Rudy Rucker
Rucker in 2004
Born	Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (1946-03-22)March 22, 1946 (age 79) Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Education	St. Xavier High School Swarthmore College (BA) Rutgers University (MS,PhD)
Occupation	Author
Known for	Ware Tetralogy
Spouse	Sylvia Rucker ​ ​ (m. 1967; died 2023)​
Relatives	G. W. F. Hegel (four generations removed)
Website	Rudy Rucker

Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (/ˈrʌkər/; born March 22, 1946) is an Americanmathematician,^[1] computer scientist,science fiction author,^[2] and one of the founders of thecyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known for the novels in theWare Tetralogy, the first two of which (Software andWetware) both wonPhilip K. Dick Awards. He edited the science fictionwebzineFlurb until its closure in 2014.

Rucker was born and raised inLouisville, Kentucky. He is the 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 ofHuguenot descent.^[4] Through his mother, he is a great-great-great-grandson ofGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.^[5][6][7]

Rucker attendedSt. Xavier High School before earning aBA inmathematics fromSwarthmore College (1967) andMS (1969) andPhD (1973) degrees in mathematics fromRutgers University.^[8]

Rucker taught mathematics at theState 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 theAlexander von Humboldt Foundation, Rucker taught at theRuprecht Karl University of Heidelberg from 1978 to 1980. He then taught atRandolph-Macon Women's College inLynchburg, Virginia from 1980 to 1982, before trying his hand as a full-time author for four years.

Inspired by an interview withStephen Wolfram,^[10] Rucker became a computer science professor atSan José State University in 1986, from which he retired asprofessor emeritus in 2004.^[11][12]

From 1988 to 1992 he was hired byJohn Walker ofAutodesk as a programmer ofcellular automata, which inspired his bookThe Hacker and the Ants.

A mathematician with philosophical interests, he has writtenThe Fourth Dimension andInfinity and the Mind.Princeton University Press published new editions ofInfinity 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 termstransrealism. Transrealism, as outlined in his 1983 essayThe 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 isSaucer Wisdom, a novel in which the main character isabducted 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 atHeidelberg. 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 ofinfinity, while theWare Tetralogy (written from 1982 through 2000) is in part an explanation of the use ofnatural selection to develop software (a subject also developed in hisThe Hacker and the Ants, written in 1994). His novels also put forward amystical philosophy that Rucker has summarized in an essay titled, with only a bit of irony, "The Central Teachings of Mysticism" (included inSeek!, 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."^[15]

Rucker was the roommate ofKenneth Turan during his freshman year at Swarthmore College.^[16] In 1967, Rucker married Sylvia Bogsch Rucker (1943–2023).^[17][18] Together they have three children.^[19] On July 1, 2008, Rucker suffered acerebral hemorrhage. Thinking he might not be around much longer, this prompted him to writeNested Scrolls, his autobiography.^[20]

Rucker resided inHighland Park, New Jersey during his graduate studies at Rutgers University.^[21]

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(August 2018)

TheWare Tetralogy^[22]

• Software (1982)
• Wetware (1988)
• Freeware (1997)
• Realware (2000)

Transreal Trilogy^{[23][Notes 1]}

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

Transreal novels^[24]

• Spacetime Donuts (1981)
• The Sex Sphere (1983)
• Master of Space and Time (1984)
• The Hollow Earth (1990)
• The Hacker and the Ants (1994) (Revised 'Version 2.0' 2003)
• Spaceland (2002)
• Frek and the Elixir (2004)
• Mathematicians in Love (2006)
• Jim and the Flims (2011)^[25]
• The Big Aha (2013)
• All the Visions (1991), memoir/novel

Other novels

• As Above, So Below: A Novel ofPeter Bruegel (2002)
• Postsingular (2007)
• Hylozoic (sequel toPostsingular, May 2009)^[26]
• Turing and Burroughs (2012)^[27]
• Return to the Hollow Earth (2018)
• Million Mile Road Trip (2019)^[28]
• Juicy Ghosts (2021)
• Sqinks (2025)

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)^[29]
• Transreal Cyberpunk, with Bruce Sterling (2016)

Stories (by date of composition)

• 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)^[137]
• 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)^[138]
• Collected Essays (2012)^[139]
• How to Make an Ebook (2012)
• Better Worlds (2013), art book of Rucker's paintings
• Journals 1990–2014 (2015)

• 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)^[140]
• Semiotext(e) SF,Autonomedia (1989)^[141]

The big aha

• Spinrad, Norman (October–November 2014). "Space—the permanent frontier". On Books.Asimov's Science Fiction.38 (10–11):183–191.

Turing and Burroughs

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

• As actor-speaker inManual of Evasion LX94, a 1994 film byEdgar Pêra

Wikiquote has quotations related toRudy Rucker.

• Rudy Rucker Portal
• Rudy Rucker books
• Rudy Rucker at theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
• Kasman, Alex."Rudy Rucker".MathFiction.College of Charleston.published works of fiction involving mathematics or mathematicians

• 1946 births
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