Egan's Quarantine had me checking out dozens of books about Quantum Mechanics while I was in High School. Love Egan's work, even if I had quite a bit of trouble with Diaspora (I probably just need to give the audiobook a second listen).

Love Diaspora, but it is really more of a philosophical thought experiment that drops you into two worlds rather than a novel with a plot. Half the book is geometry!

One of my favorite books as well. Every time I've gotten to the ending (especially the part where they discover the massive sculpture through trillions of universes) my mind is blown and I end up sitting and thinking about it for hours.

I have a similar reaction to Egan's Permutation City when the couple living in the simulation adjust the clock rate so the computer running them only executes one clock tick every second, every day, every year, every million years, every billion years, every trillion years, etc. Puts me in a contemplative mood.

But bad things happen on Earth after they coalesce. But that was in our galaxy. I guess it's just that these detected events are much farther away. Right?