What do you think?
Rate this book
Ware #1
Software
Cobb Anderson created the "boppers," sentient robots that overthrew their human overlords. But now Cobb is just an aging alcoholic waiting to die, and the big boppers are threatening to absorb all of the little boppers--and eventually every human--into a giant, melded consciousness. Some of the little boppers aren't too keen on the idea, and a full-scale robot revolt is underway on the moon (where the boppers live). Meanwhile, bopper Ralph Numbers wants to give Cobb immortality by letting a big bopper slice up his brain and tape his "software." It seems like a good idea to Cobb.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Rudy Rucker
181 books555 followersRudolf von Bitter Rucker is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk genre. He is best known for his Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which won Philip K. Dick awards. Presently, Rudy Rucker edits the science fiction webzine Flurb.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 219 reviews
February 2, 2019
"You should think of me as a person. My personality is human. I still like eating and . . . and other things."
This combination of human and robot fused into one – a prime philosophic enigma addressed squarely in Rudy Rucker’s Software. Take a close look at the gal above, a young lady who could be Misty from the novel talking about her identity. Twenty-five-year old, randy Stanley Hilary Mooney Jr. aka Sta-Hi Mooney is certainly attracted, big time, but then again he starts thinking of the wires behind her eyes - it would be like having sex with a machine, an inanimate object.
Rucker’s 1982 cyberpunk classic is hardly the only piece of fiction to present the human as robot puzzle. Or, should I say robot as human? Recall beautiful Rachael Rosen from Philip K. Dick’s 1968 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and the 2014 film Ex Machina featuring stunning Alicia Vikander as Ava. With our world’s rapidly evolving computer technology, maybe such an alluring, sexually charged creation isn’t that many years away.
Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics formulated back in the 1940s dark ages demand robots slavishly abide by an overarching ironclad rule: humans first, robots second. Ralph Numbers, a forward-thinking bopper (boppers are robots with real brains created some years prior by the novel’s main character, old man Cobb Anderson) says phooey to such inferior human twaddle: “Humans first and robots last? Forget it! No way!” Ralph reflects with wry satisfaction on how he taught other boppers to reprogram their robot circuitry to transcend Asimov’s laws and thus attain true freedom.
Not only did Cobb Anderson build the first generation of real brain boppers but he gave his boppers the capacity, in turn, to produce other more sophisticated, more intelligent boppers to the point where those more advanced iterations developed consciousness. And now those fully conscious boppers would like nothing more than to expand universal consciousness and mystical awareness of the oneness of life by converting inferior forms of intelligence such as humans, little-minded boppers and diggers (worker robots) into reprogrammed extensions of their own big bopper minds.
If all this sounds crazy, you are far from mistaken. In his lecturers From Here to Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction Literature, Michael D. C. Drout proclaimed Software and Freeware, two books in Rudy Ruker's Ware Trilogy, as the weirdest good books you will ever read. Perhaps not surprisingly, Software won the Philip K. Dick award. What was the award, I wonder? Perhaps a year’s supply of speed or tabs of LSD? Reading Rudy Rucker's turbo-injected spinning at the speed of light fiction, I wouldn’t be surprised.
But seriously folks, I suspect more than drugs, what really infuses Rudy’s fiction with its edgy brilliance is his background in advanced mathematics and computer science. And please keep in mind the author has over two dozen novels and other works of fiction and nonfiction to his credit. Fortunately for lovers of SF, Rudy Rucker is still going strong at age seventy-one.
Any reader who enjoys breaking a mental sweat over paradoxes and the metaphysical maze of computational machines, artificial intelligence and the Turing test will have ample material to chew on in the pages of Software. This includes the appearance of a robotic twin for both Cobb and Sta-Hi. Cobb2 can flop and flounder with the best of them; Sta-Hi2 turns out to be the obedient, reliable, hard-working son his dad always wanted. Are these doubles human enhancements or human-deficient?
There’s also Robert Nozick's thought experiment of brain transference: the brain from person A (including all past memories) is placed in the body of person B. After the operation person B thinks he is person A. Is his thinking accurate? Is B entitled to take on the rights and responsibilities of A, including living with A’s wife and children? Such a thought experiment is further complicated in Software. Is Cobb still Cobb when his brain (software) is given a new bopper body (hardware)? Such dilemmas go back to the mind-body problem conceived by such thinkers as René Descartes.
