Rudy Rucker, Fall 2004, photo by Georgia Rucker.

Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (born March 22, 1946 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American computer scientist and science fiction author, and is one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known for the novels in the Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which (Software and Wetware) both won Philip K. Dick Awards. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... March 22 is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... “Louisville” redirects here. ... Computer science (informally: CS or compsci) is, in its most general sense, the study of computation and information processing, both in hardware and in software. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Berlins Sony Center reflects the global reach of a Japanese corporation. ... The Ware Tetralogy is a series of four novels by science fiction author Rudy Rucker. ... Software is a 1982 novel written by Rudy Rucker. ... Wetware is a novel written by Rudy Rucker. ... The Philip K. Dick Memorial Award is a science fiction award sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, and named after science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. ...

Rucker is the great-great-great-grandson of the philosopher G.W.F. Hegel. (Cf. the family tree ^[1] of his mother's brother, Rudolf von Bitter.) Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ...

Rucker attended St. Xavier High School before earning a B.A. in mathematics from Swarthmore College, and a Master's and Ph.D. in mathematics from Rutgers University. He taught at various universities, including Randolph-Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, Virginia from 1980-1982, before settling at San José State University in 1986, from which he retired in 2004. A mathematician with serious philosophical interests, he has written The Fourth Dimension; Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension; and Infinity and the Mind. Princeton University Press published new editions of Infinity and the Mind in 1995 and in 2005, both with new prefaces; the first edition is cited with fair frequency in academic literature. St. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, as imagined by by Raphael in this detail from The School of Athens. ... Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,450 students. ... “Rutgers” redirects here. ... Randolph-Macon Womans College is a private liberal arts womens college located on a 100-acre campus in Lynchburg, Virginia. ... Lynchburg is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. ... San José State University, commonly shortened to San José State and SJSU, is the founding campus of what became the California State University system. ... The Fourth Dimension is a non-fiction work written by Rudy Rucker, the Silicon Valley professor of mathematics and computer science, and was published in 1984 by Houghton Mifflin. ... The Princeton University Press is a publishing house, a division of Princeton University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. ...

As his "own alternative to cyberpunk," Rucker developed a writing style he terms Transrealism. Transrealism, as outlined in his 1983 essay "The Transrealist Manifesto," is science fiction based on the author's own life and immediate perceptions, mixed with fantastic elements that symbolize psychological change. Many of Rucker's novels and short stories apply these ideas. One example of Rucker's Transrealist works is Saucer Wisdom, a novel in which the main character is abducted by aliens. Rucker and his publisher marketed the book, tongue in cheek, as non-fiction. Transrealism is a literary mode that mixes the techniques of incorporating fantastic elements used in science fiction with the techniques of describing immediate perceptions from naturalistic realism. ... The abduction phenomenon is an umbrella term used to describe a number of hypotheses, claims or assertions stating that non-human creatures kidnap individuals—sometimes called abductees—usually for medical testing or for sexual reproduction procedures. ...

Thanks to a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Rucker taught math at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, 1978-80. His earliest Transrealist novel, White Light, was written in Heidelberg. This Transrealist novel is based on his experiences at the State University of New York at Geneseo, where he taught from 1972 to 1978. An 1859 portrait of Alexander von Humboldt by the artist Julius Schrader, showing Mount Chimborazo in the background. ... The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (German Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; also known as simply University of Heidelberg) is one of the most prestigious universities of Germany. ... White Light is a work of science fiction by Rudy Rucker published in 1980 by Ace Books. ... Heidelberg and the other cities of the Neckar valley The castle (Schloss) above the town Main Street (Hauptstrasse) Shopping district View from the so called alley of philosophers (Philosophenweg) towards the Old Town, with Heidelberg Castle, Heiliggeist Church and the Old Bridge Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg... The State University of New York at Geneseo—also known as SUNY Geneseo or, colloquially, Geneseo State University—is located in Geneseo, Livingston County, New York. ...

