Rudy Rucker

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Rudy Rucker
Rudyrucker.jpg
Rucker in 2004
Born
Rudolf von Bitter Rucker

(1946-03-22) March 22, 1946 (age 75)
Louisville, Kentucky
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSt. Xavier High School, Swarthmore College, Rutgers University
OccupationAuthor
Known forWare Tetralogy
Spouse(s)
Sylvia Rucker
​
(m. 1967)​
RelativesG. W. F. Hegel
WebsiteRudy Rucker

Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (/ˈrʌkər/; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician,[1] computer scientist, science fiction author,[2] and 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. Until its closure in 2014 he edited the science fiction webzine Flurb.

Early life[edit]

Rucker was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, son of Embry Cobb Rucker Sr (October 1, 1914 - August 1, 1994), who ran a small furniture-manufacture company and later became an Episcopal priest and community activist, and Marianne (née von Bitter).[3] The Rucker family were of Huguenot descent.[4] Through his mother, he is a great-great-great-grandson of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.[5][6][7]

Rucker attended St. Xavier High School before earning a B.A. in mathematics from Swarthmore College (1967) and M.S. (1969) and Ph.D. (1973) degrees in mathematics from Rutgers University.[8]

Career[edit]

Rucker taught mathematics at the State University of New York at Geneseo from 1972 to 1978. Although he was liked by his students and "published a book [Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension] and several papers," several colleagues took umbrage at his long hair and convivial relationships with English and philosophy professors amid looming budget shortfalls; as a result, he failed to attain tenure in the "dysfunctional" department.[9]

Thanks to a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Rucker taught at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg from 1978 to 1980. He then taught at Randolph-Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, Virginia from 1980 to 1982, before trying his hand as a full-time author for four years.

Inspired by an interview with Stephen Wolfram,[10] Rucker became a computer science professor at San José State University in 1986, from which he retired as professor emeritus in 2004.[11][12]

From 1988 to 1992 he was hired as a programmer of cellular automata by John Walker of Autodesk which inspired his book The Hacker and the Ants.

A mathematician with philosophical interests, he has written 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.[citation needed]

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 transreal 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.[citation needed]

His earliest transreal novel, White Light, was written during his time at Heidelberg. This transreal novel is based on his experiences at SUNY Geneseo.

Rucker often uses his novels to explore scientific or mathematical ideas; White Light[13] 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 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).[14]

His 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."[citation needed]

Personal life[edit]

Rucker was the roommate of Kenneth Turan during his freshman year at Swarthmore College.[15] In 1967, Rucker married Sylvia Rucker.[16] Together they have three children.[17] On July 1, 2008, Rucker suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Thinking he may not be around much longer, this prompted him to write Nested Scrolls, his autobiography.[18]

Rucker resided in Highland Park, New Jersey during his graduate studies at Rutgers University.[19]

Bibliography[edit]

Novels[edit]

The Ware Tetralogy[20]

Transreal Trilogy[21][Notes 1]

  • The Secret of Life (1985)
  • White Light (1980)
  • Saucer Wisdom (1999) novel marketed as non-fiction

Transreal novels[22]

Other novels

Short fiction[edit]

Collections

  • The Fifty-Seventh Franz Kafka (1983)
  • Transreal!, includes poetry and non-fiction essays (1991)
  • Gnarl! (2000), complete short stories
  • Mad Professor (2006)
  • Surfing the Gnarl (2012), includes an essay and interview with the author
  • Complete Stories (2012)
  • Transreal Cyberpunk, with Bruce Sterling (2016)

Stories (by date of composition)

