Podcast appearances and mentions of Rudy Rucker

Bruce takes a deep dive into Stephen Wolfram's ideas regarding computational universality, which may go further than the Church-Turing-Deutsch thesis in that Wolfram's theories imply that all of nature could be simulated even by relatively simple systems, so even nature itself may be computational rather than something that can just be simulated on a turning machine or quantum computer. Stephen Wolfram is a renowned physicist, computer scientists, and entrepreneur. Bruce also talks about the related ideas on philosophy of computation promoted by Rudy Rucker, who is a mathematician, computer scientist, and science fiction author associated with cyberpunk genre. Both thinkers believe, rightly or wrongly, that the complexity of life and the universe can be explained by relatively simple computational rules.

Seriah is joined by prolific fiction and nonfiction author, researcher, and esoteric initiate Robert Guffey. Topics include Robert's writing, dream experiences, Masonic initiation, the book “Chameleo: A Strange but True Story of Invisible Spies, Heroin Addiction, and Homeland Security”, cyberpunk author Rudy Rucker, Carlos Castaneda, William S. Burroughs, an entire story that emerged as a dream, dream journaling, experiences in publishing, a bizarre experience with Robert's wife and a precognitive dream, John Keel's book “Strange Creatures from Space and Time”, Flannel Man, Timothy Renner and the ”Strange Familiars” podcast, a weird lucid dream involving a shark, programming oneself to lucid dream, a disturbing shared erotic dream, Rick Strassman's DMT research, the book “The Spirit Molecule”, Australian Aboriginal beliefs, authors Dennis Etchison and George Clayton Johnson, a meeting between Whitley Streiber and Terence McKenna, Gnostic Bishop Stephen Hoeller, ritual magic and UFO experience, Manly P. Hall, Israel Regardie, psychedelics and psychological stability, the dangers of falling down the rabbit hole, conspiracy theories, moon-landing denialism, flat earth theory, Ufology as religion, the problems of literalism and metaphor in religion, Linda Moulton Howe, UFO contactee literature, Carl Jung, Orfeo Angelucci, “The Secret of the Saucers” book, Alan Moore, magick as a branch of art, Paul Kimball, UFO phenomena as an art project, Freemasonry in Shakespeare, a strange dream involving Masonry and aliens and owls, surrealist art, Antonio Vilas-Boas, abduction as esoteric initiation, Timothy Leary, psychedelics and set and setting, Whitley Streiber and Catholicsm, the article “Invisible Predators”, modern cloaking technology, Richard Schowengerdt and electro-optical camouflage, invisibility and Rosicrucianism, invisible aliens, the Philip K. Dick novel “V.A.L.I.S.”, King James and demonology and the Lesser Key of Solomon, Kenneth Arnold's visits from invisible beings, John Keel's “Operation Trojan Horse”, Albert K. Bender's encounter with a bizarre entity, the book “UFO Warning” by John Stuart, Doreen Wilkinson, sexual assault by invisible beings, the 1970's “Entity” case, bizarre later information about John Stuart, the Netflix series “3 Body Problem” , the novella “The Open Doors” by Whitley Streiber, Trevor James Constable, rods, spontaneous human invisibility, Donna Good Higbee, Christopher Bledsoe, an attack in the woods by invisible entities, possible various natures of invisibility, a witness encounter with invisible creatures that use language, the Glimmer Man phenomena, a family's strange encounter with what appears to be high-tech optical camouflage, a radio host who took legal action against a corporation that was experimenting on him with cloaking and hologram technology, adaptive camouflage, surveillance of civilians, Josephine Grace- targeted artist and journalist, inothernewsradio podcast, cybertronic technology, misuse of gifted programs to seek out psychic individuals, Tessa Dick (Philip's widow), “A Scanner Darkly” novel, Robert's latest novel “Dead Monkey Rum”, the Rondo awards, and much more! This is a classic discussion, jam-packed with information!