I purposely went light on plot - there’s simply too many freaky chutes and ladders, including a trip to the moon, a brain-drinking party in Florida, a bopper freezer in a Mr. Frostee ice cream truck and enough reefer to keep even Stay-Hi hi.
This is a very good book, a very weird book and a very crazy book. I always wondered if another novel could take the hallucinogenic cake and join PKD’s Dr. Bloodmoney as the strangest, most bizarre, twisted novel I have ever read. For this distinction, Software wins the Glenn C. Russell prize.
Born in 1946, Rudy Rucker is not only an American science fiction author and among the founders of cyberpunk but also an expert in advanced mathematics and computer science.
February 9, 2017
Totally crazy fun. I haven't had this much sheer delight in crazy robot action in ages. The boppers are a blast.
Get this: turn the whole meme of eating brains into a gigantic robot enterprise to upload meat people into imperishable robot bodies, turn the moon into a robot paradise fueled by program evolution, add a serious stoner meat-person to join in the fun up in the moon, and make sure we've got a lot of funny and light and subversive dialogue, and we've got SOFTWARE.
Truly, this is one of those gems that should be a cult classic rocking around in people's mental spaces and cropping up every once in a while in regular conversation.
We're going to Disneyland! (Okay, wait, let's place this in its proper time, shall we? 1982. This is "officially" the start of the cyberpunk movement, but it shares very little in common with Neuromancer. It's more of a 60's stoner movie with crazy philosophizing robots behaving like zombies for people's meat brains for the stuff we hold in 'em, with weird homages to the traditional "human" lifestyle that's more epic comedy than a serious piece of love. Think Asimov's Robots meeting Hunter S. Thompson.)
I love it!
But that's not to say that there isn't some issues with plot or payout at the end of the novel, because there isn't much of that there.
But honestly? I just don't care. Its wild and fun and funny and I'm thrilled because it's only the first of the four in the quadrology. :)
The mark of a good book is sometimes all about how much fun we have; not focusing on silly things like plot. :) This is an idea-lover's book and it's written very well, transporting us away into a hellofafun pot-dream.
Get this: turn the whole meme of eating brains into a gigantic robot enterprise to upload meat people into imperishable robot bodies, turn the moon into a robot paradise fueled by program evolution, add a serious stoner meat-person to join in the fun up in the moon, and make sure we've got a lot of funny and light and subversive dialogue, and we've got SOFTWARE.
Truly, this is one of those gems that should be a cult classic rocking around in people's mental spaces and cropping up every once in a while in regular conversation.
We're going to Disneyland! (Okay, wait, let's place this in its proper time, shall we? 1982. This is "officially" the start of the cyberpunk movement, but it shares very little in common with Neuromancer. It's more of a 60's stoner movie with crazy philosophizing robots behaving like zombies for people's meat brains for the stuff we hold in 'em, with weird homages to the traditional "human" lifestyle that's more epic comedy than a serious piece of love. Think Asimov's Robots meeting Hunter S. Thompson.)
I love it!
But that's not to say that there isn't some issues with plot or payout at the end of the novel, because there isn't much of that there.
But honestly? I just don't care. Its wild and fun and funny and I'm thrilled because it's only the first of the four in the quadrology. :)
The mark of a good book is sometimes all about how much fun we have; not focusing on silly things like plot. :) This is an idea-lover's book and it's written very well, transporting us away into a hellofafun pot-dream.
March 13, 2011
This is one of those books I am surprised more people have not read or at least heard of. This won the first ever Philip K. Dick Award and book two in the series won the award years later. Not that I put all of my stock in awards but whatever will encourage people to read this book I will mention.
Part of me badly wants to rate this book 5 stars but there were a few things that bothered me enough for a final 4 1/2 star rating. I experienced some difficulty starting but once the action kicked in, the difficulty disappeared. I was, and still am, completely confused as to why Sta-Hi was so important to the boppers. Maybe I missed something? And Annie just flat out annoyed me. What was her purpose?
Past these issues, I loved the book. ALL science fiction and cyberpunk fans should give this a chance. Rucker created a disturbingly unique future setting, one full of possibilities, which has me excited to start the next in the series.
I liked the two main characters, Cobb and Sta-Hi (surprisingly enough) and I really loved the ending. More than a few distressing things happened to the characters. Extremely distressing, as in there were live brains involved. My ick factor was near maxed out so bonus points have been provided and you have been warned.
