Seek!

Seek!, Rudy Rucker, Four Walls Eight Windows Press, 1999

This group of essays, written over the last twenty years by one of the founders of cyberpunk, covers three main areas: Science, Life and Art.

As a professor of computer science with a doctorate in mathematics, Rucker spends his days dealing with subjects like cellular automata, artificial life, fractals, chaos and nanotechnology, and writes about them in Science. He includes a brief, and very readable, history of computers, from Charles Babbage to the Apple II. He also gives a behind-the-scenes look at a microchip fabrication plant.

In Life, Rucker talks about the unpleasantness of living in Lynchburg, Virginia (home of Jerry Falwell), while teaching at a nearby women's college. He includes a piece on the central teachings of mysticism, and explores the feeling that he is haunted by the ghost of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. He talks about camping with his son in Yosemite National Park. He looks at cyberculture in present day Japan. Rucker also explores traveling to Portugal to appear in an independent film. There is an elegy to Arf, his
beloved dog.

The Art section looks at transrealism (a type of avant-garde literature that looks at immediate perceptions in a fantastic way). Rucker gives his answer to the question What is cyberpunk? Included is an interview with Ivan Stang of the Church of the Sub-Genius. The author also looks at Dutch artist Pieter Brueghel.

There is certainly something here for everyone. Much of the Science section went over my
head, but I enjoyed the rest, and can give this a strong recommendation.