R. U. Sirius (born Ken Goffman in 1952) is an American writer, editor, talk show host, musician and

cyberculture Internet culture refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet (also known as netizens) who primarily communicate with one another as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence ...

celebrity. He is best known as co-founder of ''

Mondo 2000 ''Mondo 2000'' was a glossy cyberculture magazine published in California during the 1980s and 1990s. It covered cyberpunk topics such as virtual reality and smart drugs. It was a more anarchic and subversive prototype for the later-founded ''W ...

'' magazine and its original editor-in-chief from 1989 to 1993. Sirius has written for ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'' and ''

Wired News ''Wired'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in publication since its l ...

'', ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...

'', ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

'', ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'' and many other publications.

Activities

1980s

From 1984 onward, Sirius edited a

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

magazine that started as ''High Frontiers'' with a focus on

recreational drug use Recreational drug use is the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness, either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime. When a psychoactive drug enters the user's body, it induces an Sub ...

. In 1988 it was renamed ''Reality Hackers'' to reflect increased content about digital culture issues. The following year it became ''Mondo 2000''.

1990s

Sirius left ''Mondo 2000'' in 1993, and the magazine folded in 1998 after 17 issues. In 1993, Sirius was quoted in ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'' magazine about the internet and its future. This July 1993 piece, ''The Whole World is Talking'', was ''The Nation''s first article about the internet. Sirius recruited

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound". Accordin ...

to be a contributing editor for ''Mondo 2000'' and taught an online course in Leary's philosophy for the Maybe Logic Academy. He co-authored Leary's last book, ''Design for Dying'' (1998), and wrote the introduction for a 1998 edition of Leary's 1968 book ''The Politics of Ecstasy''. Sirius appeared in the films ''

Synthetic Pleasures ''Synthetic Pleasures'' (1996) is a documentary film by Iara Lee that explores the implications of virtual reality, digital and biotechnology, plastic surgery and mood-altering drugs. Reception The film has a 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, base ...

'' (1995) and ''

Conceiving Ada ''Conceiving Ada'' is a 1997 film produced, written, and directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson. Henry S. Rosenthal was co-producer of the film. Synopsis Emmy Coer is a computer scientist obsessed with Countess Ada Lovelace, author of the first comput ...

'' (1997). His mid-1990s techno-rock band Mondo Vanilli recorded an unreleased CD titled ''IOU Babe'' for

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. T ...

's Nothing Records. The music is available on Bandcam
IOU Babe, by Mondo Vanilli
Sirius spoke at many events, such as the

Starwood Festival The Starwood Festival is a seven-day New Age Modern paganism, neopagan and world music festival. It takes place every July in the United States. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops on a variety of subjects. There are ...

br>
He delivered the second Keynote address for the Virtual Reality conference, Oslo VR, in 1994.

2000s

Sirius was chairman and candidate in the U.S. presidential election, 2000, 2000 U.S. presidential election for the Revolution Party. The party's 20-point platform was a hybrid of

libertarianism Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according t ...

and

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

. During the 2000s Sirius published four books. In 2005 he began hosting two weekly

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

s, the ''RU Sirius Show'' and ''NeoFiles''. Both went on unannounced hiatus in August 2007 because their financial backer withdrew his support. In September 2006 Sirius helped launch the webzine ''

10 Zen Monkeys 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

'' with fellow GettingIt.com alumni

Jeff Diehl Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

and

Lou Cabron Lou may refer to: __NOTOC__ Personal name * Lou (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Lou (German singer) *Lou (French singer) * Lou (surname 娄), the 229th most common surname in China * Lou (surname 楼), the 269th most common ...

. From October 2008 to May 2010, Sirius was head editor of the

transhumanist Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the human enhancement, enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cogni ...

magazine ''H+ Magazine''. He then turned his attention to a project documenting the history of ''Mondo 2000''.

2010s

From June 2011 to November 2012, R. U. Sirius ran ''Acceler8or'', a counterculture, Singularitarian/Transhumanist website. ''Mondo 2000'' was briefly relaunched online in 2017.

Media editorships

* ''High Frontiers''. 1984-1988. * ''Reality Hackers''. 1988-1989. * ''Mondo 2000''. 1989–1993. * ''Axcess''. 1998. * ''GettingIt.com''. 1999–2000. * ''RU Sirius Show''. 2005–2007. * ''NeoFiles''. 2005–2007. * ''H+ Magazine''. 2008–2010. * ''Acceler8or''. 2011–2012.

Bibliography

Books

* ''Transcendence: The Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity.'' (2015) (with

Jay Cornell Jays are a paraphyletic grouping of passerine birds within the family Corvidae. Although the term "jay" carries no taxonomic weight, most or all of the birds referred to as jays share a few similarities: they are small to medium-sized, usually ...

). Disinformation Books. . * ''Everybody Must Get Stoned. Rock Stars On Drugs.'' (2009). Citadel. . * ''True Mutations''. (2007) Pollinator Press. . * ''Counterculture Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House''. (2004) Villard Books. . * ''The Revolution: Quotations From Revolution Party Chairman R. U. Sirius''. (2000) Feral House. . * ''21st Century Revolutionary: R. U. Sirius 1984–1998''. (1999) Fringecore . * ''Design for Dying''. (1998) (with

)

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

. . * ''How to Mutate & Take Over the World: an Exploded Post-Novel''. (1997) (with

St. Jude Jude the Apostle (Ancient Greek: Ἰούδας Ἰακώβου translit. Ioúdas Iakóbou Syriac/Aramaic: ܝܗܘܕܐ translit. Yahwada) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is generally identified as Tha ...

)

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

. . * ''Cyberpunk Handbook: The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook''. (1995) (with

and

Bart Nagel Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...

) Random House. . * ''Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge''. (1992) (editor with

Rudy Rucker Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known f ...

& Queen Mu) Harperperennial Library. .

Articles

Steal This Millennium
With Stew Albert.

Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive and liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, includ ...

, October 19, 2000.
The RU Sirius Show
an
NeoFiles
80-odd podcast interviews, and counting. (With co-hosts including Sherry Miller, Diana Brown, Steve Robles and producer Jeff Diehl.)
"Todd Brendan Fahey and His Acid-Laden Writing Style"

References

External links

* *
R.U. Sirius at Discogs

R.U. Sirius Radio
*
Sirius' weblog at 10ZenMonkeys.com

"Yes, We Are: An Interview with RU Sirius", May 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sirius, R.U. 1952 births American columnists American male journalists American libertarians American magazine editors American online publication editors American talk radio hosts American psychedelic drug advocates Living people American transhumanists