Non-Fiction Books
A dynamic exploration of infinity In Infinity and the Mind , Rudy Rucker leads an excursion to that stretch of the universe he calls the “Mindscape,” where he explores infinity in all its forms: potential and actual, mathematical and physical, theological and mundane. Using cartoons, puzzles, and quotations to enliven his text, Rucker acquaints us with staggeringly advanced levels of infinity, delves into the depths beneath daily awareness, and explains Kurt Gödel’s belief in the possibility of robot consciousness. In the realm of infinity, mathematics, science, and logic merge with the fantastic. By closely examining the paradoxes that arise, we gain profound insights into the human mind, its powers, and its limitations. This Princeton Science Library edition includes a new preface by the author.
This is the definitive popular exploration of what the fourth dimension means, both physically and spiritually. Mathematician and science-fiction novelist Rudy Rucker takes readers on a guided tour of a higher reality that explores what the fourth dimension is and what it has meant to generations of thinkers. The exciting and challenging journey is enhanced by more than 200 illustrations and a host of puzzles and problems (with answers). "This is an invigorating book, a short but spirited slalom for the mind." — Timothy Ferris, The New York Times Book Review "Highly readable. One is reminded of the breadth and depth of Hofstadter's G ö del, Escher, Bach. " — Science "Anyone with even a minimal interest in mathematics and fantasy will find The Fourth Dimension informative and mind-dazzling... [Rucker] plunges into spaces above three with a zest and energy that is breathtaking." — Martin Gardner "Those who think the fourth dimension is nothing but time should be encouraged to read The Fourth Dimension, along with anyone else who feels like opening the hinges of his mind and letting in a bit of fresh air." — John Sladek, Washington Post Book World "A mine of mathematical insights and a thoroughly satisfying read." — Paul Davies, Nature Magazine
This reader-friendly volume groups the patterns of mathematics into five archetypes: numbers, space, logic, infinity, and information. Rudy Rucker presents an accessible introduction to each of these important areas, reflecting intelligence gathered from the frontiers of mathematical thought. More than 100 drawings illuminate explorations of digital versus analog processes, logic as a computing tool, communication as information transmission, and other "mind tools." " Mind Tools is an original and fascinating look at various aspects of mathematics that is sure to fascinate the nonmathematician." — Isaac Asimov "A lighthearted romp through contemporary mathematics. . . . Mind Tools is a delight." — San Francisco Chronicle "For those who gave up college mathematics for what seemed more liberal arts, Rudy Rucker's book, Mind Tools , is a dazzling refresher course. . . . He rekindles the wonder that can come from contemplating logarithms, exponential curves and transcendental numbers." — The New York Times Book Review "One of Rucker's greatest assets is his ability to make complexities comprehensible to the general reader without lecturing." — The Washington Post "Approaching all of mathematics, and everything else, by way of information theory, Dr. Rucker's latest and most exciting book opens vistas of dazzling beauty — scenes that blend order with chaos, reality with fantasy, that startle you with their depths of impenetrable mystery." — Martin Gardner
Rucker is a cyberpunk novelist, math and computer science professor, and software creator; he is well qualified to lead readers on an interactive exploration of both the thinking and the programming behind artificial life. The book explains concepts, and the disk contains a program called "Boppers" for creating electronic creatures and seeing how well they adapt to changing environments. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
The essays and memoirs collected in Seek! trace Rudy Rucker's trajectory through the final decade of the second millennium. His topics include artificial life, chaos, the big bang, Pieter Brueghel, the church of the subgenius, live sex, mathematics, science fiction, and TV evangelism. A computer scientist and programmer, Rucker is an articulate, engaging guide to the world on either side of the computer screen.
"This book should be a requirement of anyone that wants to write games ¿ period" André Lamothe, author and CEO of Xtreme Games There are many books on the art of games programming but now acclaimed author Rudy Rucker has gone a step beyond and transformed it into a science. Software Engineering and Computer Games uses an object-oriented (OO) approach throughout, incorporating UML for OO analysis and design and discussing software patterns and how to incorporate them into the design process. The book covers nine topics: 1) Basic software engineering principles and techniques. 2) How to organize and complete a substantial software project 3) Practical examples of object-oriented design and programming. 4) The design of computer games. 5) Simulating physics inside our computer-generated worlds. 6) Artificial life, or how to simulate live creatures inside a computer program. 7) How to use two and three-dimensional computer graphics. 8) Windows programming with the Microsoft Foundation Classes, or MFC. 9) How to develop a project using Microsoft Visual Studio(Either Version 6.0 or .NET) The game engine accompanying the book is an open source C++ framework (the POP Framework), available together with other accompanying material from the website. The book can be used for self-study, with readers encouraged to use the POP Framework as a starting point for creating their own games. Software Engineering and Computer Games was developed as the primary textbook for an undergraduate software engineering course and can also be the main book for courses on software projects or computer game design and programming.
A playful and profound survey of the concept of computation across the entire spectrum of human thought—written by a mathematician novelist who spent twenty years as a Silicon Valley computer scientist. The logic is correct, and the conclusions are startling. Simple rules can generate gnarly patterns. Physics obeys laws, but the outcomes aren’t predictable. Free will is real. The mind is like a quantum computer. Social strata are skewed by universal scaling laws. And there can never be a simple trick for answering all possible questions about our world’s natural processes. We live amid splendor beyond our control.
