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.

Blogging, Blogging, Blogging, Keep Those Doggies Blogging

I'm hoping for beginners luck, this being my first attempt at blogging, but that's not happening -- I'm not feeling the magic, my fingers are not dancing on the keys, the words appearing are not so mystical as I might hope.

But then again there is the jet lag from crossing the globe and eleven time zones from Los Angeles to Helsinki, Finland, and based on my many visits here over many years I am sure that this is as much psychological as physical, the transition from Hollywood to Wirelessworld. It reminds me in some ways of a paraphrase on an old Robert F. Kennedy quote: Some people see new things and ask why (Hollywood), I see things that never were and ask "Why not?" (Helsinki)

I spent last evening with the ex-Consulate General from Finland to Los Angeles, Maria Serenius, and her partner Tapio. Also attending the dinner at thier home were my wife, Stacie Seifrit-Griffin, and ex-lead singer of the Leningrad Cowboys and former head of WapIT, Mato Valtonen and his wife. We had a grand time that lasted late into the morning and Mato's birthday. Much of the discussion was about the differences between Hollywood and Helsinki, and how Hollywood is dragging down the United States' competitiveness in technology.

Finland's strategy is working for them, as this piece from the news wires makes clear:

U.S. Slips to No. 2 in World Technological Competitiveness

The United States slipped to second place, behind Finland, in competitiveness in technology, according to a study of the state of information technology by the World Economic Forum, in partnership with INSEAD (one of the world's largest business schools, and based in France) and the Information for Development Program of the World Bank. The 2003 Networked Readiness Index rates the economies according to their degree of preparedness to capture fully the benefits of the networked economy. The study considers the roles played by the major stakeholders - individuals, businesses and governments -- in its examination of the networked readiness of 82 economies according to three dimensions: the environment for information and communication technology (ICT), i.e., the market conditions, the political and regulatory framework, and the infrastructure for ICT; the readiness of individuals, the business community and government; and the actual usage of ICT by the three stakeholders. According to the study, the U.S. continues to offer the best market environment for networked readiness, but slipped from first to second place due to less competitive performance in terms of connectivity and diffusion of ICT. Finland ranks first in the Networked Readiness Index, boosted by the best performance in terms of technology usage by its citizens, businesses and the government. The remainder of the top ten are: Singapore, Sweden, Iceland, Canada, Britain, Denmark, Taiwan and Germany. (Source: AP, World Economic Forum Release)

Today (Friday 21 Feb) we are headed to Hanko, aka Hango, the most southern point of Finland and the home of Harry and Anne Santamaki. We will spend the weekend there before I head north of the Arctic Circle and Stacie flies home. I'll keep you posted, this blog willing ... and know that, yes, this was posted wirelessly, via Bluetooth and a high-bandwidth GSM/GPRS phone. Ooops, they fine you a Euro at Nokia House if you call it a phone, so I will pay my money and remind everyone that it's an instrument, dammit, an extension of the hand. kännykkä

(Kiitos to Tatu Siltanen, a student from Lapinlahti, Finland, for help expressing Kannykka via HTML, and special thanks to all the Finns reading BoingBoing and writing to express their pleasure that BoingBoing is getting guest blogged from above the 60th parallel.)

Discuss

posted by Jim Griffin at 2:00:09 AM | permalink

Goodbye, and Thank You!

My time on the guestbar is just about up, so I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Mark, Cory, Xeni and David, and all of the BoingBoing readers. Your feedback has been terrific, and I've really enjoyed reading everyone's comments.

A small parting plug: if you enjoyed these posts, please consider stopping by the Z+Blog, and signing up for Futurity, our bulletin of emerging ideas.

See you 'round the Net, and Cheers!

Andrew

Discuss

posted by Andrew Zolli at 11:10:51 PM | permalink

Paper (Folds) and Pencil (Carving)

Here's a couple of great links on the fabulous art possibility of pencil and paper.

Japanese artists Mizuta Tasogare and Kato Jado made these incredible carvings of simple graphite pencils. Helixes, chains, and spirals abound.

SGI genius-in-residence Paul Haeberli maintains an amazing site with work on complex paper folds.

posted by Andrew Zolli at 8:28:49 PM | permalink

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