In “Permutation Metropolis”, a novel by Greg Egan, the character Peer, having achieved immortality inside a digital actuality over which he has complete management, finds himself terribly bored. So he engineers himself to have new passions. One second he’s pushing the boundaries of upper arithmetic; the following he’s writing operas. “He’d even been within the Elysians [the afterlife], as soon as. Now not. He most well-liked to consider desk legs.” Peer’s fickleness pertains to a deeper level. When know-how has solved humanity’s deepest issues, what’s left to do?