In a rapidly advancing digital era, the need for computer science education has never been more crucial. It's not just about learning to code; it's about fostering critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and preparing students for a future where technology is at the forefront of every industry. Today, we're diving deep into the reasons why educators, parents, and policymakers are recognizing the value of bringing computational thinking into the curriculum and why computer science is more than coding.   The Rundown 00:36 - Moment of Zen  Computations are everywhere, once you begin to look at things in a certain way. - Rudy Rucker   01:00 - ChatGPT changes in the news! 02:14 - What is Computer Science? 03:24 - What is Computational Thinking? - Computational thinking is an interrelated set of skills and practices for solving complex problems, a way to learn topics in many disciplines, and a necessity for fully participating in a computational world - Digital Promise Computational Thinking for Next Generation Science Toolkit 06:30 - In Michigan, and all over the US, there is a big focus on reaching all students with CS, especially those not currently well-represented in CS careers. Why is this important? Demographics show that 67% of AI specialists are white and 91% are men. https://advocacy.code.org/state-handouts/Michigan.pdf 2023 State of CS Report 08:42 - More than a Glitch - Meredith Broussard 09:30 - Vocational models, Micro-learning and Equity 12:41 - What is a "Foundational Computer Science Class" and why is it a baseline? - MI CS Standards 17:02 - TCAPS Computer Science Weeks - bit.ly/TCAPSCodes  20:57 - Computer Science and Digital Citizenship 22:51 -  Tech Tool of the Week: https://www.csedweek.org/   Additional Resources to share:  CS Equity Guide (written for California, but useful for us as well)  CS Summit - 11/3/23  Copy of CS for MI 2023 Slide Deck - CS Leadership Summit IET Grant - Michigan - Copy of 2023-2024 Implementing Effective Use of Technology Grant Overview 99b Grant - Michigan -  99b Grant Criteria Overview   Please rate and review the podcast on your app of choice and leave us a comment on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram Thank you so much for listening and inspiring!   Hosts: Danelle Brostrom, Larry Burden Um and Ramble Editing: Larry Burden   Cover art created with help from Adobe Firefly.  

In this episode, I play a song by Celtica Pipes Rock; I find the patron music in the wild; I bought a Rudy Rucker storybundle; story and humble bundles validate my thoughts on ebook pricing; I read a D.C. McElroy book; I subscribed to the Zine Zone podcast; I remain confused on cultural appropriation; I … Continue reading Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for March 17 2022 – Sailing to Frustration Island The post Evil Genius Chronicles Podcast for March 17 2022 – Sailing to Frustration Island first appeared on Evil Genius Chronicles.

In this episode, we wrap up our talk about counterintuitive concepts with a lot of brain-twisting material. Thinkers cited: William Ian Beardmore Beveridge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Immanuel Kant, Plato, Rudy Rucker, Erwin Schrodinger, Ken Wilber, and others.

The Mothball Prophecies Episode 011 Weird Things I May Have Experienced: 1996 Copake, NY In this episode, I take a look back at one of the many weird things I've experienced firsthand, and try to play the age-old game of aliens or brain glitches? SHOW NOTES: Facebook: www.facebook.com/MothballProphecies Twitter: twitter.com/MothballShow Email: mothball@crescentcitymedia.com Hyperspace by Michio Kaku: www.amazon.com/Hyperspace-Scient…ion/dp/0385477058 Saucer Wisdom by Rudy Rucker: www.amazon.com/Saucer-Wisdom-Rud…ker/dp/0312868847 PodcastAliensPersonal ExperienceskepticUFO --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/mothball-prophecies/support

Simultaneous Times Supplementary Log: Interviews with the authors and musicians of the podcast. Interview with Rudy Rucker - http://www.rudyrucker.com music by Phog Masheeen & RedBlueBlackSilver theme music by Dain Luscombe http://spacecowboybooks.com

Stories featured in this episode: Fat Stream by Rudy Rucker from the collection Complete Stories - http://www.rudyrucker.com/ read by Jean-Paul Garnier, Zara Kand, Patricia Thomson, Tamara Good & RedBlueBlackSilver music by Phog Masheeen - http://phogmasheeen.com Mandela by Brent A. Harris - https://brentaharris.com/ music by RedBlueBlackSilver - https://redblueblacksilver.com read by Jean-Paul Garnier theme music by Dain Luscombe Simultaneous Times is a monthly science fiction podcast produced by Space Cowboy Books in Joshua Tree, CA. http://www.spacecowboybooks.com

