Many imitators, only one Rucker, P. Tags : Software [Rudy Rucker] on Amazon. The creator of the first robots with real brains, Cobb Anderson finds himself another aged pheezer with a bad heart,Rudy Rucker,Software,Eos,,Science Fiction - General,Science fiction.
However, Software is considered to be one of the novels that is part of the Cyberpunk canon. Its narrative shows the scientific and philosopical education of the author Wikipedia informs that Rudy Rucker is the grand-grandson of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
Briefly put, it is a story about robots that acquire conscience and autonomy, and under the pretext of showing gratitude to their creator they promise to make him inmortal. The said creator, Cobb Anderson, is an aging hippie secluded in a sort of "reservation" the government has set up for aging and non conformist population.
He accepts the offer without asking for explanation about how the robots pretend to do that. In the end it turns out that the "mechanic children of men" want to fulfill the evolution dream!
I will not give further details in order not to spoil the pleasure of the potential readers. Well, the novel is well written, with some spots of surrealist writing, and compared to Gibson's Neuromancer, it is a much more softer read than Neuromancer, that for me, in spite of its high literary status within the science fiction genre,turned out to be a very hard to read novel.
At times I did not know if I was reading a film script draft, or a William Burroughs non-linear narrative. I certainly did not find that lack of continuity in Software, which flowed easily through its different passages and philosophical ruminations.
Software might not have as high an status as Neuromancer, but you will not be dissapointed by it. No wonder it was the first novel granted with the Philip K.
Dick Award in , an award Gibson's Neuromancer would get two years later. All four are available in a one volume edition - the Ware Tetralogy. Like other books by Rucker that I have read, it is a bit strange, but it did hold my interest. Software won the first PKD award. Cobb Anderson invented robots that appear to have developed sentience. On one hand it seems like this was aimed at the youth market, particularly with characters like "Sta-Hi", but there was a lot of bad language and drug taking so it's not really the sort of thing you'd want your children to read.
I've only rated it two stars but it's a high two stars. I'll definitely go on and read the sequel and see how that goes before deciding whether to read on any more in this series. View all 4 comments. Mar 04, Ryan rated it really liked it Shelves: sci-fi. I came to cyberpunk from an interesting vector: I discovered it through Marvel's comic series, of all places, and then watched the Matrix, and only after that became aware of authors like Gibson, Cadigan, and Stephenson.
So while I've read a lot of cyberpunk, and have a fondness for it as a genre, it's a patchwork sort of fondness, which is why I'd never heard of this until recently, despite it's role as a primum movens within cyberpunk literature something that William Gibson talks about I came to cyberpunk from an interesting vector: I discovered it through Marvel's comic series, of all places, and then watched the Matrix, and only after that became aware of authors like Gibson, Cadigan, and Stephenson.
So while I've read a lot of cyberpunk, and have a fondness for it as a genre, it's a patchwork sort of fondness, which is why I'd never heard of this until recently, despite it's role as a primum movens within cyberpunk literature something that William Gibson talks about in the introduction of the edition I read. Like a lot of science fiction, the philosophical angle to this one is as important to the plot - robot builder Cobb Anderson goes to Mars, has his body broken down, and gets reborn inside a robot shell.
Which sounds straightforward, but Rucker also throws in a lot of questions about identity and self in with that - does the robot Cobb still have an essential "Cobbness" to him, even though there's no physical continuation between the two?
Is there a "soul" that can be transferred, even if we can transfer things like memories? Even wider than that, is a person still a person when so many of those essential human qualities the need to sleep, eat, procreate, the fear of death are taken away from them? It's heady stuff, and like any good philosopher Rucker doesn't completely answer them as much as lay them before the reader for them to provide their own answer. When reading Software, I think it's important to remember where and when it's coming from - compared to other novels of its cohort books like , Foundation's Edge, and the Ringworld Engineers there's a quantum leap of difference in terms of how the book understands technology and our relationship with it that might cause a modern reader to undervalue how important and influential a book like this would have been.
Jun 29, Ashryn rated it liked it Shelves: science-fiction. Interesting ideas, but the characters are so wooden. It reads like an old fashioned movie, and the characters are secondary to the story which isn't particularly complex. There's a nice thread of philosophy running through it which would have been worth expanding further via character interactions or experiences.
Jun 15, Peter Tillman rated it liked it. Sta-hi vs Mr Frostee! Lots of period California hippie humor, circa View 2 comments.
