DOCSLIB.ORG

1. Rudy Rucker. Wikipedia, La Enciclopedia Libre 2. Máquinas De Hackear Mentes

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1. Rudy Rucker. Wikipedia, La Enciclopedia Libre 2. Máquinas De Hackear Mentes Para descargar números anteriores de Qubit, visitar http://www.esquina13.co.nr/ Para subscribirte a la revista, escribir a [email protected] 0. Índice: 1. Rudy Rucker. Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre 2. Máquinas de hackear mentes. Martín Salías 3. Made in Cuba: “O” Haydee Sardiñas 4. Rudy Rucker, amo del espacio y el tiempo. por Fons 5. Cuentos de Houdini. Rudy Rucker 6. Soft Drath. Rudy Rucker 7. Historia del cine ciberpunk. (Capítulo 19) Raúl Aguiar Rudy Rucker de Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (nacido el 22 de Marzo de 1946 en Louisville, Kentucky) es científico en computadoras y escritor de ciencia ficción, uno de los fundadores del movimiento literario ciberpunk. Escritor de textos de ficción y libros de divulgación científica, es mejor conocido por sus novelas de la tetralogía Ware, cuyas dos primeras (Software y Wetware) recibieron el premio Philip K. Dick. Rucker es un descendiente directo del filósofo Friedrich Hegel. Trabajó en varias universidades hasta establecerse en 1986 en la Universidad de San José, de la cual se retiró en el 2004. Matemático con serios intereses filosóficos, ha escrito The Fourth Dimension; Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension; e Infinity and the Mind. Princeton University Press publicó una segunda edición de El infinito y la mente en el 2005; la primera edición es citada con gran frecuencia en la literatura académica. Como su "propia alternativa ciberpunk," Rucker ha desarrollado un estilo de escritura que llamó Transrealismo. Como declaró en su ensayo de 1983 "The Transrealist Manifesto," es una ciencia ficción basada en la propia vida del autor y sus percepciones inmediatas mezcladas con elementos fantásticos que simbolizan cambios psicológicos. En muchas de las novelas y cuentos de Rucker se aplican estas ideas. Un ejemplo de trabajo transrealista de Rucker es Saucer Wisdom, una novela en que su protagonisrta es abducido por extraterrestres. Curiosamente, Rucker y sus editores comercializaron este libro como no ficción. Gracias a la financiación de la Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Rucker impartió matemáticas en la Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, entre 1978-80. Su primera novela transrealista, White Light, fue escrita en Heidelberg. Esta novela está basada en sus experiencias en la Universidad estatal de Nueva York at Geneseo, donde impartió clases de 1972 a 1978. A menudo Rucker usa sus novelas para explorar ideas matemáticas o científicas. En White Light examina el concepto de infinito, mientras que la tetralogía Ware (escrita de 1982 al 2000) es en parte una explicación del uso de la selección natural para desarrollar softwares de computadora (esta noción fue desarrollada en The Hacker and the Ants, escrita en 1994). Sus novelas también se expresan a favor de una filosofía mística que, con un toque de ironía, Rucker ha resumido en el ensayo titulado, "The Central Teachings of Mysticism" (incluida en Seek!, 1999). Su libro más reciente de ensayos, The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning Of Life , and How To Be Happy resume varias de las filosofías que él ha sostenido durante años y termina con la conclusión tentativa de que tal vez pudiéramos concebir el mundo como un gigantesco ordenador, hecho de cómputos, con el comentario final, "Quizás este universo es perfecto." Bibliografía • Tetralogía Ware o Software (1982) o Wetware (1988) o Freeware (1997) o Realware (2000) • Novelas transrealistas o White Light (1980) o Spacetime Donuts (1981) o The Sex Sphere (1983) o The Secret of Life (1985) o The Hacker and the Ants (1994) o Hacker and the Ants, Version 2.0 (2003) • Otras Novelas o Master of Space and Time (1984) o The Hollow Earth (1990) o Spaceland (2002) o As Above, So Below: A Novel of Peter Bruegel (2002) o Frek and the Elixir (2004) • Colecciones de cuentos o The Fifty-Seventh Franz Kafka (1983) o Transreal!, also includes some non-fiction essays (1991) o Gnarl! (2000), complete short stories • Ensayos y divulgación científica o Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension (1977) o Infinity and the Mind (1982) o The Fourth Dimension (1984) o Mind Tools (1987) o All the Visions (1991), memoir o Saucer Wisdom (1999) o Seek! (1999), collected essays o Software Engineering and Computer Games (2002), textbook o The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul (2005) Máquinas de hackear mentes por Martín Salías El viejo argumento de las computadoras que se rebelan, independizándose de la humanidad, visto desde la ácida óptica de uno de los pioneros del cyberpunk. Rudy Rucker, matemático de profesión, pateador de tableros por vocación, novelista por adicción, fue junto con Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner y otros, uno de los cyberpunks originales. Esta es su tercer novela, y la que lo hizo conocido, al ser galardonada con el premio Philip K. Dick. El ambiente en que se desarrolla la novela es sucio, aletargado. En este futuro acá nomás, las cosas siguen empeorando poco a poco, como es costumbre en este subgénero, pero sin embargo, más que brillos de neón y personajes siniestros como Gibson, Rucker nos presenta un futuro desgastado, apagado y sudoroso, donde los personajes son aún más siniestro, no por sus actitudes, sino por su mediocridad. Para hacerlo peor, gran parte de la novela ocurre en una de las peores zonas de la Tierra, el territorio Gimmi (por 'gimme', que es una forma de decir 'dame'), donde viven los 'colgueras', jubilados mantenidos al margen del resto del mundo, a los que apenas se les da una casucha y algo de comida balanceada de vez en cuando. En esta situación vive Anderson Cobb, un precursor de la robótica enjuiciado tras haber propiciado la independencia de los robots en la luna. Cobb, quien ha perdido todo, se dedica a emborracharse esperando el final con el menor grado de lucidez posible. Sin embargo, los robots no se han olvidado de él como el resto del mundo, y se deciden a 'rescatarlo' de su lamentable estado, como parte de una nueva estrategia. El plan, elaborado por los 'grandes autónomos', gigantescos robots fábricas con varios 'remotos', es decir, sub-unidades robots, es el de incrementar sus capacidades chupando el 'software' de seres humanos. Así, en la novela de Rucker la relación tradicional del hacker se ve alterada, ya que esta vez son las computadoras las que intentan obtener conocimiento saqueando la 'CPU' de la gente. Pero otras ideas interesantes en la novela. La forma en que Cobb ha logrado que los robots lleguen a la inteligencia suficiente para rebelarse tiene que ver con una forma artificial de evolución. Para crear las condiciones darwinistas de selección 'natural', incorpora una mecanismo en los robots que los obliga a 'reproducirse', cambiando partes de sus piezas para generar un nuevo vástago (aunque en el caso de los robots no siempre perduran padre e hijo), y a esto agrega cierta capacidad de mutación en sus chips al permitir que los influencien los rayos cósmicos, tal como sucede con la genética animal. Rucker imagina incluso una especie de actividad cuasi sexual entre los robots, que los pone en situaciones amorosas. Ellos se interconectan para procesar juntos un rato. Hay escenas bastante divertidas alrededor de este tema. Y otro punto fuerte de la novela es el método que utilizan los robots en la tierra para conseguir drenar el software humano: una banda de punks conocida como 'Los pequeños bromistas", que se dedican a comer cerebros humanos, con la víctima viva para disfrutarlo. Sta-hi, el coprotagonista de la historia, comienza casi por ser el almuerzo de los muchachos, aunque logra zafar y termina, por los avatares de la trama, yendo con Cobb a la Luna, en un viaje auspiciado por los grandes autónomos, que le ofrecen al viejo la inmortalidad. Sta-hi (de 'stay-hi', 'mantenerse en lo alto' o 'mantenerse drogado'), es un joven taxista demasiado aficionado a las drogas y a las mujeres, que además es el hijo de Mooney, uno de los policías de la zona gimmi. El paisaje de la luna es un poco menos decadente que el de la Tierra, pero no por eso mucho más atractivo. Casi toda la población está integrada por robots, la mayoría de ellos dedicados a mantener en pie una sociedad errática basada en la producción. Una gigantesca área industrial donde los obreros trabajan para conseguir los chips con que engendrarán sus vástagos. Los robots se alimentan de