RE/Search celebrates the release of Issue 19: UNDERGROUND LIVING with V. Vale and special guest Rudy Rucker. V. Vale has traversed the major global underground movements of the past century (including Beatniks, Hippies, Punk, Industrial, kitsch, retro-styles, surrealism, situationism, queer, incredibly strange films and music, performance art, feminism, zines—and more). Along the way, he documented it all, taking over 100,000 photos. Here, for the first time in book form, are 80 "personal" images of underground living, selected from the depths of Vale's vast photographic archive. UNDERGROUND LIVING Includes more than 75 color photos featuring the early Ramones shows, Henry Rollins, Lydia Lunch, John Waters, Genesis P-Orridge, William S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, Kathy Acker, Survival Research Labs, and many more! Rudy Rucker is a mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known for the novels in the Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which both won Philip K. Dick Awards. His most recent book is "Million Mile Roadtrip" published by Nightshade Books. He wrote the inroduction for RE/Search 19 UNDERGROUND LIVING.

In november 2019, I met the Science Fiction author and painter Rudy Rucker at his house in the bay area & we recorded a conversation about Science Fiction, futurism tentacular beings and how everything, even a stone, is alive.

Rudy Rucker is an American author and a mathematician who worked for twenty years as a Silicon Valley computer science professor. Regarded as a contemporary master of science-fiction and founder of the cyberpunk literary movement, he is best known for the novels in The Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which (Software and Wetware) both won Philip K. Dick awards. His thirty published books include both novels and non-fiction books on the fourth dimension, infinity, and the meaning of computation. Rucker edited the science fiction webzine Flurb until its closure in 2014.

In this episode Byron and Rudy discuss the future of AGI, the metaphysics involved in AGI, and delve into whether the future will be for humanity's good or ill. Episode 76: A Conversation with Rudy Rucker

In this episode Byron and Rudy discuss the future of AGI, the metaphysics involved in AGI, and delve into whether the future will be for humanity's good or ill. Episode 76: A Conversation with Rudy Rucker

In this episode Byron and Rudy discuss the future of AGI, the metaphysics involved in AGI, and delve into whether the future will be for humanity's good or ill. Episode 76: A Conversation with Rudy Rucker

John Shirley is a cyberpunk pioneer (along with William Gibson, Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling). He tells of his life and how he started writing: basically, start writing your dreams! Dreams can go anywhere! Dreams became short stories, and some were expanded into full-length novels. Duck-and-cover, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the idea of nuclear war inspired literally hundreds of dreams where he was incinerated by a nuclear explosion. He tells how he became a published author and more...