This book is set in a dystopian future where the Boomer cohort has been shipped off to Florida to live on free government provided food drops, and rent is free, because Social Security ran out before when the book takes place and riots forced the government to somehow provide for the huge aging cohort.
In the book, the aging Boomers are called pheezers - for "freaky geezers" - many of whom still cling to their youthful rebelliousness remember this book was written before the 80s - when m This book is set in a dystopian future where the Boomer cohort has been shipped off to Florida to live on free government provided food drops, and rent is free, because Social Security ran out before when the book takes place and riots forced the government to somehow provide for the huge aging cohort.
In the book, the aging Boomers are called pheezers - for "freaky geezers" - many of whom still cling to their youthful rebelliousness remember this book was written before the 80s - when many of the former hippies switched "allegiance" and became responsible members of society, settling down, settling for "straight world" jobs, educational pathways, and so forth.
Some drugs are legalized by the 21st C - and although there's no internet or cell phones in the book, there are startling advances in robotics such that robots can be essentially physically identical with specific individuals and robots have achieved "autonomy" or freedom.
The revolt of the robots - deciding to disobey humans - was assisted by the book's protagonist, computer scientist and pheezer Cobb Anderson. Thus, there is a trading relationship between Earth and Moon - but the robots in charge of the moon robot colony - called "big boppers" want more,much more.
Meanwhile, the worker robot bees on the moon, some of whom are called diggers, dislike their bopper overlords, and a revolution is about to break out that may overthrow the boppers and their nefarious plans. The book revolves around Cobb's yearning for a new life - immortality. He strikes a Devil's bargain with the boppers - and travels to the colony assured by them that he will be made immortal. His "software" - personality and memories - will be transferred to a replica robot "the hardware.
There are non-stop scenes of drug use but not that much sexual prurience per se. There is one potentially exceptionally violent scene at the beginning of the sci-fi novel - but the near victim of vivisection managed to escape. I almost didn't bother reading the book, which I regarded as trashy although it did win a prestigious sci-fi prize back in the 80s. It was over-the-top, provocative - it has a distinctly anti-feminist slant.
I could "handle" the attitude having grown up in the pre-feminist era. But many people would not enjoy reading a book that doesn't seem to contain one positive portrayal of women although Annie and Cobb finally seem to be bonding toward the end of th book, and Wendy and Sta-Hi in the end seem to have reached some sort of contentment - both women do not come off positively when they are first introduced - ditto for most if not all of the female characters in the book.
It's possible to read the book as a product of its age and laugh but some readers today might be put off by the anti-feminist slant. The book seemed fevered - although it's well written, by and large - maybe because Cobb and other characters, maybe most of the characters, are either drunk, stoned, or robots - some evil - that Cobb or Sta-Hi the other protagonist are trying to dodge, cheat, beat up, evade, escape from, and so forth.
The book doesn't lack for action and it's of course a page turner considering the reader wants to find out if Cobb does achieve eternal youth and so forth. This isn't a particularly pleasant book but as a fast, trashy read, I suppose it's acceptable.
The reader does want to find out what happens to Cobb and the other characters - I won't spoil the spectacular ending, so it's up to the reader to find out by making it to the end of the book.
On a less sensationalistic note, it's interesting to read how one author envisioned life 40 years into the future - how society would cope with the Boomers, if Social Security really did dry up. There aren't any gadgets - a notable lack of imagining what would happen with respect to computers - computers are still seen in the book as taking up a room and so forth. The book was written before the advent of personal computers - but there was always speculation about how advanced robots might become.
The book, albeit to me at least, rather trashy - and as I said, it does contain one scene of near gratuitous violence plus endless more or less degrading anti-feminist portrayals of women - still, it "works" I suppose as escape fiction. In the book, women are essentially sex objects or drugged out skanks, "mindless" robot vixens or aging virago's.
None of the depictions of women are attractive although, as I mentioned above, Ann and robot Cobb eventually do form a bond, and Wendy and Sta-Hi seem headed to at least temporarily become a couple by the book's end. Interestingly, there is at least a moment of insight into why otherwise rather cartoon-like Sta-Hi became the way he became - after his father dies and he is talking with robot Cobb - Sta-Hi's shell of cool, or detachment drugged out or straight is shattered as he and the reader realize that it was his home problems, problems with his parents, that led to his self-destructive behavior.