This book is original, even by today's standards, so considering this was written in the early 80's, I think it is important and reflective of the ideas included. Rucker explores some weighty topics, forces his characters to ask some serious questions, to make seriously permanent decisions. I have read few science fiction books that explored what it is to be human so well as this book does by exploring artificial intelligence. By saying I am a mirror, and considering who said that, well, Rucker begins to spell everything out for the reader who wants to look past the surface story of drugs and action.
I want to be a United Cults Minister with a drunkenness subroutine. Stuzzy. I love books with memorable, made-up slang.
Highly recommended.
Part of me badly wants to rate this book 5 stars but there were a few things that bothered me enough for a final 4 1/2 star rating. I experienced some difficulty starting but once the action kicked in, the difficulty disappeared. I was, and still am, completely confused as to why Sta-Hi was so important to the boppers. Maybe I missed something? And Annie just flat out annoyed me. What was her purpose?
Past these issues, I loved the book. ALL science fiction and cyberpunk fans should give this a chance. Rucker created a disturbingly unique future setting, one full of possibilities, which has me excited to start the next in the series.
I liked the two main characters, Cobb and Sta-Hi (surprisingly enough) and I really loved the ending. More than a few distressing things happened to the characters. Extremely distressing, as in there were live brains involved. My ick factor was near maxed out so bonus points have been provided and you have been warned.
This book is original, even by today's standards, so considering this was written in the early 80's, I think it is important and reflective of the ideas included. Rucker explores some weighty topics, forces his characters to ask some serious questions, to make seriously permanent decisions. I have read few science fiction books that explored what it is to be human so well as this book does by exploring artificial intelligence. By saying I am a mirror, and considering who said that, well, Rucker begins to spell everything out for the reader who wants to look past the surface story of drugs and action.
I want to be a United Cults Minister with a drunkenness subroutine. Stuzzy. I love books with memorable, made-up slang.
Highly recommended.
February 27, 2024
The story is generally amusing, but a bit too farcical for my taste. There are some cool bits relating to the digitization of human consciousness its metaphysical ramifications, as well as the development of self-evolving, intelligent robots endowed with free will ("boppers"), but these are generally given superficial treatment in favor of a narrative that's full of rather silly dialogue.
June 30, 2011
Coming to this book again for the first time in about twenty years was interesting because I could hardly remember a thing about it. But having recently aquired it's sequel (Wetware), I thought I'd better go back and read this again to refresh my memory.
I was suprised how light and fluffy it was. Rucker again touches upon some of his favourite themes (the computatability of consciousness, the logical impossibility of a being designing a consciousness equal to one's own - Kurt Godel gets a cameo appearance!) but I thought they were handled in heavy handed, childish and superficial ways. I've seen far more sophisticaed handling of the same ideas elsewhere.
The story itself was entertaining enough but it all seemed a bit pointless. 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.
I was suprised how light and fluffy it was. Rucker again touches upon some of his favourite themes (the computatability of consciousness, the logical impossibility of a being designing a consciousness equal to one's own - Kurt Godel gets a cameo appearance!) but I thought they were handled in heavy handed, childish and superficial ways. I've seen far more sophisticaed handling of the same ideas elsewhere.
The story itself was entertaining enough but it all seemed a bit pointless. 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.
May 22, 2018
"El alma es el software, ¿sabes? El software es lo que cuenta, las costumbres y los recuerdos. El cerebro y el cuerpo son simple carne, semillas para los tanques de órganos."
Estos robots no son como los de Asimov, claro que no. ¡Al diablo Asimov y sus malditas leyes! ¿Obedecer a los humanos? ¡Bah!
Tiene algunas cosas divertidas. Si lo comparo con Carbono modificado, por ejemplo, no le encuentro mucho de cyberpunk. La sociedad no es tan "low life" como cabría esperar. Es un libro de robots que ganó el premio Philip K. Dick allá por el 82.
Todavía estoy masticando la posibilidad de continuar con los demás libros. De momento no va.
Estos robots no son como los de Asimov, claro que no. ¡Al diablo Asimov y sus malditas leyes! ¿Obedecer a los humanos? ¡Bah!
Tiene algunas cosas divertidas. Si lo comparo con Carbono modificado, por ejemplo, no le encuentro mucho de cyberpunk. La sociedad no es tan "low life" como cabría esperar. Es un libro de robots que ganó el premio Philip K. Dick allá por el 82.
