Point of View

Permutation City is told from various points of view as the author examines issues of immortality and identity from different sides. The two main characters, Paul Durham and Maria Deluca, are both proponents of brain scanning to create virtual copies of humans that can be run on computers. For Durham, copying raises issues of the nature of reality and identity and he formulates a theory that allows copies to run forever without a pre-existing physical computer server. Durham invests his copy with his own identity to the point that after launching his potentially immortal copy he kills himself.

Maria Deluca repeatedly tries to convince her terminally ill mother, Francesca, to have her brain scanned before she dies from cancer. Maria argues that the scanned copy will be the same person as Francesca, with the potential to live on happily after her body dies. Francesca offers a...