Eon (novel)

'''Bear, Greg. Eon.''' New York: Tor, 1985. First book of The Way series. Subject of a substantial entry in Wikipedia, our major source for our entry (links supplied below).

See initially for the the visit to Earth of an asteroid ("The Stone") on an anomalous path: an elongated prolate spheroid that appears to be virtually identical to Juno, a large asteroid in the main belt. It has been hollowed out along its long axis, subdivided into seven vast cylindrical chambers, and rotates to provide artificial gravity. The chambers are terraformed, with the second and third containing vast abandoned cities that have been maintained by automatic systems for centuries. As the Earth investigators explore the asteroid's interior, they make an even more stunning discovery: The end of the Stone's seventh chamber opens into a vast cylindrical corridor ("The Way") -- a "pocket universe" that extends far beyond the physical limit of the asteroid, and may possibly be infinite."

The Stone is from the human future and has along the Way the civilization of "the Hexamon," and their technology. The high technology of the Hexamon civilization, with their control over genetic engineering, human augmentation (including post-symbolic communication), the concept of parallel universes, alternate timelines and the manipulation of space-time itself are major themes in the latter half of the novel. The Way itself cuts across space and time: "gates" may be opened through its surface at regular intervals, which lead to space and worlds occupying other timelines, including alternate timelines for the Earth. As a result of commerce through the gates, several alien species have come to be partners of the Hexamon as well.

Not surprisingly given the date of the novel, there are some technological and techne/technique themes of the cyberpunk kind. Information technology and "virtual" realms are another important theme. [... If they desire, citizens of the Hexamon can be] fitted with implants that can store, transmit and replicate part or of all their memories and personality. This technology confers many remarkable abilities. One is that they can create virtual replicas of themselves (known as "partials" or "ghosts") that contain functional parts of their full personality and are able to operate independently, on their behalf, and then reintegrate their experiences with their original later [cf. "Avatars" — RDE]. [...I]n the event of major injury or even death, their implants (if recoverable and undamaged) can be used to "reload" their personalities into artificially reconstructed replicas of their old bodies, or even into entirely new forms.

RDE, Initial Compiler, 24May19