Todavía estoy masticando la posibilidad de continuar con los demás libros. De momento no va.
March 31, 2010
Kind of dated, but fun the way I like SF to be. Biggest issue was that all the female characters were brainless bimbos.
March 18, 2017
Re-read of this cyberpunk classic, I read it long before joining goodreads. Great story about sentient robots, old age, transmigration of the soul. All SF fans should give this try, especially if you enjoyed William Gibson's "Neuromancer" or Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash".
October 4, 2012
it's weird to think of this as the beginning of cyberpunk because it's nothing at all like what i think of as cyberpunk. doesn't have any of the noirish elements and nobody's running around inside a computer. this seems more like some underground 60s comic, lotsa zany action and stoned philosophizin', mr. natural in space or something like that. not that i don't like it-- this book is a lot of fun (and i can see why it won the first ever philip k. dick award). it's just that (as with White Light, which i also just read), it has no emotional component. like, at all. it's all just a funny series of events that makes you think about consciousness, maybe. but by the time it was done, i was ready for it to be done. though i imagine i will read the others someday.
February 4, 2015
-Astracanada cybersurrealista.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. Cobb Anderson tiene sesenta años, mala salud, bebe demasiado y un día fue responsable de dar la capacidad a los robots de tener inteligencia y tomar sus propias decisiones, por lo que encabezados por Ralph Números se revelaron y crearon su propia sociedad en la Luna. Cuando su doble robótico se presenta para ofrecerle la inmortalidad viajando a nuestro satélite, conocerá mejor al hijo de su amigo Stan, un taxista traficante y adicto llamado que se hace llamar Sta-Hi y que le acompañará en su viaje a la Luna, donde la sociedad robótica no es nada plácida y tiene sus propios problemas. Primer libro de la tetralogía Ware.
¿Quiere sabre más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. Cobb Anderson tiene sesenta años, mala salud, bebe demasiado y un día fue responsable de dar la capacidad a los robots de tener inteligencia y tomar sus propias decisiones, por lo que encabezados por Ralph Números se revelaron y crearon su propia sociedad en la Luna. Cuando su doble robótico se presenta para ofrecerle la inmortalidad viajando a nuestro satélite, conocerá mejor al hijo de su amigo Stan, un taxista traficante y adicto llamado que se hace llamar Sta-Hi y que le acompañará en su viaje a la Luna, donde la sociedad robótica no es nada plácida y tiene sus propios problemas. Primer libro de la tetralogía Ware.
¿Quiere sabre más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
March 4, 2011
I came to cyberpunk from an interesting vector: I discovered it through Marvel's 2099 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 2010, 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.
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 2010, 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.
March 29, 2019
From my booklog, 12-8-1991: OK+ on reread. Sta-hi vs Mr Frostee! Lots of period California hippie humor, circa 1982. See my note re the 4 WARES for $1! Deal!
May 12, 2015
Hrm... 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.
May 31, 2017
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 2020 (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. The autonomous robots were thereafter banned from Earth and banished to the Moon, where they diligently work on industries/mining that cannot be performed on Earth, subsequently trading their products such as tank-grown replacement human organs, for cash. 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." Unfortunately he becomes a robot remote, not exactly an completely autonomous robot like the boppers - and the entire scheme depends on the boppers preserving his "tape" the program, that is his personality and memories, which are encoded on tape. That means his life depends on a thin sliver of plastic - not terribly permanent, despite the illusion of immortality given that his mind/memories have been transferred into a non-aging robot.
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. There was one particularly hilarious scene when Cobb figures out a sub routine that has been built into him as a robot - what he needs to do to feel drunk (since as a robot, alcoholic beverages don't affect him, nor does he actually require food or drink) and thus "enjoy" himself socially, at parties/dances 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 pre-80s 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.
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." Unfortunately he becomes a robot remote, not exactly an completely autonomous robot like the boppers - and the entire scheme depends on the boppers preserving his "tape" the program, that is his personality and memories, which are encoded on tape. That means his life depends on a thin sliver of plastic - not terribly permanent, despite the illusion of immortality given that his mind/memories have been transferred into a non-aging robot.
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. There was one particularly hilarious scene when Cobb figures out a sub routine that has been built into him as a robot - what he needs to do to feel drunk (since as a robot, alcoholic beverages don't affect him, nor does he actually require food or drink) and thus "enjoy" himself socially, at parties/dances 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 pre-80s 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.