This week's episode is brought to you by Visionary Magnets, the refrigerator poetry magnets that turn your boring old kitchen appliances into the substrate for woke invocations, tantric pillow talk, and other occult goofery. Support their Kickstarter and "enlighten your fridge" today! Or tomorrow. Subscribe to Future Fossils on iTunes Subscribe to Future Fossils on Stitcher Join the Future Fossils Facebook Group This week is part one of a special double-length episode with Jon Lebkowsky, founder of EFF-Austin – one of the unsung heroes of Internet culture, whose tale stretches through the earliest web communities and reads like a list of landmark moments in the history of digital rights and culture. http://weblogsky.com/ https://twitter.com/jonl https://www.facebook.com/polycot/ https://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/495/Bruce-Sterling-and-Jon-Lebkowsky-page01.html We talk about the early days of hacking in the Wild West of the 1990s, how the World Wide Web has changed since then, and the promises and perils of the Internet in the 21st Century. It’s a winding tale of pseudonymous keyboard-slingers and federal raids, roleplaying game empires and sci-fi visionaries, centered on the unsuspecting hippie cowboy outpost of Austin, Texas, Once Upon A Time. Enjoy this special conversation on the history of the Internet we know today, and a snapshot of the hopes and fears of life online in the dawn of our digital era… TOPICS: - The threat of Internet-empowered fascism and “participation mystique” (or maybe worse, a corporate plutocracy) eroding rational civil discourse and the dignity of the individual - The problems with “Net Neutrality” and how it makes more sense to focus on “The Freedom to Connect” - Connectivity vs. Interdependence (OR) Networks vs. Buddhism - Does the Noosphere already exist, and we’re just excavating it? - The History of Electronic Frontier Foundation-Austin and how it was connected to the secret service’s raid of legendary role-playing game designer Steve Jackson (GURPS) - The hilarious, troubled Dawn Age of e-commerce before secure web browsing - Jon’s work with a Gurdjieff group and his encounters with esoterica as an editor of the Consciousness subdomain for the last issue of the Whole Earth Review - Cybergrace, TechGnosis, and Millennial concerns about the mind/body split in the first Internet and our need to humanize technology with whole-body interfaces and MOVEMENT - Embodied Virtual Reality & Other Full-Sensory Immersive Media - Cory Doctorow’s new novel Walkaway as a banner book for the maker movement and a new form of cyber-social-liberation. - The movement of political agency back into city-states in a digital era - “On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog.” - Shaping the future of wireless infrastructure in the early 00s of Austin - Getting our values right before we imprint the wrong ones into superhuman AI - Putting together diverse conversation groups to solve “wicked problems” - New forms of participatory open-source politics suited for an internet age SOME OF THE PEOPLE & STUFF WE MENTIONED: Whole Earth Provisions, Whole Earth Review, The WELL, Whole Foods, William Gibson, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Hakim Bey, William Irwin Thompson, Alien Covenant, Terminator, John Perry Barlow, Mitch Kapor, Mike Godwin, Bruce Sterling, Clay Shirkey, WIRED Magazine, Fringeware, RoboFest, Heather Barfield, Neal Stephenson, Terence McKenna, Church of the Subgenius, Mondo 2000, Erik Davis, GI Gurdjieff, The National Science Fiction Convention, Rudy Rucker, Greg Bear, Jon Shirley, Jennifer Cobb, Robert Scoville, Greg Egan, Ernest Cline, Octopus Project, The Tingler, Honey I Shrunk The Kids (Ride), Charles Stross, Glass House, Rapture of the Nerds, Cory Doctorow, Alan Moore, Project Hieroglyph, Arizona State University, Jake Dunagan, Plutopia Productions, The Digital Convergence Initiative, Chris Boyd, South By Southwest, Boing Boing, Make Magazine, Dave Demaris, Maggie Duval, Bon Davis, DJ Spooky, Forest Mars, OS Con, RU Sirius, Shin Gojira, Open-Source Party, JON LEBKOWSKY QUOTES: “The Noosphere can certainly have pathologies…” “The Internet was originally a peer-to-peer system, and so you had a network of networks, and they were all cooperating and carrying each other’s traffic, and so forth. And that was a fairly powerful idea, but the Internet is not that anymore. The Internet has, because of the way it’s evolved, because it’s become so powerful and so important and so critical, there are systems that are more dominant – backbone systems – and those are operated by large companies that understand how to operate big networks. That’s really a different system than the system that was originally built.” “SO FAR we’ve managed to keep the Internet fairly open…the absolute idea of net neutrality might not be completely practical.” “Science fiction is a literature of ideas, but a lot of those ideas do not manifest in exactly the way that they did in the book.” “I don’t have a real high level of confidence that anybody understands exactly what the fuck is going on.” “You couldn’t get a consumer account to get access to the Internet at that time. And in fact I think the first companies to do that were here in Austin.” “At the time, we were the only game in town for internet stuff…” “One thing I learned was, if you’re at the very cutting edge, it’s hard to make money.” “There are a lot of people who aren’t in touch with themselves internally. Because it’s hard. It’s hard to do that.” “I know that that’s sort of the goal in VR development: to give you a fully immersive experience where you’re really in a completely other reality, like in the Holodeck. But, you know. I’m still dealing with THIS reality. I don’t want another one.” “In an online community, people are always itching for ways to get into real human proximity with one another. They’re always looking for ways to meet.” “That’s my idea of what works now: is to have events that are experiences, you know, versus people just like, going to movies, or watching television, or going to a concert and watching a band play.” “I keep thinking that we won’t be able to solve our problems with bureaucracy or the kind of governance structures that we’ve been living with, but I look around me and see people who are doing just fine, and doing great work, and living their lives…and I’m sort of feeling hopeful and a little bit confident that those people will step up and do what they need to do to make things work, even if our so-called elected officials aren’t doing it.” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Augmented Reality!!! New technology combined with pioneering imagination has birthed a new paradigm for the human experience. We now have the ability to augment our reality in a truly immersive way. The hit video game, Pokemon Go, has taken our world by storm. But with so many Psyducks to catch and so little time, few people are asking themselves: what does it all mean?Fortunately, these subjects were explored long before the technological leaps made AR and VR tangible, practical things. In this episode, we dive into a literary movement dubbed transrealism.Jordan explores the work of Rudy Rucker, the author of the Transrealist Manifesto, with the hope of making sense of the inventible convergence of human beings and digital realities. However, Jordan does not explore these uncharted waters alone. Instead, he enlists the help of Tony Heman, an old childhood friend and Pokemon Go aficionado. Jordan and Tony discuss the dualistic promise of AR, Transrealism in literature and philosophy, as well as some of the technical points of mobile gaming. Armed with the information gleaned from this discussion, Jordan wraps things up with a mental exercise for the High Files audience.This episode’s wisdom nuggets are provided by Rudy Rucker and Terrence McKenna.(NOTE: We apologize for varying audio quality during some parts of this episode. Jordan is looking into upgrading his audio equipment in the near future. If you are an audiophile and have any recommendations for equipment that can provide mobile podcasting and interviewing capability, please let Jordan know by contacting him at https://twitter.com/HighFiles or leave a comment at http://onyxedgestudios.com/the-high-files/ )To read a copy of A Transrealist Manifesto, visit: http://www.rudyrucker.com/pdf/transrealistmanifesto.pdfAggregated internet audio has been sourced from the following awesome cyberspaces:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmUnWk4grMchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4of4ce3QIaEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCKRI2wEw7Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bccvplA1w0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_TLztvV4nshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMnKNHNfznEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V9YZ7C88iUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMro9B3Wo4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AveCENBgybQ&list=PLuqZTQ_5gspqRHmzt5Yb5-8GN2t61ZNuv&index=3https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAvQbEeTafkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Na1PWPNby4https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIHEcctCLQESpecial thanks to Pikachu for always living the Tao of Pokemon Go.

