshers are Creator/StanislawLem's Dichoticans in all but name.

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: When the Diaspora reaches the second [[AnotherDimension macrosphere]], two of the protagonists are approached by something that appears to be Hermann. Which freaks them the hell out, because Hermann didn't come with them. The "Contingency Handler", as it calls itself, explains that it chose this form ''precisely'' because it knew that ''they'' would know it couldn't actually be Hermann--it's actually a nonsentient AI designed to greet new arrivals in this universe.

* TheMetaverse: Basically what each Polis looks like to its inhabitants.

** '''Citizens''' are digital humans living in a collection of giant virtual reality universes; called Polises. The majority of the novel follows the actions of a small group of Citizens.
** '''Fleshers''' are biological humans, which include those who evolved naturally from Homo Sapiens (called 'statics') and a multitude of bio-engineered humans; including 'dream apes', which have had language capability engineered out of them.
** '''Gleisner Robots''' are digital humans living in the real world but separate from the fleshers. They inhabit robotic bodies and spend most of their time in space; or daydreaming on the Moon in one case.

* {{Utopia}}: The Coalition of Polises...rather more like the Classical Greek polises wished they were like than they ever were actually like. A post-cyberpunk CrystalSpiresAndTogas. An extropian [[Literature/AtlasShrugged Galt's Gulch]]. All of the polises seen in the story were clearly designed to provide equal computing resources to all citizens thereof, and the polis hardware is unimpeachable in doing just that.
* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: Implied to be the final state of all civilizations.

* MarySueTopia: The Coalition of Polises...rather more like the Classical Greek polises wished they were like than they ever were actually like. A post-cyberpunk CrystalSpiresAndTogas. An extropian [[Literature/AtlasShrugged Galt's Gulch]]. All of the polises seen in the story were clearly designed to provide equal computing resources to all citizens thereof, and the polis hardware is unimpeachable in doing just that.

* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: Definitely hard.

-->A fter the first fifty years, his Earth-self had begun to hold things back; by the time news reached Earth of the Fomalhaut clone's demise, the messages had become pure gestalt-and-linear monologues. Paolo understood. It was only right; they'd diverged, and you didn't send mind grafts to strangers.

** '''Fleshers''' are biological humans, which include those who evolved naturally from Homo Sapiens (called 'statics') and a multitude of bio-engineered humans; including 'dream apes', which have had ''conscious thought'' engineered out of them.

* InTheFutureHumansWillBeOneRace: Seriously averted. There are three main forms of humanity, each with several subgroups:
** '''Citizens''' are digital humans living in a collection of giant virtual reality universes; called Polises. The majority of the novel follows the actions of a small group of Citizens.
** '''Fleshers''' are biological humans, which include those who evolved naturally from Homo Sapiens (called 'statics') and a multitude of bio-engineered humans; including 'dream apes', which have had ''conscious thought'' engineered out of them.
** '''Gleisner Robots''' are digital humans living in the real world but separate from the fleshers. They inhabit robotic bodies and spend most of their time in space; or daydreaming on the Moon in one case.

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: An {{Inversion}} is {{Invoked}} late in the story. When the Diaspora reaches the second [[AnotherDimension macrosphere]], two of the protagonists are approached by something that appears to be Hermann. Which freaks them the hell out, because Hermann didn't come with them. The "Contingency Handler", as it calls itself, explains that it chose this form ''precisely'' because it knew that ''they'' would know it couldn't actually be Hermann--it's actually a nonsentient AI designed to greet new arrivals in this universe.

* AuthorFilibuster: The treatment of the conflict between Citizens and Fleshers in the early chapters is so one-sided that one gets the feeling Egan was trying to be the Creator/AynRand of the transhumanists, or at least the Bizarro [[GalaxyExpress999 Leiji Matsumoto]].

* [[spoiler:EverybodysDeadDave: At the end of the novel, Yatima is the last recognizable human.]]

A PostCyberpunk hard science fiction novel by Australian author Creator/GregEgan. First published in 1997, it is a SpiritualSuccessor to his 1994 novel, ''Literature/PermutationCity''. Based on a short story called "Wang's Carpet".

* GenderNeutralWriting: Most characters are genderless, and referred to with an invented set of pronouns.

* MarySueTopia: The Coalition of Polises...rather more like the Classical Greek polises wished they were like than they ever were actually like. A post-cyberpunk CrystalSpiresAndTogas. An extropian [[AtlasShrugged Galt's Gulch]]. All of the polises seen in the story were clearly designed to provide equal computing resources to all citizens thereof, and the polis hardware is unimpeachable in doing just that.

A PostCyberpunk hard science fiction novel by Australian author Creator/GregEgan. First published in 1997, it is a SpiritualSuccessor to his 1994 novel, ''PermutationCity''.

A PostCyberpunk hard science fiction novel by Australian author GregEgan. First published in 1997, it is a SpiritualSuccessor to his 1994 novel, ''PermutationCity''.

* {{Expy}}: The Fleshers are StanislawLem's Dichoticans in all but name.

* AuthorFilibuster: The treatment of the conflict between Citizens and Fleshers in the early chapters is so one-sided that one gets the feeling Egan was trying to be the AynRand of the transhumanists, or at least the Bizarro [[{{GalaxyExpress999}} Leiji Matsumoto]].

* MarySueTopia: The Coalition of Polises...rather more like the Classical Greek polises wished they were like than they ever were actually like. A post-cyberpunk CrystalSpiresAndTogas. An extropian [[{{AtlasShrugged}} Galt's Gulch]]. All of the polises seen in the story were clearly designed to provide equal computing resources to all citizens thereof, and the polis hardware is unimpeachable in doing just that.