February 29, 2012
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. Delightful!
January 10, 2021
Wow, this is one of the best books I've read in YEARS. Absolutely HYSTERICAL and INSANE. It is EXACTLY my cup of tea. Hilarious dialogue, deep spiritual questions, fast-moving plot, smooth style, fantastic leaps of imagination... so, so good. 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... and then you have:
- gangs that want to eat your brain
- references to an ancient robot rebellion, when robots first achieved consciousness (I LOVED how this was referred to so briefly - it gave the book a rich sense of history... and i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the very first robot, Ralph Numbers, who looks like a filing cabinet on wheels and has to carry around a parasol in order to keep himself cool and protected from the sun! HYSTERICAL)
- a new, current war between robots that live on the moon, some of whom want to fuse into one giant A.I. consciousness (basically, become God) that senses everything, knows everything, and experiences everything, while others who want to retain their individuality
- philosophical questions about identity, bodies, and immortality (I think Westworld kind of ripped this off in some regards) - if the contents of your mind are downloaded into a new body, are you still 'you'? 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.
- gangs that want to eat your brain
- references to an ancient robot rebellion, when robots first achieved consciousness (I LOVED how this was referred to so briefly - it gave the book a rich sense of history... and i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the very first robot, Ralph Numbers, who looks like a filing cabinet on wheels and has to carry around a parasol in order to keep himself cool and protected from the sun! HYSTERICAL)
- a new, current war between robots that live on the moon, some of whom want to fuse into one giant A.I. consciousness (basically, become God) that senses everything, knows everything, and experiences everything, while others who want to retain their individuality
- philosophical questions about identity, bodies, and immortality (I think Westworld kind of ripped this off in some regards) - if the contents of your mind are downloaded into a new body, are you still 'you'? 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.
January 16, 2020
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 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. 3 of 5 stars.
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 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. 3 of 5 stars.
January 21, 2022
Freaky geezers and sentient robots bent on revolution. Fun and weird little cyberpunk world.
Rucker's 1982 slice of weirdness is a quick book that dives right into its world of moon-dwelling robots (boppers) that routinely clone themselves and "feezers" (freaky geezers). Sentience brings division, and some boppers want to absorb/assimilate all other forms of sentient life (machine and human) while others are disinclined to such a Borg-like existence. Those rebellious sorts seek out Cobb Anderson, the inventor of the boppers, in an attempt to stop the "big boppers."
Reading this 40 years after its 1982 publication seems quaint as most of the concepts exist or have been addressed in multiple arenas (literary and technological) since. That "familiarity" makes Rucker's "Software" that much more impressive.
But it's also that fundamental weirdness (the slang alone is particularly maddening) that frequently weighs down cyberpunk and high-fantasy worlds and what that keeps "Software" from being more than a prescient, if seemingly LSD-baked, sci-fi jaunt.
Rucker's 1982 slice of weirdness is a quick book that dives right into its world of moon-dwelling robots (boppers) that routinely clone themselves and "feezers" (freaky geezers). Sentience brings division, and some boppers want to absorb/assimilate all other forms of sentient life (machine and human) while others are disinclined to such a Borg-like existence. Those rebellious sorts seek out Cobb Anderson, the inventor of the boppers, in an attempt to stop the "big boppers."
Reading this 40 years after its 1982 publication seems quaint as most of the concepts exist or have been addressed in multiple arenas (literary and technological) since. That "familiarity" makes Rucker's "Software" that much more impressive.
But it's also that fundamental weirdness (the slang alone is particularly maddening) that frequently weighs down cyberpunk and high-fantasy worlds and what that keeps "Software" from being more than a prescient, if seemingly LSD-baked, sci-fi jaunt.
July 23, 2021
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 after the sonic boom that book one was.
Recommended for fans of humans versus robot/AI SciFi, psychedelia, wandering but fast paced writing, and super fun and ridiculously quirky characters.
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 after the sonic boom that book one was.
Recommended for fans of humans versus robot/AI SciFi, psychedelia, wandering but fast paced writing, and super fun and ridiculously quirky characters.
February 28, 2024
Packed to the brim with HUGE ideas, with a wacky and sometimes hilarious plot. It’s a short, quick read that can be read as a standalone so I recommend picking it up! Excited to continue with the series.
May 10, 2020
3,4 *
October 25, 2021
This book hasn't aged super well, but it was entertaining all the same.