energía solar (muy abundante en la luna) y la baja temperatura de la superficie les permite mantener la velocidad de sus circuitos superconductores sin necesidad de los voluminosos equipos de refrigeración que se requieren en Tierra para este tipo de maquinaria. Allá arriba Cobb se reencontrará con Ralph Números, su primer robot inteligente y el antiguo líder de la revuelta, quien, como él, se ha convertido en un modelo viejo y casi olvidado. El es el encargado de guiarlo hasta su destino, para después volver a la Tierra convertido en inmortal gracias a su software trasplantado a un cuerpo robot. Pero aquí llegamos recién a la mitad de la novela. A partir de su regreso a la Tierra, Cobb se verá en una situación muy distinta debido al cuerpo proporcionado por los robots, pero Sta-hi volverá a ser un despojo. Sin embargo, los dos terminarán reencontrándose, luego de persecuciones, errores e indecisiones por parte ambos. La historia es una visión totalmente renovada del viejo mito de la máquina rebelada, pero esta vez, vista desde una óptica totalmente diferente, que deja un gusto amargo, pero no por eso deja de ser una narración atractiva y, sobre todo, en este caso, enloquecida. Software, Rudy Rucker, 1982 Martín Salías trabajó en Investigación y Desarrollo en una importante empresa nacional, dirigió departamentos de capacitación y soporte, y hoy tiene su propia consultora, Merino Aller & Asociados.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • I V Anthropomorphic Attachments in U.S. Literature, Robotics, And
    Anthropomorphic Attachments in U.S. Literature, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence by Jennifer S. Rhee Program in Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Kenneth Surin, Supervisor ___________________________ Mark Hansen ___________________________ Michael Hardt ___________________________ Katherine Hayles ___________________________ Timothy Lenoir Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 i v ABSTRACT Anthropomorphic Attachments in U.S. Literature, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence by Jennifer S. Rhee Program in Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Kenneth Surin, Supervisor ___________________________ Mark Hansen ___________________________ Michael Hardt ___________________________ Katherine Hayles ___________________________ Timothy Lenoir An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 Copyright by Jennifer S. Rhee 2010 Abstract “Anthropomorphic Attachments” undertakes an examination of the human as a highly nebulous, fluid, multiple, and often contradictory concept, one that cannot be approached directly or in isolation, but only in its constitutive relationality with the world. Rather than trying to find a way outside of the dualism between human and not- human,
    [Show full text]
  • Transreal in Los Gatos
    Transreal in Los Gatos by Rudy Rucker A TEDx talk given in Los Gatos, October 26, 2011 Text and Images Copyright © Rudy Rucker 2011. 2,100 Words. I got a Ph. D. in mathematics, and I’ve published popular science books about infinity and about the fourth dimension. I was one of the cyberpunk science fiction writers in the 1980s. I spent about twenty years as a computer science professor at San Jose State. And over the last ten years I’ve become something of a painter—and you’ll see some of my pictures here. I guess the main thing I do is to write science fiction novels. By now I’ve published twenty of them. A special approach that I often use for my fantastic novels is something I call transrealism. Transrealism means writing science fiction about your real life. The “real” part of transreal—is that the characters of my novels are inspired by actual people. And the situtations come from the world around me. It’s liberating to have quirky, unpredictable characters. The “trans” part of transreal—I like to use the power chords of SF as a way to thicken and intensify the material. Time travel is a way of talking about memory, aliens are other people, and telepathy is the fleeting hope of finally being fully understood. I like blending my worlds: mathematics, computer science, literature and real life. How did I end up in Los Gatos? Before this, I was a mathematics professor, and then a freelance writer. My family and I were living in Lynchburg, Virginia.
