{"id":14679,"date":"2026-09-23T09:50:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T16:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/?p=14679"},"modified":"2026-09-23T15:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T22:24:11","slug":"armdillocon-2-telepathy-reality-tweaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/23\/armdillocon-2-telepathy-reality-tweaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Armdillocon 2. Telepathy, Filmifying, 25 Pictures."},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s my secone post about Armadillocon. See my much longer Armadillocon 1<\/a> post for more matrial, and for my Austin photos.<\/p>\n

Here’s a\u00a0 one-click link<\/a> to the audio for today’s post. By the way, I’ve just now found a terrific free online Adobe Enhance Speech<\/a> tool that totally cleans up your crappy cell-phone-lying-on-a-table recordings. I used it on the Armadillocon 1 audio as well. Who says the world isn’t getting better?<\/p>\n

I think today’s material is drawn from an opening panel where we talked about the bitrh of cyberpunk.<\/p>\n

I have a big backlog of non-Austin photos, and I\u2019m loading about 25 of them into today’s post. Locations include Venice, Fort Bragg CA, Los Gatos CA, and Madison. Do they dovetail with with the text? Well, as I like to say: a fundamental principle of Surrealism is that everything fits with everything.\u00a0 It’s all one\u00a0 pattern in Hilbert space.<\/p>\n

Some of my recent paintings appear in today’s post. I’ve sold about 110 of them over the years, and would love to sell more —\u00a0 both for reassurance, and to pay for materials.\u00a0 Check out the Rudy’s Paintings<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I keep an eye on the book reviews a little bit, and I noticed there are actually a lot of more people are writing science fiction than used to, and but they don’t call it science fiction anymore. You know, it’s like. It’s like you wouldn’t say you’re writing pornography. You’d say you’re writing erotic fiction or a sensual novel or a book of love say now.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nTattoo parlor in Fort Brtagg. <\/em><\/p>\n

And you don’t say you’re writing science fiction. Instead you say you’re writing something futuristic or speculative, you know, or sttunningly imaginative. A lot of these books will recycle some science fiction idea. We SF writers have a certain number of tropes that are fairly well known among SF readers.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nChinchilla the tattoo parlor lady in For Bragg<\/em><\/p>\n

But suppose somebody hasn’t been reading science fiction, and the first time they encounter an SF trope\u2014let\u2019s say somebody’s somebody’s mind is being transferred into the cloud. And the na\u00efve reader will be, like, oh my god, this author this is such a genius. Yeah. Ahd certaihjly this fine literary author isn\u2019t one of those scuzzy science fiction people.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nBlack\u2019s Beach in Santa Cruz. Sillhouettes with mer-dog<\/em><\/p>\n

Science fiction is a house with many mansions. We’ve got the TV science fiction. We’ve got the movie science fiction. We’ve the literary science fiction. All kinds. So, what\u2019s a new form of SF? Simple move. Write science fiction that is not called science fiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nRudy painting \u201cDancers.\u201d Photo by Dinah Cotton<\/em><\/p>\n

A move that a lot of non-SF authors use is something I call transrealism. I\u2019ve been transreal for over forety years\u00a0 —\u00a0 \u00a0see my 1983 “A Transrealist Manifesto<\/a>.”\u00a0 Transrealism is the idea that you can write science fiction about your own life. It\u2019s can be kind a beatnik thing, writing about yourelf, and you can goose it up with SF tropes. Transrealism. More and more popular.<\/p>\n

One of my heroes as a teen was the SF writer Robert Sheckly. Later I was lucky enough to meet him in person, and hang out with him a bit. At one point the universe smiled on us, and we twp were invited over to Tim Leary\u2019s house talk about a weird science series that Tim wanted to host. What a day! (No, it was never produced.)<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nFourth of July in Sf. \u201cIllegal\u201d fireworks in the Mission<\/em><\/p>\n

Talking to me about writing, Robert once remarked that there are three problems for a writer: how to write, how to finish something, and how to write about yourself. Transrealism is way of writing about yourself. It might be called autofictino, but the idea here is that you put in some science-fictional or “speculative” ideas to amp it up.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMonterey cypresses in Point Reyes park<\/em><\/p>\n

Something odd I\u2019ve noticed in my own experience is that the stange events I stage for my transreal hero have a way of coming true my real life. It’s flat-out synchronicity, and it’s real. Less cryptically, I might say that the transreal SF events in my characters\u2019 lives are symbolic of my real life, and there is an ongoing transfer back and forth.<\/p>\n

As an example, if you write about telepathy, you are, in a way, writing about the deep need for somebody to understand what the fuck you’re talking about. And as you write this, you get better at understanding those around you.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nRudy and Barb in Venice<\/em><\/p>\n