Aug 10, 2016. Rudy Rucker reads “Totem Poles,” a wild tale co-written with Bruce Sterling. Appears online on Tor.com today. Press the arrow below to play Rudy reading the story. And, if you like, Subscribe to Rudy Rucker Podcasts.

My name's Irit Ziv. I have a low-rent apartment in the East Village that I used to share with my girlfriend, Shirley Chen. It's April now, and Shirley died four months ago. Ever since then, I've been visiting visit Ma and Pa's flat in Brooklyn Heights a lot. An awesome spot, with a full view of lower Manhattan. The trees by the river are turning green. I'm a grad student at NYU, trying to finish a PhD thesis in the physics department. Physics was probably a bad choice for me, but it's too late to change. | Copyright 2016 by Rudy Rucker. Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki.

January 16, 2016. Rudy Rucker reads the Rucker & Sterling story “Junk DNA.” Funny, scary tale of genetic engineering run wild. Appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction in 2003. Press the arrow below to play “Junk DNA” right now! “Junk DNA” appears in Transreal Cyberpunk, a collection of the nine stories that Rudy & Bruce have […]

More at http://philosophytalk.org/shows/infinity. Infinity is a puzzling concept. Mathematicians say there are as many odd numbers as there are numbers altogether. That seems like saying there are as many men as there are people altogether – which we know is untrue. And if you subtract infinity from infinity, you are still left with infinity – but which infinity? Some infinities are larger than others – how can this be? John and Ken unravel the paradoxes of infinity with Rudy Rucker, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at San Jose State University and author of "Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite."

