Rating: 
Summary: One of the worst books I've ever decided not to finish.
Review:
I've been exploring cyberpunk fiction partly to prep for a "cyberculture" course I'm teaching next year. Unfortunately The Hacker and the Ants has not inspired me. This book is written in such a juvenile style that it appears to be directed at the 13-year-old boy market. It's definitely not something I'd expect college students to read, and I decided not to waste my time finishing it up.
What a disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Berkeley Math Prof blows your mind instead of your mail!
Review: By day a mild-mannered professor of mathematics at UC Berkeley,Rudy obviously has other things on his mind at night. Usinghis insider's knowledge of life in America's 'code factories' he builds this funny story of an Artificial Life experiment gone amiss that is almost equal measures of muff-diving and code-writing. Little cyber-ants are used by a greedy Bill- Gates-esque Code Baron to evolve robots that can evolve themselves via a unsuspecting software writer who gets screwed in the process. Humorous, saavy, sexy, wildly imaginative and iconoclastic. Rather rude stuff from a professor.
Rating: 
Summary: Very enjoyable
Review: I'll start by saying what's wrong with this book. Rucker must have had a really bad marriage as he uses his wife in his books rather negatively. But even with this he writes a fantastic book. I can look at the technology that he describes and almost see it in use today. No magic but solid tech. And the story fits so well with the genre of both cyberpunk and today's news. I really wish this book was in print for others to read.
Rating:
Summary: Eclectic Cool...
Review: I'm a big fan of Rucker's books and this was no exception. Hacker tells the tale of a programmer stumbling headlong into a new (artificial) lifeforms' evolutionary struggle. The concept may sound familiar to many cyber-punk fans, but Rucker adds his own eclectic style to make a real page turner. It may not be up to the level of some of his later works, but its definitely worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: Some real science fiction
Review: Intelligent computers that run mega-corporations. Cyberjockeys that are being blackmailed into stealing something from them. The gangs that populate the overcrowded metropolis. Some weird notions of what cyberspace is going to be in ten years. When you're
finally fed up with them all, pick up "The Hacker and the Ants" and read it. There's a fiction book with some real science, from someone who knows what he's talking about and shows it.
Rating:
Summary: Wacky & fun book
Review: It's a fun book to read, with believable technology (i.e. Virtual Reality "construction"). It's light hearted yet gives you something to think about, a pretty cool combo!
Rating:
Summary: This is REAL cyberpunk!
Review: Okay, maybe Gibson has more style (whatever that means) but
Rucker's got the technical know-how. What a surprise - a
c-punk writer who actually understands what he's writing
about! Oh yeah, and it's a great story, too.
Rating:
Summary: Predeliction for prediction
Review: Only four years ago an artificial intelligence engineer and an evolutionary biologist collaborated on a speculation of how computers and humanity will combine, becoming thinking robots. Beyond Humanity:CyberEvolution and Future Minds was met with a fanfare of resounding silence. Well done with strong evidence and good presentation, the book challenged traditional thinking about the separation of machines and humanity. It should have gained greater notice than it did. A pity, for this book should have raised immense discussion.Now, Rudy Rucker has turned the same ideas into a speculative fiction account of a programmer ['hacker'] using evolutionary processes to make robotic creatures biological. As with all evolutionary processes, his program gets out of hand and the creatures run amok, out of control. Only another robotic biological is capable of dealing with them. If Rucker ever produced 'his best book' this is the one that qualifies. Many of his other works are loaded with a sloppy kind of mysticism that seems horribly inconsistent with his profession as a mathematics professor. This book seems to merge an audited biology course with his math skills in producing a plausible scenario of the future. That he makes this future so near makes the book even more compelling. Having railed against 'WHITE LIGHT' and SAUCER WISDOM, it was gratifying to find a work of his that tends to redeem his worth as a novelist. The writing, as always, falls below the worth of his concepts. Still the book made an entertaining afternoon. If you haven't the patience or courage to confront BEYOND HUMANITY, you might try this as an introduction to the possibilities of artificial intelligence.
Rating:
Summary: Predeliction for prediction
Review: Only four years ago an artificial intelligence engineer and an evolutionary biologist collaborated on a speculation of how computers and humanity will combine, becoming thinking robots. Beyond Humanity:CyberEvolution and Future Minds was met with a fanfare of resounding silence. Well done with strong evidence and good presentation, the book challenged traditional thinking about the separation of machines and humanity. It should have gained greater notice than it did. A pity, for this book should have raised immense discussion. Now, Rudy Rucker has turned the same ideas into a speculative fiction account of a programmer ['hacker'] using evolutionary processes to make robotic creatures biological. As with all evolutionary processes, his program gets out of hand and the creatures run amok, out of control. Only another robotic biological is capable of dealing with them. If Rucker ever produced 'his best book' this is the one that qualifies. Many of his other works are loaded with a sloppy kind of mysticism that seems horribly inconsistent with his profession as a mathematics professor. This book seems to merge an audited biology course with his math skills in producing a plausible scenario of the future. That he makes this future so near makes the book even more compelling. Having railed against 'WHITE LIGHT' and SAUCER WISDOM, it was gratifying to find a work of his that tends to redeem his worth as a novelist. The writing, as always, falls below the worth of his concepts. Still the book made an entertaining afternoon. If you haven't the patience or courage to confront BEYOND HUMANITY, you might try this as an introduction to the possibilities of artificial intelligence.
Rating:
Summary: For one who hates Cyberpunk, I love this book
Review: Stated simply: 99% of the time, I dislike cyberpunk. It tends to overexagerate and overestimate the future of humankind, ignoring current facts and trends... this book is totally different. Rucker really knows it's way arround computers and cyberculture. Jerzy Rugby, programmer, is involved in the creation and design of a new robot for massmarket. The product has to be alive, or better stated, A-life. In the process a special kind of ant is created, a cyber-ant, one that lives only IN the computer, and it's very very alive. You may be guessing the ants are troublesome and are going to get loose. What you are not going to guess is the rest of the plot...
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