Speaking of telepahy\u2014it\u2019s so very odd that we can communicate at all. I mean, when you\u2019re \u201ctalking,\u201d you\u2019re using an arbitrary system system of grunts and squeals, as Jorge Luis Bores once put it. How is that people menteally replicate your state of mind by listening to your grunts and squeals?<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\u201cOpen the Door,\u201d Barb in Point Reyes. Those rectangles are Belusov-Zhabotinsky cellylar automata, of course.<\/em><\/p>\n

Of if you make scribbles, people can \u201cread\u201d them and know your thoughts? Or you daub colored mud on a cloth and they \u201csee\u201d your mental visions? It’s so amazing that that all this works. Never forget how strange the real world is.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nWith daughter Georgia in Madison WI<\/em><\/p>\n

Moving into SF, we look for ways to make the transreal connection stronger. For instance, can we expand our makeshift system of squeals, scribbles, and mub into a more effective form of telepathy?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My painting #292: Farm Twister.\u00a0 The three empty chairs are my parents and my wife.<\/em><\/p>\n

What if we had some kind of silent thought waves? We\u2019d just lie around, nodding at each other like stoners. \u201cYa, mon, I dig where you\u2019re at.\u201d But, more seriously, how might an SF version of telepathy work?\u00a0In reality there can be, even when sober, a sense that it’s possible. And if you’re a SF writer, you say, okay, I’m going to image how it might be.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

View from plane. Miles hibh Love the shadows of the clouds. What chaos theorists call “Poincare sections.”<\/em><\/p>\n

My standard move for telepathy in my later novels is to use a biotech object that I call an uvvy. “Uvvy” is pronounced as in “lovey-dovey.” A cozy, friendly-sounding word. It\u2019s like a small banana slug. Actually a little smaller than a banana slug, and slightly alive, but, you know, not too<\/em> live;y. You put one on the nape of your neck. They come in different colors, and with individualized patterns.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Young Rudy observes that view and dreams of being a Beatnik Science Fiction Writer.<\/em><\/p>\n

You put the uvvy on the nape your neck, and it picks up on your brainwaves. It doesn\u2019t put tendrils into you. You do not ever<\/em> want to put tendrils into your brain. And above all, you don’t ever<\/strong><\/em> want to put a chip or a biotech device inside your body. If are at all familiar with tech, you know, you know about upgrades.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Barb and Rudy at the fun and funky dance club Poor House Bistro in good ole gets-no-respect San Jose CA.<\/em><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t want a chip inside your head because after awhie it’s going to say: \u201cWell, you have version 2.31, and that build has a critical problem. Come into the lab, and we\u2019ll fix you up with version 3.17. Upgrades are fee. In the future, you\u2019ll want to check in with us every six months or so. And othehrwise we’ll contact you. Thank you for being our partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nWhale City Bakery in Davenport CA. I love this old man.<\/em><\/p>\n

You don’t want the upgrade procedures. And you don’t want tendrils.<\/p>\n

But can the neck-riding uvvy pick up your bain waves well enough? Electromagnetic signals can be faint and fuzzy. Well, we have our hopes pinned on quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics like this magic Genie that SF writers and start-ups like to invoke.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wetlands at Point Reyes park. I adore these kinds of “lop lop” curves. I got that word from Max Ernst’s writing.<\/em><\/p>\n

We do have quantum computation starting to work now, and it\u2019s advancing ratjer drastically jow. But the quantum effect that might help more with telepathy might be quantum entangement, which is something different. Entanglemen has to do with the notion of separated physical systems might be locked in harmony. Perfect for long-range signalling, right? I used it in: Postsingualr, Million Mile Roadtrip, Juicy Ghosts, Sqinks.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not that I really know what I\u2019m talking about. I do<\/em> knonw some science, but really I’m just an SF writer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The simplistic notion about quantum entanglement is that you\u00a0 get deeply in sync with someone. And then when you think this thing here, the thought might also over t\u00a0 here. In the other person’s head.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned before, we do sometimes get flashes of this. When you’re with somebody you know\u00a0 very well. Like a lover, or an old friend, or a family member. Could be that you’re just reading their micro expressions or picking up their pheromones. But sometimes you really do get this vibe of knowing where they’re at.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\u201cMaze\u201d With cartoon flies looking for something icky in the basement.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that the mind-meld type of\u00a0 contact seems more likely to happen when you\u2019re physically face to face with a person. Online Zoom hookups feel way flatter. But of course this might be from the lo-fidelity of our remote video tech.\u00a0 But there’s a sense that you’re more likely to enjoy a full quantum-entanglement with somenoe who’s physically present.<\/p>\n