March 24, 2015. Interviewed by Robin Ince for a BBC Channel 4 broadcast on the theme of the Hollow Earth. Tape made in my home by Mark Mollineaux. Doesn’t include Robin Ince’s prompts, just my statements about history of the Hollow Earth concept and about my novel The Hollow Earth. Subscribe to Rudy Rucker Podcasts.

#doctorwho #flatline #epub reprinted from wiki   Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an    by the English schoolmaster . Writing pseudonymously as "A Square", the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to comment on the hierarchy of  culture, but the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of . Several films have been made from the story, including the feature film (2007). Other efforts have been short or experimental films, including one narrated by  and the short films  (2007) and starring  and .   Contents   []    Plot[]   Illustration of a simple house in Flatland. The story describes a two-dimensional world occupied by geometric figures, whereof women are simple line-segments, while men are polygons with various numbers of sides. The narrator is a , a member of the caste of gentlemen and professionals, who guides the readers through some of the implications of life in two dimensions. The Square dreams about a visit to a one-dimensional world (Lineland) inhabited by "lustrous points", and attempts to convince the realm's monarch of a second dimension; but is unable to do so. He is himself visited by a three-dimensional , which he cannot comprehend until he sees Spaceland (a tridimensional world) for himself. This Sphere visits Flatland at the turn of each millennium to introduce a new apostle to the idea of a third dimension in the hopes of eventually educating the population of Flatland. From the safety of Spaceland, they are able to observe the leaders of Flatland secretly acknowledging the existence of the sphere and prescribing the silencing of anyone found preaching the truth of Spaceland and the third dimension. After this proclamation is made, many witnesses are massacred or imprisoned (according to caste). After the Square's mind is opened to new dimensions, he tries to convince the Sphere of the theoretical possibility of the existence of a fourth (and fifth, and sixth ...) spatial dimension; but the Sphere returns his student to Flatland in disgrace. The Square then has a dream in which the Sphere visits him again, this time to introduce him to Pointland, whereof the point (sole inhabitant, monarch, and universe in one) perceives any communication as a thought originating in his own mind (cf.): 'You see,' said my Teacher, 'how little your words have done. So far as the Monarch understands them at all, he accepts them as his own – for he cannot conceive of any other except himself – and plumes himself upon the variety of Its Thought as an instance of creative Power. Let us leave this God of Pointland to the ignorant fruition of his omnipresence and omniscience: nothing that you or I can do can rescue him from his self-satisfaction.' — the Sphere The Square recognizes the identity of the ignorance of the monarchs of Pointland and Lineland with his own (and the Sphere's) previous ignorance of the existence of higher dimensions. Once returned to Flatland, the Square cannot convince anyone of Spaceland's existence, especially after official decrees are announced that anyone preaching the existence of three dimensions will be imprisoned (or executed, depending on caste). Eventually the Square himself is imprisoned for just this reason. Social elements[] Men are portrayed as  whose social status is determined by their regularity and the number of their sides, with a Circle considered the "perfect" shape. On the other hand, females consist only of lines and are required by law to sound a "peace-cry" as they walk, lest she be mistaken face-to-face for a . The Square evinces accounts of cases where women have accidentally or deliberately stabbed men to death, as evidence of the need for separate doors for women and men in buildings. In the world of Flatland, classes are distinguished by the "Art of Hearing", the "Art of Feeling", and the "Art of Sight Recognition". Classes can be distinguished by the sound of one's voice, but the lower classes have more developed vocal organs, enabling them to feign the voice of a polygon or even a circle. Feeling, practised by the lower classes and women, determines the configuration of a person by feeling one of its angles. The "Art of Sight Recognition", practised by the upper classes, is aided by "Fog", which allows an observer to determine the depth of an object. With this, polygons with sharp angles relative to the observer will fade more rapidly than polygons with more gradual angles. Colour of any kind is banned in Flatland after Isosceles workers painted themselves to impersonate noble Polygons. The Square describes these events, and the ensuing  at length. The population of Flatland can "evolve" through the "Law of Nature", which states: "a male child shall have one more side than his father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon, the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on". This rule is not the case when dealing with  (Soldiers and Workmen) with only two congruent sides. The smallest angle of an isosceles triangle gains thirty arc minutes (half a degree) each generation. Additionally, the rule does not seem to apply to many-sided polygons. For example, the sons of several hundred-sided polygons will often develop fifty or more sides more than their parents. Furthermore, the angle of an isosceles triangle or the number of sides of a (regular) polygon may be altered during life by deeds or surgical adjustments. An equilateral Triangle is a member of the craftsman class. Squares and Pentagons are the "gentlemen" class, as