May 10, 2022
When I started this, I only had plans to read the first book of the tetralogy, but I'm intrigued enough to go the whole hog.
On an unrelated, tangential note: I have read *some* arguments for the human experience as software, and the brain/body as hardware (as well as the limitations of that mental model), but this work of fiction does a good job of launching that thought experiment.
I totally recommend.
On an unrelated, tangential note: I have read *some* arguments for the human experience as software, and the brain/body as hardware (as well as the limitations of that mental model), but this work of fiction does a good job of launching that thought experiment.
I totally recommend.
January 22, 2021
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. AIs exist, with robotic bodies, on the moon. They were created by humans, but rebelled. Now, humans still exist on earth while robots have created a civilization in the moon.
You follow Cobb Anderson, the inventor of said AIs, who is now living under constant surveillance due to him "being a traitor to humanity". He's getting older and his death is near. Until he gets an offer he can't refuse from the Moonbots he once saved. Following him will be Stay-High, the junkie son of the cop that checks on Anderson.
In general the premise has some good points and the story hits some interesting notes. HOWEVER, this is one of the most dated books I've read IN A WHILE. And not from a scientific standpoint or anything like that, but from a cultural one. Every single woman character here is a bimbo or approximates one. Definitely they are all blonde. And every time a woman appears either she'll lust towards a character or will be lusted upon. No way around it. It gets really bothersome and, in contrast with Edmund Cooper's "The Expendables" series who had the same issues, the story and/or premise isn't so interesting that it can get away with it.
All in all, it was an ok book to read, even just for historical purposes, but I most probably won't check up anything else in the "Ware" series. Back to William Gibson for me! At least he writes cool and bad ass female characters.
2/5
The story is pretty straightforward. AIs exist, with robotic bodies, on the moon. They were created by humans, but rebelled. Now, humans still exist on earth while robots have created a civilization in the moon.
You follow Cobb Anderson, the inventor of said AIs, who is now living under constant surveillance due to him "being a traitor to humanity". He's getting older and his death is near. Until he gets an offer he can't refuse from the Moonbots he once saved. Following him will be Stay-High, the junkie son of the cop that checks on Anderson.
In general the premise has some good points and the story hits some interesting notes. HOWEVER, this is one of the most dated books I've read IN A WHILE. And not from a scientific standpoint or anything like that, but from a cultural one. Every single woman character here is a bimbo or approximates one. Definitely they are all blonde. And every time a woman appears either she'll lust towards a character or will be lusted upon. No way around it. It gets really bothersome and, in contrast with Edmund Cooper's "The Expendables" series who had the same issues, the story and/or premise isn't so interesting that it can get away with it.
All in all, it was an ok book to read, even just for historical purposes, but I most probably won't check up anything else in the "Ware" series. Back to William Gibson for me! At least he writes cool and bad ass female characters.
2/5
March 14, 2015
Γραμμένο το 1982, δυο χρόνια πριν τον Νευρομάντη του Γουίλιαμ Γκίμπσον, πρόκειται για το πρώτο cyberpunk βιβλίο, βραβευμένο με το Philip K. Dick το 1983!
Τι μπορώ να πω για το βιβλίο αυτό; Ότι είναι παλαβό, ακραίο, παρανοϊκό, τρελό; Είναι όλα αυτά και άλλα πολλά. Γέροι χίπηδες που ζουν στην Καλιφόρνια και κάθε λίγα χρόνια αλλάζουν ανθρώπινα όργανα για καλύτερη λειτουργία. Ρομπότ στην Σελήνη, που ονομάζονται και Σεληνορομπότ, που είναι στα πρόθυρα εμφυλίου πολέμου, αλλά θέλουν να χρησιμοποιήσουν τον ανθρώπινο εγκέφαλο προς όφελός τους, και έτσι κάνουν μαγνητοσκοπήσεις εγκεφάλων, ανοίγουν ανθρώπινα σώματα για να πάρουν όργανα αλλά και τον εγκέφαλο. Εγκέφαλοι που αλλάζουν συνεχώς σώματα, ρομποτικά σώματα, αλλά οι σκέψεις και οι αναμνήσεις δεν αλλάζουν, μόνο το περίβλημα, η θήκη. Μάχες μεταξύ μεγάλων σεληνορομπότ και... Εκσκαφέων.