Also, poignantly, his dad, who was always critical of his rebellious son, "loves" robot Sta-Hi since he has assumed at least a superficially "normal" life - unfortunately, that was an illusion and the reality that his actual son never changed, is yet another "insightful" or "pathetic" plot twist.
The book otherwise has some nuanced characterization despite characters or robots being often portrayed as cartoons; Cobb - both as human and robot - is definitely multi-faceted. He helped the robots free themselves - but prior to making his deal with the Devil, he can't free himself from the fear of death, and so self-medicates himself with drink daily.
He's become an old though majestic man who has taken to sitting under palm trees on the beach meditatively drinking cheap sherry, trying to quell his thoughts of death, and the wife he abandoned. Later, as a robot, he feels he has it made - but his existence depends on a tape running in a mobile computer stored in a refrigerated truck, and meanwhile, robots, including him, are banned on Earth.
This book is a fast, easy read - and for a trashy sci-fi novel from that pres era, I suppose it's fun in a way. I read it in two days - and I'm a slow reader - so a fast reader could probably read it in a few hours. It's not poorly written, and it is interesting or fun to read it mostly. Still, despite the prestigious prize the book won back in the 80s, I can't give it more than two stars. View all 3 comments. Feb 28, Joey Comeau rated it really liked it.
Oh Rudy Rucker, what a wacky bastard. His 'ware trilogy and 'the hacker and the ants' are my favourites of his. It's been so long since I read this, but I still have such strong positive feelings when I see the cover that I had to give it 4 stars when Goodreads recommended it to me.
It is supposed to be Biopunk, or some were genepunk genre, but really it is science fiction written by a goddamn hippy mathematician. Jan 10, Professor Weasel rated it it was amazing. Hilarious dialogue, deep spiritual questions, fast-moving plot, smooth style, fantastic leaps of imagination Am definitely reading the other books in the series. It's very Philip K. Dick in the sense that there's stoner dialogue, drugs, hip West Coast setting Are you 'software'?
Are you your habits and patterns and thoughts, or is there a 'soul', something intangible that can't be replicated? Is this a way of defeating death, or does something get lost if you just get copied and re-copied into infinite vessels?
So, so fun. Cobb Anderson is the one who thought of evolving robots. That was the only way to make them more complex, to make them individuals. That led to bopper revolt and anarchy on the moon. Cobb was tried for treason, not convicted, but he did lose his job.
Decades later Cobb is an old man with a failing second-hand heart who doesn't want to die. He is approached by a robot that looks exactly like him who says the boppers want to make him immortal. Mooney saw this replica leaving a valuable shipping cr Cobb Anderson is the one who thought of evolving robots. Mooney saw this replica leaving a valuable shipping crate empty, recognized it as Cobb and is hounding him. Cobb decides he will take up that offer to go to the moon. Events lead him there with Mooney's son Sta-Hi.
They arrive in the midst of a civil war between the big boppers and the diggers. The former are collecting and merging bopper personalities, the latter want to remain individuals. Nice premise that the mind, the software, can be stored and put into a new body, hardware, giving the potential for immortality.
Fast read except where there was jargon and dialect. For my taste the characters seemed a bit too preoccupied with drugs, sex and alcohol. Jul 23, Scot rated it it was amazing Shelves: scifi , spiritual , avant-garde. What a wild ride this tetralogy is going to be if the first book is any indication! I can fully see why William Gibson wrote the glowing intro about Rudy Rucker.
I have only previously read one of his books and it was really good, but this has the taste of something completely mind bending. And his subtle references to surrealism, drug and counterculture, and deeper meaning are pretty awesome. I may diverge from this opinion as the series goes along, but it's hard to imagine that being the case What a wild ride this tetralogy is going to be if the first book is any indication!
I may diverge from this opinion as the series goes along, but it's hard to imagine that being the case after the sonic boom that book one was. Oct 25, Kristen rated it liked it Shelves: audiobooks. This book hasn't aged super well, but it was entertaining all the same. Jan 01, Zardoz rated it liked it. I'm kinda shocked that I never read this one back in Cyber Punk always meant Gibbson to me and I never followed up with his contemporaries.
The book is a little dated. Gotta love the punk gargon and all the boomers retiring to Florida to have druken orgys before they shuffle off to oblivion. Hold on that last one isn't so far fetched. It's refreshing to read about A. The civil war between the machines wa I'm kinda shocked that I never read this one back in The civil war between the machines was a nice touch as well. I'll have to read the sequels at some point.
