Dispersion

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As for the message: distrust and tribalism indeed will not solve most societal challenges this day and age, but when you invent a specific speculative scientific problem as the problematic setting, it's obvious only science will get you out -- even though the characters don't necessarily perceive their predicament as scientific. In that sense, Egan is a bit self-serving and his parable doesn't really work as a lesson: it kinda begs the question. It would have been more interesting to start with a problem that isn't so obviously scientific in nature to us readers -- but that would have taken an entirely different set-up.

Full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It