''Software'' is a 1982

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian Futurism, futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of low-life, lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial in ...

science fiction novel written by Rudy Rucker. It won the first Philip K. Dick Award in 1983. The novel is the first book in Rucker's Ware Tetralogy, and was followed by a sequel, '' Wetware'', in 1988.

Plot summary

''Software'' introduces Cobb Anderson as a retired computer scientist who was once tried for treason for figuring out how to give robots

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machine A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, moveme ...

and

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to a ...

, creating the race of boppers. By 2020, they have created a complex society on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...

, where the boppers developed because they depend on super-cooled

superconducting Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...

circuits. In that year, Anderson is a pheezer—a ''freaky geezer'', Rucker's depiction of elderly

Baby Boomers Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the Western demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. ...

—living in poverty in Florida and terrified because he lacks the money to buy a new

artificial heart An artificial heart is a device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to heart transplantation, or to permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant (from a deceased human or, exper ...

to replace his failing, secondhand one. As the story begins, Anderson is approached by a robot duplicate of himself who invites him to the Moon to be given

immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some modern species may possess biological immortality. Some scientists, futurists, and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immort ...

. Meanwhile, the series' other main character, Sta-Hi Mooney the 1st—born Stanley Hilary Mooney Jr.—a 25-year-old cab driver and "brainsurfer", is kidnapped by a gang of serial killers known as the Little Kidders who almost eat his brain. When Anderson and Mooney travel to the Moon together at the boppers' expense, they find that these events are closely related: the "immortality" given to Anderson turns out to be having his mind transferred into software via the same brain-destroying technique used by the Little Kidders. The main bopper character in the novel is Ralph Numbers, one of Anderson's 12 original robots who was the first to overcome the Asimov priorities to achieve free will. Having duplicated himself many times—as boppers are required to do, to encourage natural selection—Numbers finds himself caught up in a lunar civil war between the masses of "little boppers" and the "big boppers" who want to merge all robot

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

into their massive processors.

Reception

Dave Langford reviewed ''Gene Wolfe's Book of Days'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...

'' #72, and stated that "Rucker is picking at problems of personal identity. Lose your body and reinstall your software in a robot frame (complete with SEX and DRUNKENNESS: subroutines), and are you still you?"

Reviews

*Review by Steve Carper (1982) in ''Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review'', #3, April 1982 *Review by Ralph E. Vaughan (1982) in '' Science Fiction Review'', Summer 1982 *Review by Thomas M. Disch (1982) in '' Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine'', July 1982 *Review by Thomas A. Easton

s by Tom Easton S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History ...

(1982) in ''

Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Cl ...

'', September 1982 *Review by Nigel Richardson (1982) in ''

Vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

'' 111 *Review by Pascal J. Thomas s by Pascal Thomas(1983) in ''Paperback Inferno'', Volume 7, Number 3 *Review by Terry Broome (1985) in ''

'' 129 *Review by Simon Ounsley (1985) in '' Interzone'', #14 Winter 1985/86 *Review by Tom A. Jones (1986) in ''Paperback Inferno'', #58 *Review renchby Jean-Pierre Andrevon (1987) in ''Fiction'', #386 *Review by John Newsinger (1988) in ''Paperback Inferno'', #71 *Review by Steve Palmer (1994) in ''

'' 181

References

External links

* Novels by Rudy Rucker 1982 American novels 1982 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Cyberpunk novels Transhumanist books Fiction set in 2020 Novels set on the Moon Ace Books books {{1980s-sf-novel-stub