Comments on: Synthetic Biology

By: Rudy

Rudy — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:14:01 +0000

Hi Steeven. Yes, I was indeed thinking of Thurber when I did that last drawing in particular. Going beyond realism to hieroglyphism. It’s like…you can draw people even if you “can’t.”

The guy, in HACKER AND THE ANTS, Riscky Pharbeque, isn’t modelled on Jaron Lanier, no—he’s more an image of what one of my Virginia hippie friends might have been like if he’d been a Silicon Valley hacker. Or maybe he’s a Texan, I got the name from a restaurant in Fort Worth called, I think, Riscky’s Barbeque.

By: Steeven Land-Ree

Steeven Land-Ree — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:26:17 +0000

Hi Rudy, I’m pleased to tell you that my local library in Austin has been offering your later books for borrowing. Also wanted to congratulate you for being the only human channeling James Thurber on a blog. The DNA spitting human virus illustration above gives new meaning to the term “Thurber-esque”. I found a copy of The Hacker and The Ants at the used bookstore and am in the middle of it right now. I’ll let you know how it turns out BTW is the dreadlocked guy who accosts Rugby at the gates of Meta Meta with the minicowbot in any way shape or form intended to be implied as a generic representation of Jaron Lanier? LOL

Thanks for the gooey words. SL

By: Steve H

Steve H — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:56:05 +0000

emilio, it might be Darwinian anyway. If you could have hands growing out of your ears and a prehensile tail along with green skin and eyes that pop out on stalks, it might be that women would run screaming away instead of passing on your genes.

By: emilio

emilio — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:26:57 +0000

great stuff, as usual. sometimes I just want to look at the pictures.

you say, “perhaps [we will end up] accelerating the pace of evolution in a benign way.” I wonder if you can really call this evolution, because it is not clear that it will be carried in the genome, or that we would want it to be.