    [Show full text]
  • Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Semiotext SF by Rudy Rucker Semiotext SF by Rudy Rucker
    Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Semiotext SF by Rudy Rucker Semiotext SF by Rudy Rucker. ISBN 0-936756-43-8 (US pbk), ISSN 0-093-95779 (US pbk) Anthology edited by Peter Lamborn Wilson, Rudy Rucker, Robert Anton Wilson. Front cover art, Mike Saenz. Design, Sue Ann Harkey. Back cover art & design, Steve Jones. " The Toshiba H-P Waldo " ad art by Mike Saenz; " Metamorphosis No.89 " by Don Webb, " We See Things Differently " by Bruce Sterling (short story. also contained in the collection Globalhead by Bruce Sterling, 1992), " Portfolio " collages by Freddie Baer, " America Comes " poem by Bruce Boston, " Frankenstein Penis " by Ernest Hogan (short story. followed by the sequel: "The Dracula Vagina"), " Six Kinds of Darkness " excerpt from A Song Called Youth by John Shirley (short story. also contained in the collection Heatseeker by John Shirley, 1989), " On Eve of Physics Symposium, More Sub-Atomic Particles Found " by Nick Herbert, " Burning Sky " by Rachel Pollack, " Day " poem by Bob McGlynn, " Rapture in Space " by Rudy Rucker (short story, written in Lynchburg, Fall 1984. re-issued in the collection Transreal! by Rudy Rucker, WCS, 1991), " Quent Wimpel Meets Bigfoot " by Kerry Thornley, " Hippie Hat Brain Parasite " by William Gibson, " The Great Escape " by Sol Yurick, " Portfolio " collages by James Koehnline, " Jane Fonda's Augmentation Mammoplasty " by J.G.Ballard, " Report on an Unidentified Space Station " by J.G.Ballard (originally published in the magazine City Limits , December 1982), " Is This True? Well, Yes and No " by Sharon Gannon
    [Show full text]
  • The Mutual Influence of Science Fiction and Innovation
    Nesta Working Paper No. 13/07 Better Made Up: The Mutual Influence of Science fiction and Innovation Caroline Bassett Ed Steinmueller George Voss Better Made Up: The Mutual Influence of Science fiction and Innovation Caroline Bassett Ed Steinmueller George Voss Reader in Digital Media, Professor of Information and Research Fellow, Faculty of Arts, Research Centre for Material Technology, SPRU, University University of Brighton, Visiting Digital Culture, School of of Communication Sussex Fellow at SPRU, University of Media, Film and Music, Sussex University of Sussex Nesta Working Paper 13/07 March 2013 www.nesta.org.uk/wp13-07 Abstract This report examines the relationship between SF and innovation, defined as one of mutual engagement and even co-constitution. It develops a framework for tracing the relationships between real world science and technology and innovation and science fiction/speculative fiction involving processes of transformation, central to which are questions of influence, persuasion, and desire. This is contrasted with the more commonplace assumption of direct linear transmission, SF providing the inventive seed for innovation– instances of which are the exception rather than the rule. The model of influence is developed through an investigation of the nature and evolution of genre, the various effects/appeals of different forms of expression, and the ways in which SF may be appropriated by its various audiences. This is undertaken (i) via an inter- disciplinary survey of work on SF, and a consideration the historical construction of genre and its on-going importance, (ii) through the development of a prototype database exploring transformational paths, and via more elaborated loops extracted from the database, and (iii) via experiments with the development of a web crawl tool, to understand at a different scale, using tools of digital humanities, how fictional ideas travel.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Review: Imaginary Numbers: an Anthology of Marvelous
