Wetware.

Part of Rucker's Ware Tetralogy, this book tells us the story of how the boppers figure out a way to infuse DNA with their own software code into a human body as a way to conquer the earth from their lunar refuge (where we left them at the end of Software, the previous volume in the tetralogy). One of the seminal works of both cyberpunk and biopunk, this little novel contains plenty of mind-boggling ideas and suggestions in the tradition of the best science fiction. Enjoyable and suggestive, as well as entertaining. I find it amazing that, to the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever taken this story to the big screen.

Technical description:
Title: Wetware.
Author: Rudy Rucker.
Publisher: Avon Books.
Edition: first edition, New York (USA), April 1988.
Pages: 183 pages.
ISBN: 0-380-70178-2

A bopper's user guide.

When Cobb Anderson returns to Earth and finds himself (himself?) in the body of a robot, he discovers a note that the boppers left for him:

Dear Dr. Anderson!

Welcome to your new hardware! Use it in good repair as a token of gratitude from the entire bopper race!

User's Guide:

1) Your body's skeleton, muscles, processors, etc. are synthetic and self-repairing. Be sure, however, to recharge the power-cells twice a year. Plug is located in left heel.

2) Your brain-functions are partially contained in a remote super-cooled processor. Avoid electromagnetic shielding or noise-sources, as this may degrade the body-brain link. Travel should be undertaken only after consultation.

3) Every effort has been made to transfer your software without distortion. In addition we have built in a library of useful subroutines. Access under password BE-BOPALULA.

Respectfully yours,

The Big Boppers

(Rudy Rucker: p. 112)

The "library of useful subroutines" includes, among other things, the capability to get drunk by quickly inhaling or exhaling through the right or left nostril of his nose, as well as a special program to make love. There is, of course, also a menu option for self-destruction, just in case he finds himself cornered in a difficult spot. In cases like this, Rucker definitely shows his comic side.

Software.

First volume of Rudy Rucker's Ware Tetralogy, and considered one of the original examples of cyberpunk literature, Software narrates the story of Cobb Anderson, a retired computer scientist who figured out a way to give robots artificial intelligence akin to that of a human and free will, thus creating the race of the boppers. By the year 2020, these boppers have created a highly complex and developed society on the Moon and send a duplicate of Anderson to his retirement home in Florida to offer him the gift of immortality. But the "immortality" given to Anderson turns out to be having his mind transferred into software via a brain-destroying tecnique.


Technical description:
Title: Software.
Author: Rudy Rucker.
Publisher: Avon Eos.
Edition: first Avon printed edition, New York (USA), October 1987 (1982).
Pages: 167 pages.
ISBN: 0-380-70177-4