Ένας χαμός! Αχαλίνωτη φαντασία, τρελές ιδέες που αν στέκουν ή όχι δεν με πολυενδιαφέρει, αμείωτη δράση και ένταση, σκηνές και ατάκες που σου μένουν για καιρό, πολύ καλοί και ενδιαφέροντες χαρακτήρες που τα πρόσωπά και τα σώματά τους... αλλάζουν καμιά φορά, πάρα πολύ καλή γραφή με χιούμορ, γενικά ένα πάρα πολύ καλό βιβλίο που ανήκει σε μια τετραλογία, την Ware. Τα άλλα τρία βιβλία της σειράς δυστυχώς δεν έχουν μεταφραστεί, και ούτε πρόκειται, και όλη η ιστορία είναι τόσο μα τόσο ενδιαφέρουσα, που κάποια στιγμή θα τα διαβάσω στα αγγλικά. Περιττό να πω ότι θα γινόταν μια γαμάτη ταινία, έτσι;
Τι μπορώ να πω για το βιβλίο αυτό; Ότι είναι παλαβό, ακραίο, παρανοϊκό, τρελό; Είναι όλα αυτά και άλλα πολλά. Γέροι χίπηδες που ζουν στην Καλιφόρνια και κάθε λίγα χρόνια αλλάζουν ανθρώπινα όργανα για καλύτερη λειτουργία. Ρομπότ στην Σελήνη, που ονομάζονται και Σεληνορομπότ, που είναι στα πρόθυρα εμφυλίου πολέμου, αλλά θέλουν να χρησιμοποιήσουν τον ανθρώπινο εγκέφαλο προς όφελός τους, και έτσι κάνουν μαγνητοσκοπήσεις εγκεφάλων, ανοίγουν ανθρώπινα σώματα για να πάρουν όργανα αλλά και τον εγκέφαλο. Εγκέφαλοι που αλλάζουν συνεχώς σώματα, ρομποτικά σώματα, αλλά οι σκέψεις και οι αναμνήσεις δεν αλλάζουν, μόνο το περίβλημα, η θήκη. Μάχες μεταξύ μεγάλων σεληνορομπότ και... Εκσκαφέων.
Ένας χαμός! Αχαλίνωτη φαντασία, τρελές ιδέες που αν στέκουν ή όχι δεν με πολυενδιαφέρει, αμείωτη δράση και ένταση, σκηνές και ατάκες που σου μένουν για καιρό, πολύ καλοί και ενδιαφέροντες χαρακτήρες που τα πρόσωπά και τα σώματά τους... αλλάζουν καμιά φορά, πάρα πολύ καλή γραφή με χιούμορ, γενικά ένα πάρα πολύ καλό βιβλίο που ανήκει σε μια τετραλογία, την Ware. Τα άλλα τρία βιβλία της σειράς δυστυχώς δεν έχουν μεταφραστεί, και ούτε πρόκειται, και όλη η ιστορία είναι τόσο μα τόσο ενδιαφέρουσα, που κάποια στιγμή θα τα διαβάσω στα αγγλικά. Περιττό να πω ότι θα γινόταν μια γαμάτη ταινία, έτσι;
August 24, 2015
I'm kinda shocked that I never read this one back in 87. 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.I. with a plausible explanation on how it cane about and with no pesky build in three laws. The civil war between the machines was a nice touch as well.
I'll have to read the sequels at some point.
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.I. with a plausible explanation on how it cane about and with no pesky build in three laws. The civil war between the machines was a nice touch as well.
I'll have to read the sequels at some point.
August 19, 2012
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... we'll see if I make thru them all...
February 26, 2011
This shit is the shit. Stuzzy! Can you wave with it?
June 20, 2020
I read Rucker's 'Ware trilogy back in the 2000'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 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 2020. 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 2000AD (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.
Software is set in that most distant of near-future dates, the alluring year of 2020. 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 2000AD (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.
January 22, 2018
For lovers of New Wave Science Fiction, Cyber-Punk, Post-Modernism, and Transrealism. This novel was the fist to win the PKD award and that's how I came across it (being an a great admirer of PKD). I am a musician and have been working with Transrealism in sound or ways to further the concept. Little did I know that Rudy Rucker originally coined the term. This is just a great discovery and I look forward to reading other books by this author. The novel feels fresh and contemporary even in 2018. Also reminds me of the old computer game "Tass Times in Tone Town". This book is 'very tass'..'very tass indeed'...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 219 reviews