The contack couple possibly be enhanced by the fact that you’ve just been eating or drinking the same things. I think it was John Updike who remarked that if you live with someone for sevaral years, you are eventually made of more or less the same batches of\u00a0 molecules. And, who knows, that might have something to do with quantum entanglement.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMy art show at Los Gatos Coffee Roasting. Reminder: you can buy my originals at Rudy’s Paintings<\/a> page.<\/em><\/p>\n

I do happen to think that pheromones are very important. When you find somebody and you\u2019re subconsciously deciding whether to fall in love with them or not, it’s could have to do with the simple fact that certain long, floating molecules from one person are fitting into certain cellular receptors in the other person’s nose.<\/p>\n

“I like how you smell.”<\/p>\n

Never forget that we are not<\/em> just lifebox data patterns of neuronal connections that can be stored in the cloud. We are physical bodies, with all that entails.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You\u00a0 meet someone, and date’s pheromones fit into your receptor sites and you’re all, OH <\/em>yeah.<\/p>\n

And maybe it\u2019s not just a matter of drifting molecules. Maybe there\u2019s this quantum field aura that glows from your brain. A field of muli-dimensional Hlbert space wave-funcntion energies, as I like to say. Some very complicated phenomenon which we don\u2019t even begin to understand.<\/p>\n

Keep mind, after all, that we\u2019ve only been doing science for, like, two hunderd years. A small span against the million or so years that higher forms of life on Earth have existed!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of my first photos with my new Pixel 11. Un-fucking-believable.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, yes, we\u2019re far from being able to to manipulate\u00a0 or measure our brain waves, whether electromagnetic or quantum mechanical.\u00a0 But we know they\u2019re there. So sure, telepathy can happen.<\/p>\n

As an example of drastically rapidly we’re advancing, just think of cell phones. If out of the blue you had seen a few of them in 1890, you might already have said we had telepathy.<\/p>\n

Like, you’re standing on a hill, holding a little box, and somebody on the other side of the country is holding a little box, and you’re talking to them? And you’d be like, how can this be? This is telepathy!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Painter that I am, I individualize my phone cases. It cuts my chances of losing my phone on any given day from about 10% to 3%.<\/em><\/p>\n

I remember when cellular phones were first coming, and I had this feeling they’re too complicated, and I was at the airport and I aw a very average guy in a business suie holding his phone to his head, like a kid with a toy, and I’m, like, “I can use one of these, too! It’s not that hard.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bull kelp at Fort Bragg. I ;ove to whip the beach with these things.\u00a0 While singing Neal Young’s song, “Guess I won’t be goin’ to <\/em>Woodstock for awhile.” With the whip hitting the sand on the beat. No reason. It’s just fun.<\/em><\/p>\n

So? I think we’re going to get real telepathy in in our real life, not so far away. And that’s going to make a difference. I mean, look how much smart phones have changed the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Very briefly, one other thing. I like how AI, can generate pictures and now videos. And here then, we\u2019ve got the solution to a perennial problem. Every science fiction writer has the Hollywood dream that some day they\u2019ll make, a movie out of out of their book, and everything’s going to be just rosy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Look what the appearance of his movie Bladerunner <\/em>did for Phil Dick! He died?<\/p>\n

But seriously, I would say that it\u2019ll happen for all of us in 60 years, or maybe sooner. It’d be\u00a0 easy to take a novel and turn it into a feature-length movie. With really good rendering thaat’s completely realistic if you like. And the plot can either tweaked by the AI, or not…you an adjust this. That is, your novel becomes like sheet of music that is being played.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAt a Fort Bragg club<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And of course if that\u2019s the only way you can get your movie made, poeople might cluck and say, oh, he’s a self-producer. Or maybe not. Maybe the craft of making the conversion will be a thing.\u00a0 Like engineering\u00a0 prompts.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be really interesting when any book in the world can be a movie. An SF concept to explore.<\/p>\n

People really don’t read as much as they used to, right? But they\u2019ll be “reading” via their custom AI-made movies.<\/p>\n

Filmifying.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sooner than you think. Where the world snake bites it’s tail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s my secone post about Armadillocon. See my much longer Armadillocon 1 post for more matrial, and for my Austin photos. Here’s a\u00a0 one-click link to the audio for today’s post. By the way, I’ve just now found a terrific free online Adobe Enhance Speech tool that totally cleans up your crappy cell-phone-lying-on-a-table recordings. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14679"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14695,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14679\/revisions\/14695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}