doctors, lawyers, and other professions. Hexagons are the lowest rank of nobility, all the way up to (near) circles, who make up the priest class. The higher-order polygons have much less of a chance of producing sons, preventing Flatland from being overcrowded with noblemen. Regular polygons were considered in isolation until chapter seven of the book when the issue of irregularity, or physical deformity, became considered. In a two dimensional world a regular polygon can be identified by a single  and/or . In order to maintain social cohesion, irregularity is to be abhorred, with moral irregularity and criminality cited, "by some" (in the book), as inevitable additional deformities, a sentiment with which the Square concurs. If the error of deviation is above a stated amount, the irregular polygon faces ; if below, he becomes the lowest rank of civil servant. An irregular polygon is not destroyed at birth, but allowed to develop to see if the irregularity can be “cured” or reduced. If the deformity remains, the irregular is “painlessly and mercifully consumed”. As a social satire[] In Flatland Abbott describes a society rigidly divided into classes. Social ascent is the main aspiration of its inhabitants, apparently granted to everyone but strictly controlled by the top of the hierarchy. Freedom is despised and the laws are cruel. Innovators are imprisoned or suppressed. Members of lower classes who are intellectually valuable, and potential leaders of riots, are either killed, or promoted to the higher classes. Every attempt for change is considered dangerous and harmful. This world, as ours, is not prepared to receive 'Revelations from another world'. The satirical part is mainly concentrated in the first part of the book, 'This World', which describes Flatland. The main points of interest are the Victorian concept on women's roles in the society and in the class-based hierarchy of men. Abbott has been accused of misogyny due to his portrait of women in 'Flatland'. In his Preface to the Second and Revised Edition, 1884, he answers such critics by stating that the Square: was writing as a Historian, he has identified himself (perhaps too closely) with the views generally adopted by Flatland and (as he has been informed) even by Spaceland, Historians; in whose pages (until very recent times) the destinies of Women and of the masses of mankind have seldom been deemed worthy of mention and never of careful consideration. —the Editor Critical reception[] Although Flatland was not ignored when it was published, it did not obtain a great success. In the entry on Edwin Abbott in the Dictionary of National Biography, Flatland is not even mentioned. The book was discovered again after 's  was published, which introduced the concept of a fourth dimension. Flatland was mentioned in a letter entitled "Euclid, Newton and Einstein" published in  on February 12, 1920. In this letter Abbott is depicted, in a sense, as a prophet due to his intuition of the importance of time to explain certain phenomena: Some thirty or more years ago a little  was written by Dr. Edwin Abbott entitled Flatland. At the time of its publication it did not attract as much attention as it deserved... If there is motion of our three-dimensional space relative to the fourth dimension, all the changes we experience and assign to the flow of time will be due simply to this movement, the whole of the future as well as the past always existing in the fourth dimension. —from a "Letter to the Editor" by William Garnett. in Nature on February 12, 1920. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography now contains a reference to Flatland. Editions in print[] Flatland (5th edition, 1963), 1983 reprint with foreword by , HarperCollins,  bound together back-to-back with 's  (1994), HarperCollins,  The Annotated Flatland (2002), coauthor , Perseus Publishing,  Signet Classics edition (2005),  Oxford University Press (2006),  Dover Publications thrift edition (2007),  CreateSpace edition (2008),  Adaptations and parodies[] Numerous imitations or sequels to Flatland have been written, and multiple other works have alluded to it. Examples include: In film[]  (1965), an animated short film based on the novella, was directed by Eric Martin and based on an idea by .  (2007), a 98-minute animated independent feature film version directed by , updates the satire from Victorian England to the modern-day United States.  (2007), by Dano Johnson and Jeffrey Travis, is a 34-minute animated educational film voice acted by, , , and . Its sequel was  (2012), inspired by the novel  by  and starring , , , , , and. In literature[] An Episode on Flatland: Or How a Plain Folk Discovered the Third Dimension by  (1907), by  (1965),  by  (1984),  by  (2001), and  by  (2002). Short stories inspired by Flatland include "" by  (1963), "The Incredible Umbrella" by  (1980), and "Message Found in a Copy of Flatland" by Rudy Rucker (1983) Physicists and science popularizers  and  have both commented on and postulated about the effects of Flatland. Sagan recreates the  as a set-up to discussing the possibilities of higher dimensions of the physical universe in both the  and , whereas Dr. Hawking notes the impossibility of life in two-dimensional space, as any inhabitants would necessarily be unable to digest their own food. In television[] Flatland features prominently in  episode "The Psychic Vortex", when Sheldon Cooper declares it one of his favorite imaginary places to visit. It also features in the  episode "2-D Blacktop", when Professor Farnsworth's adventures in  lead to a foray of drifting in and out of inter-dimensional spaces. See also[]  (1945), novella by George Orwell , Indian parable  (1999-2007 webcomic)  (1963 book)  (1941 short story) Dimension-bending video games:  (2007)  (2012)  (2013)

