imipolex in *The Hacker and the Ants*

[Timothy C. May]

Jody Keith Gilbert wrote:
> 
> 
> I just finished reading Rudy Rucker's fun scifi novel *The Hacker and
> the Ants*.  In it, some artificial-life ants are in part composed of
> the plastic imipolex.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rudy hangs out in several of the same circles I hang out in (*), and told
me he patterned one of the characters after me--I'm still not sure
which one, or if I should be honored or insulted.

(* -- the Hackers Conference every year, the Cypherpunks group,
friends of Robert Anton Wilson fnord, Artificial Life, and general Bay
Area/Silicon Valley gatherings....the same circles intersect over and
over again)

I think the relevant section is:

"In the Valley these days, phreaks were youths who cobbled together
their own approximation of a decent cyberspace deck and used it for
weird cyberspace pranks. Cryps were phreaks who'd turned professional
and gone into the employ of companies involved in industrial
espionage...

"Trevor Sinclair of GoMotion was a cryp and I like him a lot, but in
principle, I didn't like phreaks and cryps....The airs that some
cryps gave themselves annoyed me as well--they acted so hip and smart
about their stolen information and often they didn't understand any of
it all. Now that the ants had whipped my system to shit, I liked
phreaks and cryps less than ever."

[p. 90]

Well, I guess I'm mostly supposed to be Trevor.

Rucker is a big fan of Pynchon, as the Imipolex reference would
suggest. (I think this has been mentioned, but several writers use
this as their general-purpose futuristic/mystical quantity, much as
"Buckaroo Banzai" (the movie of 6-8 years back) used "YoYoDyne
Corporation.") 

Much of "The Hacker and the Ants" is set in Silicon Valley, and my
town of Santa Cruz gets a lot of references as well. I don't know if
Rucker ever met Pynchon when he lived in this area...maybe I'll ask
him next time I see him. 

--Tim May


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | "I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of
tcmay at netcom.com       | of a militia group."
Corralitos, CA         |  --Tim May's statement before the 1995 Hearings
                       |    of the House Un-American Activities Committee