Written Title Published First published Notes
2009-08 Bad Ideas 2009-09-08 Flurb, Fall–Winter 2009[23]
2010-06 Good Night, Moon 2010-10-13 Tor.com, 13 October 2010[24] Written with Bruce Sterling.
2010-07 The Fnoor Hen 2011-04 Asimov’s Science Fiction, April/May 2011[25]
2010-09 Fjaerland 2011-09-06 Flurb, Fall–Winter 2011[26] Written with Paul DiFilippo.
2010-09 Hive Mind Man 2012-02 Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 2012[27] Written with Eileen Gunn.
2011-03 My Office Mate 2011-07 Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, July 2011[28]
2011-12 Loco 2012-06-20 Tor.com, 20 June 2012[29] Written with Bruce Sterling.
2012-07 I Arise Again 2013-01 Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, January 2013 The story was published under the title “Share My Enlightenment”[30] and it slightly differs from the version that appears in the Complete Stories under the title “I Arise Again”.
2012-10 Yubba Vines 2013-07 Asimov’s Science Fiction, July 2013[31] Written with Paul Di Filippo.
2013-03 Apricot Lane 2013-05 An Aura of Familiarity, Institute for the Future, May 2013[32][33]
2014-01 Where the Lost Things Are 2014-11-05 Tor.com, 5 November 2014[34] Written with Terry Bisson.
2014-02 Laser Shades 2014-11 The Superlative Light, Daylight Books, November 2014
2014-05 Attack of the Giant Ants 2014-12-09 Terraform, December 2014[35]
2014-06 – 2014-12 Totem Poles 2016-08-10 Tor.com, 10 August 2016[36] Written with Bruce Sterling.
2014-08 Watergirl 2015-01 Asimov’s Science Fiction, January 2015[37] Written with Marc Laidlaw.
2014-12 The Knobby Giraffe 2016-04 Lightspeed, April 2016[38]
2015-03 – 2015-08 Kraken and Sage 2016-02 Transreal Cyberpunk, Transreal Books, February 2016 Written with Bruce Sterling.
2015-06 Like a Sea Cucumber 2015-06-30 Terraform, June 2015[39]
2016-07 Emojis 2018-03 Asimov’s Science Fiction, March 2018[40]
2016-08 – 2016-12 @lantis 2017-07 Asimov’s Science Fiction, July/August 2017[41] Written with Marc Laidlaw.
2016-12 Fat Stream 2017-08-21 Mondo2000.com, 21 August 2017[42]
2017-04 In The Lost City of Leng 2018-01 Asimov’s Science Fiction, January 2018[43] Written with Paul Di Filippo.
According to the Rudy Rucker’s notes from February 15, 2017, the working title was “The Plateau of Leng”.[44]
2018-11 – 2019-01 Surfers at the End of Time 2019-11 Asimov’s Science Fiction, November/December 2019[45] Written with Marc Laidlaw.
2019-01 – 2019-06 Juicy Ghost 2019-06-24 Rudy’s Blog, 24 June 2019[46] Reprinted in Big Echo, October 2019.[47]
Rewritten in September 2020 and published in the author’s blog.[48]
On April 8, 2021, the author suggested the title “Treadle’s Inauguration” instead.[49]
The Mean Carrot 2020-03 Big Echo, March 2020[50]
Everything Is Everything 2020-10 Big Echo, October 2020[51]
Mary Mary 2021-03 Asimov’s Science Fiction, March/April 2021[52]
Fibonacci’s Humors 2021-07 Asimov’s Science Fiction, July/August 2021[53] Written with Bruce Sterling.

Non-fiction[edit]

  • Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension (1977)
  • Infinity and the Mind (1982)
  • The Fourth Dimension: Toward a Geometry of Higher Reality (1984)
  • Mind Tools (1987)
  • Seek! (1999), collected essays
  • Software Engineering and Computer Games (2002), textbook
  • The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me about Ultimate Reality, the Meaning of Life, and how to be Happy (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005)
  • Nested Scrolls - autobiography (2011)[54]
  • Collected Essays (2012)
  • How To Make An Ebook (2012)
  • Better Worlds (2013), art book of Rucker’s paintings
  • Journals 1990-2014 (2015)

As editor[edit]

  • Speculations on the Fourth Dimension: Selected Writings of Charles H. Hinton, Dover (1980), ISBN 0-486-23916-0
  • Mathenauts: Tales of Mathematical Wonder, Arbor House (1987)[55]
  • Semiotext(e) SF, Autonomedia (1989) [56]

Critical studies and reviews of Rucker's work[edit]

  • Spinrad, Norman (October–November 2013). "Genre versus literature". On Books. Asimov's Science Fiction. 37 (10–11): 182–191. Review of Turing & Burroughs.

Filmography[edit]

