MathFiction: Wang's Carpets (Greg Egan)

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Wang's Carpets (1995)

Greg Egan
(click on names to see more mathematical fiction by the same author)
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This short story about a life form based on Wang Tiles first appeared in 1995 in Greg Bear's New Legends collection but was later expanded into an entire novel. For more information, see my entry on the novel that grew out of it, Egan's Diaspora.

Contributed by Catherine Asaro

I enjoyed your section on Wang/s Carpets/Dispora by Greg Egan. He does a brilliant job. I wrote a 6000 word essay on Wang's Carpets years ago and felt like I barely scratched the surface. His ideas are brilliant. The essay is called "Strange Loops of Wonder." It first appeared in Tangent magazine and was later reprinted in Projections: Science Fiction in Literature & Film edited by Lou Anders.

More information about this work can be found at another page on this Website.
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Works Similar to Wang's Carpets

According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:

Diaspora by Greg Egan
Transition Dreams by Greg Egan
Luminous by Greg Egan
Dark Integers by Greg Egan
The Planck Dive by Greg Egan
Oracle by Greg Egan
Into Darkness by Greg Egan
Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies by Greg Egan
The Infinite Assassin by Greg Egan
Glory by Greg Egan

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Categories:

Genre	Science Fiction,
Motif	Aliens,
Topic	Computers/Cryptography, Real Mathematics, Logic/Set Theory,
Medium	Short Stories,

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Where are the new works of mathematical fiction?: As you can see from this chronological listing, this database includes many works of mathematical fiction for each year from 1990 to 2025. Strangely, only two are listed for 2026, so far. Either less mathematical fiction is being published than in previous years or I'm just having more trouble finding it. If you know of any works of fiction that should be added to this list, especially recently published ones, please let me know. (Keep in mind that I do not include self-published works or children's fiction that just covers elementary mathematical concepts.) Thanks!

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)