    rev-kasman.qxp 6/13/00 4:16 PM Page 775 Book Review Imaginary Numbers: An Anthology of Marvelous Mathematical Stories, Diversions, Poems, and Musings Reviewed by Alex Kasman Imaginary Numbers: An Anthology of examples of “mathe- Marvelous Mathematical Stories, Diversions, matical fiction”. Since Poems, and Musings the review appeared I William Frucht, editor have received several John Wiley & Sons new suggestions each ISBN 0-471-33244-5 week, and the list 1999, $27.95 cloth (http://math. cofc. edu/faculty/kasman/ In 1958 a collection of short stories and book MATHFICT/) has grown excerpts was published under the name Fantasia larger in a few months Mathematica. What tied these previously published than I ever thought it works of fiction together was that they all had would become. Many of something to do with mathematics. The editor of the works on this list, that book, Clifton Fadiman, later remarked, “I had like the movie Pi, were been storing away these wisps of mathematical so successful that it is thistledown in the untidy nest of my files, with hard to imagine that hardly any expectation that others might take plea- anyone with an interest in mathematics would not have noticed them. Oth- sure in them. But, to my surprise, and I believe also ers are so rare, like the books The Sinister Researches to the publisher’s, the little book assembled entirely of C. P. Ransom and The Curve of the Snowflake, that as a labor of love attracted not a vast audience, of it is difficult now to find any trace of them.
    [Show full text]
  • Science-Fiction Srudies
    INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been repmôuced from the micrdilm master. UMI films the text difecüy from the original or copy submitted. mus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewnter face, while ofhen may be from any type of cornputer printer. The quality of this repfoâuction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistind print, cdored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedttrrough, substandard margins, and imwr alignment can adversely aff&zt reprodudion. In the unlikely event tnat the author did not send UMI a cornplete manuscript and there are missing pages, these wïll be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e-g., maps, drawings, charb) are reproduced by sectiming the original, beginning at the upper bft-hand corner and cantinuing from left to right in eqwl seaiocis with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduoed xerographicaliy in mis copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" bbck and mite photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI direcüy to order. Be11 8 Howell Information and Leaming 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 481064346 USA 800-521-0800 NOTE TO USERS The original manuscript received by UMI contains pages with indistinct andlor slanted print. Pages were microfilmed as received. # This reproduction is the best copy available The Cyborg. Cyberspace. and Nonh herican Science Fiction Salvatore Proietti Department of English iht~GiI1University. Monneal July 1998 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Q Salvatore Proietti, 1998 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes for Postsingular, 5/25/2007
    Rudy Rucker, Notes for Postsingular, 5/25/2007 Postsingular Writing Notes (My 17th Novel) July, 2005 - April, 2007 by Rudy Rucker Copyright © Rudy Rucker, 2007. Last update: May 25, 2007 Number of words: 143,311 (The novel itself is 89,500 words.) Log Here‘s a list of my literary activities while composing Postsingular. I‘ve indented and [bracketed] the things that don‘t have a direct connection with composing Postsingular. Notes document created July 16, 2005. Review: ―Stross‘s Accelerando,‖ Aug 1 - Sept 5, 2005. NYRSF. Part 1a: Story ―Chu and the Nants,‖ Sept 12 - 19, 2005. Asimov‟s (6/2006). Part 1b: Story ―Postsingular,‖ Sept 29 - Nov 15, 2005. Asimov‟s (9/2006). [Found story: ―Cobb Wakes Up,‖ Nov 26, 2005. Other (1/06)] [Story: ―Panpsychism Proved,‖ Nov 30 - Dec 5, 2005. Nature (1/06).] Essay, ―Panpsychism,‖ Dec 6 - 13, 2005. Edge Annual Question.