  • As actor-speaker in Manual of Evasion LX94, a 1994 film by Edgar Pêra

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Arranged in the order of the events they describe.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jonas, Gerald (May 4, 1997). "Science Fiction". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Jonas, Gerald (September 12, 2004). "Interstellar Serial Killer". The New York Times.
  3. ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/08/02/obituaries/ded9b5c2-62a4-4f9b-8f00-66419749ed92
  4. ^ http://www.rudyrucker.com/pdf/autobiography2004.pdf
  5. ^ The Sound of Wonder: Interviews from "The Science Fiction Radio Show" vol. 1, Daryl Lane et al, Oryx Press, 1985, p. 169
  6. ^ Other Worlds: Spirituality and the Search for Invisible Dimensions, Christopher G. White, Harvard University Press, 2018, p. 290
  7. ^ "Family tree of Rucker's mother's brother, Rudolf von Bitter" (PDF). Rudyrecker.com.
  8. ^ "Rudy Rucker". NNDB.
  9. ^ Rucker, Rudy (December 11, 2012). Nested Scrolls: The Autobiography of Rudolf Von Bitter Rucker. Macmillan. ISBN 9780765327536 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ "Rudy Rucker interviews Stephen Wolfram". Retrieved April 8, 2009.
  11. ^ Rucker, Rudy (January 20, 2008). "Everything Is Alive". CiteSeerX 10.1.1.92.2841. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. ^ "Rudy Rucker". Locus.
  13. ^ Itzkoff, Dave (December 16, 2007). "Across the Universe: Planetary Politics". The New York Times.
  14. ^ "The Central Teachings of Mysticism". October 6, 2012.
  15. ^ Rucker, Rudy (December 11, 2012). Nested Scrolls: The Autobiography of Rudolf von Bitter Rucker. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0765327536.
  16. ^ Rucker, Rudy (December 11, 2012). Nested Scrolls: The Autobiography of Rudolf von Bitter Rucker. New York, NY. p. 105. ISBN 978-0765327536.
  17. ^ Rucker, Rudy (2015). "Photos for Rudy Rucker, JOURNALS 1990-2014". Rudy Rucker. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  18. ^ Rucker, Rudy (December 11, 2012). Nested Scrolls: The Autobiography of Rudolf von Bitter Rucker. New York, NY. p. 3. ISBN 978-0765327536.
  19. ^ Rucker, Rudy van Bitter. All the visions, p. 102. Ocean View Books, 1991. ISBN 9780938075097. Accessed February 28, 2018. "Audrey and I were newlyweds there in Highland Park, and we used to watch The Newlywed Game on TV every week."
  20. ^ "Wares". Rudyrucker.com.
  21. ^ "Transreal Trilogy". Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  22. ^ Rucker, Rudy (September 2013). "Timeline for My Transreal Novels". Rudy’s Blog. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  23. ^ Rucker, Rudy (September 8, 2009). "Bad Ideas". Flurb (8). Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  24. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Sterling, Bruce (October 13, 2010). "Good Night, Moon". Tor.com. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  25. ^ Rucker, Rudy (April–May 2011). "The Fnoor Hen". Asimov's Science Fiction. 35 (4 & 5): 94.
  26. ^ Rucker, Rudy; DiPilippo, Paul (September 6, 2011). "Fjaerland". Flurb (12). Retrieved July 13, 2021.
  27. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Gunn, Eileen (February 2012). "Hive Mind Man". Asimov's Science Fiction. 36 (2): 10.
  28. ^ Rucker, Rudy (July 2011). "My Office Mate". Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery. 54 (7): 120–ff.
  29. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Sterling, Bruce (June 20, 2012). "Loco". Tor.com. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  30. ^ Rucker, Rudy (January 2013). "Share My Enlightenment". Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery. 56 (1): 136–ff. Retrieved July 2, 2021.
  31. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Di Filippo, Paul (July 2013). "Yubba Vines". Asimov's Science Fiction. 37 (7): 43–57.
  32. ^ Rucker, Rudy (May 2013). "Apricot Lane". IFTF. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  33. ^ Rucker, Rudy (May 2013). "Apricot Lane" (PDF). An Aura of Familiarity: 15–29.
  34. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Bisson, Terry (November 5, 2014). "Where the Lost Things Are". Tor.com. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  35. ^ Rucker, Rudy (December 9, 2014). "Attack of the Giant Ants". Terraform. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  36. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Sterling, Bruce (August 10, 2016). "Totem Poles". Tor.com. Retrieved June 29, 2021.
  37. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Laidlaw, Marc (January 2015). "Watergirl". Asimov's Science Fiction. 39 (1): 22.
  38. ^ Rucker, Rudy (April 2016). "The Knobby Giraffe". Lightspeed (71).
  39. ^ Rucker, Rudy (June 30, 2015). "Like a Sea Cucumber". Terraform. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  40. ^ Rucker, Rudy (March 2018). "Emojis". Asimov's Science Fiction. 42 (3 & 4): 64.
  41. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Laidlaw, Marc (July–August 2017). "@lantis". Asimov's Science Fiction. 41 (7 & 8): 102.
  42. ^ Rucker, Rudy (August 21, 2017). "Fat Stream". Mondo2000.com. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  43. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Di Filippo, Paul (January 2018). "In The Lost City of Leng". Asimov's Science Fiction. 42 (1 & 2): 34.
  44. ^ Rucker, Rudy (December 2017). "Rudy & Paul Di Filippo in Lovecraft's "Lost City of Leng"". Rudy’s Blog. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  45. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Laidlaw, Marc (November 2019). "Surfers at the End of Time". Asimov's Science Fiction. 43 (11): 14–45.
  46. ^ Rucker, Rudy (June 24, 2019). "Juicy Ghost". Rudy’s Blog. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  47. ^ Rucker, Rudy (October 2019). "Juicy Ghost". Big Echo (13). Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  48. ^ Rucker, Rudy (September 24, 2020). "Juicy Ghost". Rudy’s Blog. Retrieved June 21, 2021.
  49. ^ Rucker, Rudy (April 8, 2021). "Seventy Five". Rudy’s Blog. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
  50. ^ Rucker, Rudy (March 2020). "The Mean Carrot". Big Echo (15). Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  51. ^ Rucker, Rudy (October 2020). "Everything Is Everything". Big Echo (17). Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  52. ^ Rucker, Rudy (March–April 2021). "Mary Mary". Asimov's Science Fiction. 45 (3 & 4): 112.
  53. ^ Rucker, Rudy; Sterling, Bruce (July–August 2021). "Fibonacci's Humors". Asimov's Science Fiction. 45 (7 & 8).
  54. ^ "Nested Scrolls". Rudyrucker.com.
  55. ^ "Rudy Rucker". Cs.sjsu.edu.
  56. ^ "AK Press". akpress.org.

External links[edit]

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