Rudy Rucker

Rudy Rucker is a writer, a mathematician and a computer scientist. Born in Kentucky in 1946, Rucker moved to Silicon Valley when he turned 40. Rucker has published twenty-five books, primarily science-fiction and popular science. He was an early cyberpunk and an editor at Mondo 2000. He often writes SF in a style is characterized as transreal. His most recent novels were Frek and the Elixir, a far-future epic about a boy's galactic quest to restore Earth's ecology and As Above So Below, a historical novel based on the life of the sixteenth century painter Peter Bruegel.  Rucker is a professor emeritus of computer science at San Jose State University, where he created a number of freeware programs relating to chaos, artificial life, cellular automata, higher dimensions, and computer games. He is presently working on The Lifebox, the Seashell and the Soul, a nonfiction book about computers and the nature of reality. Rucker's website can be found at www.cs.sjsu.edu/faculty/rucker or at www.rudyrucker.com.

No one may ever have this knowledge again
Here's a great article about Athanasius Kircher and the amazing Museum of Jurassic Technology. It's one of the most amazing collections of esoteric craziness in America, situated strangely enough in Culver City (near LA) California. Their reading room alone is worth a visit.
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posted by Wiley Wiggins at 11:30:30 AM | permalink

To live with the roaches...
A cool insect telepresence project by TRI (Toy Robots Initiative) at The Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
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posted by Wiley Wiggins at 9:56:29 AM | permalink

This is a photo of the Blepharopsis mendica Mantid.
Remind yourself that insects are the dominant complex lifeform on this planet and their experience is the mainstream experience of life here. McDonald's and the price of gasoline are totally irrelevant to them.
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posted by Wiley Wiggins at 7:08:59 PM | permalink

War Without People
Reading about Boeing's successful flight of the X-45 robot fighter-plane today, I was reminded of Nikola Tesla's attempts at robotic (or otherwise unmanned) instruments of war back in the late 1800's (One of his most impressive devices was a remote controlled robot submarine). Here's an interesting tidbit about his attempt at a beam weapon that he hoped would "end all war".
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posted by Wiley Wiggins at 6:49:07 PM | permalink

Solid Water
If the Chinese can create cubes of gelatenous water made with "macromolecular polymer extracted from animals and plants", then maybe they can build a moon base.
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posted by Wiley Wiggins at 10:47:25 AM | permalink

I have seen the future: God Jesus Robot
Proof that the entire world is one big joke and you can go ahead and rip down the set and expose the shambling alien cameramen who are using us as torture-comedy for their planet-x cable TV: Bandai made this little goodie in the 80's... the GOD JESUS ROBOT. He's a cross between Christ, a... well... a robot, and a magic 8-ball. You're supposed to ask him questions like, "How did my culture get so magically insane?" and then he answers for you.
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posted by Wiley Wiggins at 9:53:30 AM | permalink

Robo-Carp
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is the world leader in robotic-fish design and manufacture.
Check out their robotic coelacanth!
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posted by Wiley Wiggins at 11:08:44 AM | permalink

Guy Maddin
Canadian Filmmaker Guy Madden makes stylized, anachronistic pictures with heavy helpings of german expressionism (Fritz Lang, and Murnau jump to mind) and an extra dash of abject insanity. If I tried to sum him up in this space I could only do him grave injustice. Stick your big toe in his freezing pond of Freudian weirdness.
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posted by Wiley Wiggins at 10:56:21 AM | permalink

Novelties, Novelties, Novelties!
Niem Tran has done the daunting work of building every one of those cut-and-fold toys in Chris Ware's comic book The Acme Novelty Library. If you read the comic you'll know how impressive this is.
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posted by Wiley Wiggins at 10:48:32 AM | permalink

Monkey Trouble
New Delhi residents sleeping on rooftops in the brain-addling heat have been reporting attacks by a horrifying 'Monkey-Man', with hairy body and sharp metal claws. "It has three buttons on its chest. One makes it turn into a monkey, the second gives it extra strength, the third makes it invisible...He touches a lock and it breaks. But he is afraid of the light."
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posted by Wiley Wiggins at 10:44:07 AM | permalink

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