Rucker often uses his novels to explore scientific or mathematical ideas; White Light examines the concept of infinity, while the Ware Tetralogy (written from 1982 through 2000) is in part an explanation of the use of natural selection to develop computer software (a subject also developed in his The Hacker and the Ants, written in 1994). His novels also put forward a mystical philosophy that Rucker has summarized in an essay titled, with only a bit of irony, "The Central Teachings of Mysticism" (included in Seek!, 1999). The Ware Tetralogy is a series of four novels by science fiction author Rudy Rucker. ... Darwins illustrations of beak variation in the finches of the Galápagos Islands, which hold 13 closely related species that differ most markedly in the shape of their beaks. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Computer program. ... Mysticism (ancient Greek mysticon = secret) is meditation, prayer, or theology focused on the direct experience of union with divinity, God, or Ultimate Reality, or the belief that such experience is a genuine and important source of knowledge. ...

His recent non-fiction book, The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning Of Life , and How To Be Happy summarizes the various philosophies he's believed over the years and ends with the tentative conclusion that we might profitably view the world as made of computations, with the final remark, "perhaps this universe is perfect."

Italian edition of Master of Space and Time (1984). Cover by Karel Thole.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (427x623, 56 KB) Summary From www. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (427x623, 56 KB) Summary From www. ... First number of Romanzi di Urania Urania is an Italian science fiction magazine published by Mondadori since October 10, 1952. ... Karel Thole, pseudonym of Carolus Adrianus Maria Thole (Amsterdam, Netherlands, April 1920 1914 - Cannobio, Italy, March 26, 2000), Dutch painter and illustrator. ...

Works

• The Ware Tetralogy
  • Software (1982)
    
  • Wetware (1988)
    
  • Freeware (1997)
    
  • Realware (2000)
    
• Transrealist novels
  • White Light (1980)
    
  • Spacetime Donuts (1981)
    
  • The Sex Sphere (1983)
    
  • The Secret of Life (1985)
    
  • The Hacker and the Ants (1994)
    
  • Hacker and the Ants, Version 2.0 (2003)
    
• Other Novels
  • Master of Space and Time (1984)
    
  • The Hollow Earth (1990)
    
  • Spaceland (2002)
    
  • As Above, So Below: A Novel of Peter Bruegel (2002)
    
  • Frek and the Elixir (2004)
    
  • Mathematicians in Love (2006)
  • Postsingular (Fall 2007)
  • Hylozoic (in progress) sequel to Postsingular
• Story collections
  • The Fifty-Seventh Franz Kafka (1983)
    
  • Transreal!, also includes some non-fiction essays (1991)
    
  • Gnarl! (2000), complete short stories
    
  • Mad Professor (2006)
• Non-fiction
  • Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension (1977)
    
  • Infinity and the Mind (1982)
    
  • The Fourth Dimension (1984)
    
  • Mind Tools (1987)
    
  • All the Visions (1991), memoir
    
  • Saucer Wisdom (1999)
    
  • Seek! (1999), collected essays
    
  • Software Engineering and Computer Games (2002), textbook
    
  • The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul (2005)
    

List on Rucker's SJSU web page. With links to each book's web page. The Ware Tetralogy is a series of four novels by science fiction author Rudy Rucker. ... Software is a 1982 novel written by Rudy Rucker. ... Wetware is a novel written by Rudy Rucker. ... White Light is a work of science fiction by Rudy Rucker published in 1980 by Ace Books. ... Category: ... Cover of Rudy Ruckers Novel, Spaceland. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Bruegels The Painter and The Connoisseur drawn c. ... Mathematicians in Love is a novel written by Rudy Rucker. ... The Fourth Dimension is a non-fiction work written by Rudy Rucker, the Silicon Valley professor of mathematics and computer science, and was published in 1984 by Houghton Mifflin. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.rudyrucker.com/pdf/vonbittertreelarge.pdf

External links

• The Rudy Rucker website
• Rudy Rucker's SJSU Home Page
• Rudy Rucker's autobiography, written for Contemporary Authors in 2004
• A story in a San Jose newspaper regarding Rucker
• The Transrealist Manifesto
• Flurb, a Webzine of Astonishing Tales (Rudy Rucker, editor)
• Rudy Rucker at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Rudy Rucker at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
• Rudy Rucker: Everything is Computation - 3/1/2007