Aug 19, Kent Frazier rated it liked it. An interesting take on robots that lies somewhere between Asimov and Terminator, but there were no characters for whom I felt much affinity. Amusing enough that I'll probably finish at least another of the tetralogy Feb 21, Quais rated it it was amazing.
This shit is the shit. Can you wave with it? Jun 20, Pedro Pascoe rated it liked it Shelves: re-read , cyberpunk , sci-fi.
I read Rucker's 'Ware trilogy back in the 's sometime. I remeber loving them, and they blew my mind in regards to thinking about minds being copied into robot bodies yet the original body being destroyed in the first place. I remember Rucker teasing philosophical points out, bearing in mind that nobody except the original 'you' would actually really be affected.
Was that a price worth paying? Similar issues were raised in 'The Punch Escrow' which I read recently, and my thoughts drifted back I read Rucker's 'Ware trilogy back in the 's sometime. Similar issues were raised in 'The Punch Escrow' which I read recently, and my thoughts drifted back to the 'Ware trilogy yes, there's a fourth book in the series. It's on my shelf, as yet unread , and how much better I thought Rucker had handled it. Software is set in that most distant of near-future dates, the alluring year of Now that we are here, I can safely say that the future ain't what it used to be.
It's worse. All of the dystopia, and none of the flying cars. Now, either I'm remembering things from the following 2 books a distinct possibility , or I'm attributing my thoughts along the subject of digital immortality inspired by Software erroneously to the actual book. Yes, there were bits and pieces of food for thought, but far less than I remember. I'm willing to chalk it up to the remainder being in the next two books for now, and will reserve judgment until I have re-read the next two books in the series.
And I won't be able to wait until the year they are set for the re-read, unless this digital immortality thing takes off real quick, because I likely won't be around that long.
I should be around for the date of Realware, from memory, all going well. Having said all that, Software is still a cracking read. Proto-cyberpunk, part AD another great year in the future, now sadly well and truly in the rear vision mirror , part Philip K Dick, all solid wacky future with a robot revolution on the moon, robot doubles infiltrating society, sinister ice-cream vans, fast consciousness transfers, sex, drugs and brain stealers, with just enough of the aforementioned concepts to keep the point of the book bubbling along and prevent it from falling into a shallow indulgence of slick future visions with little substance.
I likely would have dived into the next book in the trilogy, but, alas, another book also a re-read , jumped the queue. I knew this was considered a classic in the Cyberpunk genre and when I got the chance to get it, I took it without thought. While I don't regret it, per say, it was definitely not what I was expecting. The story is pretty straightforward. I was concerned the performers voice would get on my nerves, but I found myself encapsulated in the tale and only occasionally got snapped back.
His voice is pretty naisly and reminded me of the rabbi on Seinfeld.. The premise of the story lends from so many of the good authors. AI, human death, and the mind. I enjoyed the interesting characters and technologies. Its an acquired listen but one I guess I enjoyed.
Rudy Rucker's Software is the first entry in his 'Ware' series. The story revolves around an aging computer scientist who is responsible for giving robots free will AI. The story begins well after these events with Cobb aging and slowly dying.
He is offered immortality by the robots who have since transitioned to the moon where they create new technology for Earth. A young cab driving slacker gets tied up with him and they make it to the moon where immortality is conversion to software with the capability to inhabit robots. At the same time, the robots are on the verge of a civil war where one group is seeking to merge all robot consciousness.
Rucker's tale was at the time when Asimov's simple minded robot laws were slowly giving way to artificial intelligence that is not encumbered by mechanical constraints of robots. As such, the story has not aged well. At the same time, there is commentary on aging and social mores that appear more satirical than prophetic. The narration is reasonable with moderate character distinction.
The story is relatively short and moves quickly. I am not a fan of books with so many different points of view. The book also had an outdated feel to it that i can't really explain other then to say it's there. Add to Cart failed. Please try again later. Add to Wish List failed. Remove from wishlist failed. Adding to library failed.
Please try again. Follow podcast failed. Unfollow podcast failed. Try our newest plan — unlimited listening to select audiobooks, Audible Originals, and podcasts. You will get an email reminder before your trial ends. Upgrade or cancel anytime. Software By: Rudy Rucker. Narrated by: Chris Sorensen. No default payment method selected. Add payment method. Switch payment method. We are sorry.
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