(1/06). Story plans: ―Bixie and Chu‖ and ―The Big Pig Posse,‖ Dec 7 - 31, 2005. Decide to write Postsingular novel, Jan 2, 2006. Postsingular Proposal 1, Jan 17, 2006. Decide (temporarily) not to have ―Chu‖ and ―Postsingular‖ in novel, Feb 10, 2006. [Plan story anthology Mad Professor, Feb 11, 2006.] Postsingular Proposal 2 gets deal with Tor, Feb 22, 2006. Part 2: ―The Big Pig Posse‖, Dec 20, 2005 - March 9, 2006. [Story: ―Elves of the Subdimension‖ with Paul DiFilippo, Flurb, Aug 2006.] Decide to use ―Chu‖ and ―Postsingular‖ as Chapter 1. April 3, 2006. [Deal for Mad Professor anthology with Thunder‘s Mouth, April 24, 2006.] [Story: ―2+2=5‖ with Terry Bisson, April 25, 2006.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Spaceland: a Novel of the Fourth Dimension, Rudy
    Spaceland: A Novel of the Fourth Dimension, Rudy Rucker, Macmillan, 2003, 0765303671, 9780765303677, 304 pages. Joe Cube is a Silicon Valley hotshot--well, a would-be hotshot anyway--hoping that the 3-D TV project he's managing will lead to the big money IPO he's always dreamed of. On New Year's Eve, hoping to impress his wife, he sneaks home the prototype. It brings no new warmth to their cooling relationship, but it does attract someone else's attention.When Joe sees a set of lips talking to him (floating in midair) and feels the poke of a disembodied finger (inside him), it's not because of the champagne he's drunk. He has just met Momo, a woman from the All, a world of four spatial dimensions for whom our narrow world, which she calls Spaceland, is something like a rug, but one filled with motion and life. Momo has a business proposition for Joe, an offer she won't let him refuse. The upside potential becomes much clearer to him once she helps him grow a new eye (on a stalk) that can see in the fourth-dimensional directions, and he agrees. After that it's a wild ride through a million-dollar night in Las Vegas, a budding addiction to tasty purple 4-D food, a failing marriage, eye-popping excursions into the All, and encounters with Momo's foes, rubbery red critters who steal money, offer sage advice and sometimes messily explode. Joe is having the time of his life, until Momo's scheme turns out to have angles he couldn't have imagined.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 10 of Nested Scrolls
    Rudy Rucker, Excerpt from Nested Scrolls Nested Scrolls Excerpt from a Memoir by Rudy Rucker This is a single-chapter excerpt from the first draft of a book, May 31, 2009. Copyright (C) Rudy Rucker 2009. All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced or redistributed without the author‟s permission. Contents 1: Birth 2: Child 3: Schoolboy 4: Teen 5: Lover 6: Mathematician 7: Father 8: Transrealist 9: Cyberpunk 10: Hacker 11: Writer 12: Still Kicking 10: Hacker A year before we left Lynchburg, I became interested in some computer programs called cellular automata, or CAs for short. My first contact with the modern CA mind- virus was through an article by Stephen Wolfram in the Scientific American. He was displaying his cellular automata as changing patterns of pixels on the computer screen. p. 1 Rudy Rucker, Excerpt from Nested Scrolls The colorful images had an organic, natural look, neither too orderly nor too random. They spoke to me at a deep level, I felt a sense of recognition, as if I‟d been waiting to see these pictures for my whole life. You might say the CAs were a trigger that awakened an alien mind within me, and sent it on a ten-year rampage. The hacker mind. From Wolfram‟s article, I learned that a CAs are based on the idea of dividing a region of space into a grid cells, and then letting a tiny program run inside each of the cells. It‟s a parallel computation, in that each of the thousands of cells acts like an independent computer.