Cyber-punk writer Rudy Rucker visits and discusses (amongst other things) his writing career, his painting, and the state of technology with host, V. Vale for the Counter Culture Hour (produced by Marian Wallace). Rudy Rucker has written over 30 books, two of which received Philip K. Dick Awards. His novels include Cyberpunk and transreal fiction as well as nonfiction books on infinity and the fourth dimension. A video version is also available here: http://vimeo.com/82404988

Panel Discussion Moderated by Terry Bisson with Rudy Rucker, K. W. Jeter, and Jay Lake

Interview with Rudy Rucker

"...a group of heavy hitters..."

"All of those were written on the typewriter."

"It's a good place to set a science fiction novel."

"I was very much into Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs." - Rudy Rucker "I said there were five sequels." - Diana Paxson

"The Birth of Transrealism"

Welcome to Lando's second 'listener comment' show. In this round, Lando talks about his introduction to science fiction, from William Gibson to Rudy Rucker. It's literature through the prism of Lando! Theme Music: "Welcome To Frankfurt" by Charlie Hunter

Rudy Rucker Reads from 'The Hollow Earth

Jeremy and Erik drink Schlitz (the 60s formula), interview Joe the Plumber, talk about brain usage, web games, old Commodore 64 games, discuss Rudy Rucker and spend a looong time talking about about the future of movies while Jeremy dies … Continue reading →

The Future Past

Aural Delights No 26 Rudy Rucker Main Fiction: Easy As Pie by by Rudy Rucker. Reality, Remastered:  Cognitive Entanglement by Peter Watts Poetry: Godlet by Laurel Winter Narrators: Mark Nelson, Diane Severson See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Science Fiction Tips the Universe on Its Side

Life is the gnarly zone

Oct 23, 2006. “Boing Boing” editors Mark Frauenfelder and David Pescovitz interview author and mathematician Rudy Rucker about his two upcoming books:” Mad Professor” and “Mathematicians in Love.” Subscribe to Rudy Rucker Podcasts.

Oct 11, 2005. Rudy reads at radio KFJC. A story on multiple universes, introducing Chapter Two of Rudy Rucker, The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul, see www.rudyrucker.com/lifebox. Intro included. (1.17MB. min.) Subscribe to Rudy Rucker Podcasts.

July 17, 2005.Mondo 2000 editor R. U. Sirius interviews Rudy Rucker for his online MondoGlobo Neofiles show. Much of the discussion concerns “Frek and the Elixir.” The sound quality isn’t great. Subscribe to Rudy Rucker Podcasts.