One of the nice things about science fiction is that it lets us carry out thought experiments.

Career
Rucker taught at the State University of New York at Geneseo from 1972–1978. Thanks to a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Rucker taught math at the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg from 1978–1980. Many of Rucker's novels and short stories apply these ideas.

Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (born March 22 1946) is an American mathematician computer scientist science fiction author and philosopher and is one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction he is best known for the novels in the Ware Tetralogy the first two of which (Software and Wetware) both won Philip K. Dick Awards.