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.

Robot Teaches Self How to Fly in Three Hours
From Reuters story:

"Cheating was one strategy tried and rejected during the process of artificial evolution -- at one point the robot simply stood on its wing tips and later it climbed up on some objects that had been accidentally left nearby. But after three hours the robot discovered a flapping technique -- rotating its wings through 90 degrees, raising them, then twisting back to the horizontal before pushing back down.

'This tells us that this kind of evolution is capable of coming up with flying motion,' said Peter Bentley, an evolutionary computer expert at University College, London. However, the robot could not actually fly because it was too heavy for its electrical motor.

'There's only so much that evolution can do,' Bentley said." Link

posted by Xeni Jardin at 11:43:32 AM | permalink

Coming to an Olympics Near You: Warring Robots?
Interesting story in the Boston Globe on MIT's robotics design contest, and how robot competitions are working their way into popular American culture. IMHO, the mass-popularization won't be complete until we see bots bitch-slapping each other on Jerry Springer... how cool would that be? Forget show titles like "My Lover, My Grandson," I want "I'm a Nail-Grinding Deathmachine, But I Really Want to be A Transsexual Flamethrower." I'm talking ratings, people.

From the Globe story: "Educational benefits aside, robotics competitions are a welcome addition to the universe of more established sports. I won't be surprised if they one day rival or surpass NASCAR in popularity. After all, NASCAR races involve machines driven by humans driving very quickly in a circle; the audience hopes to see ingenious or daring strategies, and the occasional breakdown or wreck."

SRL was first, though. ;-)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 9:11:32 AM | permalink

On his web site, Bennett opines: "With the success and notoriety created by the toast portraits, and the aspect that I wish to explore the flame as a paintbrush idea further, I have continued my interest in toast as a medium. I am working towards an exhibition later this year in which the colours and designs of Tapa Cloth are imprinted onto the toast with the help of a high powered blowtorch."

Yowza. Anyone for some post-neo-impressionist creme brulee?

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:35:50 PM | permalink

posted by Xeni Jardin at 9:56:58 PM | permalink

"...then, i flip through my music collection for some suitable dance music. usually, i like techno with sorbet, but, you can never go wrong with some george clinton and the p-funk all stars, can you? i set my trusty timer for 5 minutes and crank up the music."

Thanks, Frank.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 8:59:27 PM | permalink

Yahoo! Risks Abusing Online Free Speech Rights in China, Claims Human Rights Group.
Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch: "If it implements the ['Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry'], Yahoo! will become an agent of Chinese law enforcement. It will switch from being an information gateway to an information gatekeeper." Link to HRW's press release. Link to HRW's letter to Yahoo!. Link to Yahoo!'s own report on the matter.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:45:03 PM | permalink

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