Nested Scrolls reveals the true life adventures of Rudolf von Bitter Rudy Ruckermathematician, transrealist author, punk rocker, and computer hacker. It begins with a young boy growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a businessman father who becomes a clergyman, and a mother descended from the philosopher Hegel. His career goals? To explore infinity, popularize the fourth dimension, seek the gnarl, become a beatnik writer, and father a family.All the while Rudy is reading science fiction and beat poetry, and beginning to write some pretty strange fiction of his owna blend of Philip K. Dick and hard SF that qualifies him as part of the original circle of writers in the early 1980s that includes Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, John Shirley, and Lewis Shiner, who were the founders of cyberpunk. At one level, Ruckers genial and unfettered memoir brings us a first-hand account of how he and his c
“Collected Essays” includes the nonfiction pieces from Rucker’s two earlier collections, “Transreal!” (1991) and “Seek!” (1999). And many newer essays have been added as well. This comprehensive collection weighs in at 225,000 words, twice the length of an ordinary book. The essays fall into seven parts: (1) “The Art of Writing.” Manifestos and talks about writing science-fiction. (2) “Silicon Valley.” Cool scenes Rucker witnessed as he rode the Silicon Valley computer wave for over twenty years, starting in 1986. (3) “Weird Screens.” Graphical programs that have obsessed Rucker—cellular automata, artificial life, fractals, space curves, and virtual reality. (4) “Futurology.” Playful raps and speculations about the coming times. (5) “The Philosophy of Computation.” Where does it end? Immortality, artificial intelligence, and the birth of a universal mind? (6) “Personal Stories.” Stories Rucker tells to friends. (7) “Mentors.” Appreciations of the great minds and wild freaks who led Rucker along his path.
The tips, gotchas, and secret teachings of the pros. This small guide describes four paths to ebook creation, from the simple to the advanced. Professors Rucker's gleanings and teachings from years of software engineering and months of frenzied ebook programming. Get your distribution paths up to speed!
Journals I includes Rudy Rucker’s notes on his life and career from 1990 to 2002. He worked as a programmer at Autodesk, a computer science professor in Silicon Valley, and an editor at Mondo 2000. He lectured in Japan, acted in Lisbon, grappled with Hollywood, and researched Flemish art in Europe. He wrote the cyberpunk novels Freeware and Realware, the transreal novels The Hacker and the Ants and Saucer Wisdom, his Seek! and Gnarl! anthologies, and, after the millennium, As Above, So Below—a historical novel of the artist Peter Bruegel. Along the way Rucker got sober.
Journals II includes Rudy Rucker’s notes on his life and career from 2002 to 2012. He dropped his teaching job, traveled the world lecturing and scuba-diving, and founded the Flurb webzine. He wrote a 4D novel Spaceland, a far-future novel Frek and the Elixir, a tome on computation called The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul, a transreal novel Mathematicians in Love, a linked pair of cyberpunk novels called Postsingular and Hylozoic, his Nested Scrolls autobiography , and Jim and the Flims—an SF novel of the afterlife. Amid all this he became a grandfather, had a brush with death, and started publishing Transreal Books.
This is the March, 2025 revision of BETTER WORLDS. It replaces all earlier editions. Two hundred and seventy-six bright, fantastical paintings by cyberpunk master Rudy Rucker, some realistic, and some abstract. Includes detailed comments on the background and creation of the individual works. Rucker took up painting twenty-six years ago, when he was writing a novel about the old master, Peter Bruegel. Rucker calls himself a transreal SF writer, meaning that his novels tend to be inspired by events in his life---transmuted into SF of surpassing strangeness. The same holds for his paintings, inspired by his experiences and his visions. And he's not above painting aliens and saucers now and then. You might call his work pop surrealism. For more info, see www.rudyrucker.com/paintings
“Notes for The Big Aha” documents two years of writing a novel, and describes Rucker’s transition to new modes of publishing. Amusing, inspiring, and worldly wise, these writing notes may prove useful and encouraging for your own creative work, as well as enhancing your appreciation of the novel, “The Big Aha.”
Ride the wave with Rudy Rucker—author, programmer, mathematician, professor, cyberpunk, hipster, transrealist, and family man. A writer’s journey. Rucker composed Journals 1990-2014 over twenty-five years. The finished volume is as long as three or four novels combined. A long-running adventure. From the author’s introduction: “My Journals contain a variety of elements: “ Introspection and philosophizing : I turn to my journals when I’m undergoing a personal crisis—I find it calming to write what’s on my mind. And I'm always looking for an easy path to enlightenment. “ Journalism : I like to describe the things that I see going on in the daily world around me. I’ve always enjoyed Jack Kerouac’s practice of using words to sketch a scene around me in real time. “ Travel : I’m particularly likely to work on my journals when I’m on the road or on a day-trip. I have many series of entries set in San Francisco, the Wild West, New York, Mexico, the Caribbean, Japan, the South Pacific, and various countries in Europe. “ Writing notes : As a transrealist, I like seeing the world in terms of science-fiction, casting daily events as ideas for my books. It's hard to keep writing year after year, and sometimes in my notes I'm encouraging myself to keep at it.” Praise for Rucker’s memoir Nested Scrolls : “Immensely entertaining, spirited and deep. Rudy Rucker at his thoughtful best.” — Greg Bear “Pleasantly meandering, chattily digressive read. We hear the authentic voice of the beat, the hippie, the cyberpunk, the hacker the revolutionary iconoclast.” — Locus “Rucker knew from an early age that he wanted to be a beatnik writer. It makes for a fascinating story, and reads like Rucker’s novels, packed with adventures, filled with humor, and often quite surreal.” — Booklist
This volume documents the plans, brainstorms, sketches, paintings, and journals that went into Rudy Rucker's three-year journey of crafting his wildest novel yet: "Million Mile Road Trip." The "Notes" are is in fact a bit longer than the novel itself. The book includes forty-eight of Rucker's illustrations, many of them in color. A unique view into a writer's process. the taste of his highs and lows, and the lively play of his mind.