Rudy Rucker is a pretty excellent example of a well-rounded individual. Not only has he become well known for his work in mathematics, computer science and philosophy, but he’s an award-winning science fiction author to boot. As if that wasn’t quite enough for one person to accomplish, he is also one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement.
Rudy has penned more than thirty books of fiction and non-fiction, as well as numerous short stories. His Ware Tetralogy revolutionized the way we think about artificial intelligence, and also used Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection in a way we’d never really seen before. To put the figurative cherry on top: the first two books of the series were awarded the Philip K. Dick Award for distinguished US science fiction published in paperback.
Throughout his extensive career as an author, Rudy has also been a major proponent of Transrealism, or his own “alternative to cyberpunk.” With this style of science fiction writing, Rudy addresses the constraining boundaries of realism by using fantastical elements to symbolize psychological change, while simultaneously incorporating his own perspectives and immediate perceptions, in the style of naturalistic realism.
That must be enough to keep someone ridiculously busy, right? Hey, it probably is, but Rudy is also an accomplished photographer and edits the biannually released science fiction webzine Flurb which frequently features his own short stories, paintings and photography.
Photo courtesy of larrybobsf, used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license. Thanks larrybobsf!