    [Show full text]
  • The Future of Cyberpunk Criticism: Introduction to Transpacific Cyberpunk
    arts Editorial The Future of Cyberpunk Criticism: Introduction to Transpacific Cyberpunk Takayuki Tatsumi Department of English, Keio University, Tokyo 108-8345, Japan; [email protected] Received: 19 March 2019; Accepted: 21 March 2019; Published: 25 March 2019 The genesis of cyberpunk criticism could well be dated to March 1987, when Stephen P. Brown inaugurated the first cyberpunk journal Science Fiction Eye together with his friend Daniel J. Steffan, with Paul DiFilippo, Elizabeth Hand, and myself as contributing editors. Of course, it is the impact of William Gibson’s multiple-award-winning Neuromancer in 1984, featuring the anti-hero Case’s adventures in what Gibson himself called “cyberspace,” that aroused popular interest in the new style of speculative fiction. This surge of interest led Gibson’s friend, writer Bruce Sterling, the editor of the legendary critical fanzine Cheap Truth, to serve as unofficial chairman of the brand-new movement. Thus, on 31 August 1985, the first cyberpunk panel took place at NASFiC (The North American Science Fiction Convention) in Austin, Texas, featuring writers in Sterling’s circle: John Shirley, Lewis Shiner, Pat Cadigan, Greg Bear, and Rudy Rucker. As I was studying American literature at the graduate school of Cornell University during the mid-1980s, I was fortunate enough to witness this historical moment. After the panel, Sterling said, “Our time has come!” Thus, from the spring of 1986, I decided to conduct a series of interviews with cyberpunk writers, part of which are now easily available in Patrick A. Smith’s edited Conversations with William Gibson (University Press of Mississippi 2014).
    [Show full text]
  • The Novelist As Engineer
    The Novelist as Engineer A thesis on credible engineering components of fiction novels (supplemented by an “engineering” fiction novel) by D R Stevens for the Masters Degree in Engineering (Hons) 2007 University of Western Sydney Dedication This thesis is dedicated to Professor Steven Riley who inspired the writing of the thesis in the first place and provided encouragement when motivation waned. Acknowledgement I acknowledge the assistance of Professor Steven Riley, Professor of Research, School of Engineering, University of Western Sydney. I also acknowledge Professor Leon Cantrell who gave significant and important advice particularly on the development of the supplementary novel, (called by the new genre name En-Fi) the title of which is “Amber Reins Fall”. Thanks also go to Dr Stephen Treloar, CEO of Cumberland Industries Limited, where I am the Director of Marketing and Social Enterprises. His contribution is through the scarce resource of time the company allowed me to formulate this thesis. Finally the thesis is dedicated in no small part to Caroline Shindlair who helped tremendously with the typing and construction of the actual documentation. Statement of Authentication The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, is original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. (Signature) Table of Contents Abbreviations Page ................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Spaceland Notes
    Rudy Rucker, Notes for Spaceland Spaceland Notes Notes written by Rudy Rucker for Spaceland (Tor Books, 2002). Copyright Rudy Rucker © 2002. I started writing Spaceland on August 24, 2000. These Spaceland Notes were last revised on July 16, 2001, when the final edit of Spaceland was mailed in. Document was put into PDF format on November 22, 2005. The Spaceland Notes are 37,000 words long. Writing Journal ....................................................................................................... 4 January 7, 2000. Preliminary Plans for my Next Novel. .................................... 4 June 22, 2000. Brussels, Hypercube on TV........................................................ 5 June 28, 2000. Joe’s view of Spazz. Joe’s Redemption. ................................... 5 June 30, 2000. Joe’s Astral Body. ..................................................................... 5 July 5, 2000. The cliff at the end of Sheepshead peninsula............................... 6 July 8, 2000. The two plots................................................................................. 7 July 18, 2000. T-shirts. ...................................................................................... 7 August 8, 2000. Hypervision. ............................................................................ 7 August 25, 2000. Started Writing. ..................................................................... 7 September 12, 2000. Underway. Calvino quotes.............................................. 7 September 15, 2000. Four Chapters,
    [Show full text]