Interview with novelist and popular science writer Rudy Rucker. We discuss his recently released book, Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning of Life, and How to Be Happy; the universe as different types of computation; his six teachings that came from the book; his book The Hacker and the Ants; going native in California; teaching computer science at San Jose State University; working as a computer programmwer at AutoDesk; determinism versus free will; Stephen Wolfram and cellular automata; his belief in God; the influence of his great, great grandfather, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; the dialectic: thesis, synthesis and antithesis; how gnarly computation taught him how to be writer; what he discovered while writing his latest book; Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem; A New Kind of Science; is artificial intelligence possible; Ray Kurzweil; Moore's law; how philosophy has changed in the 20th century; Daniel Dennett; science fiction as philosophy; Accelerando by Charles Stross; the singularity, Vernor Vinge; Accelerating Change conference; how is style of writing developed; counterculture values; his novel Software; Olaf Stapleton; Zap Comix; artist Pieter Brueghel; his podcasts; his blog; Boing Boing.

Featured song is "No Better Place To Live" by Criste & Gifton Saizi.



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