Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge

by Rucker Rudy

An introduction to the coming revolution in art, technology, media, chemistry, science, and music discusses amino chemistry, manotechnology, high-tech paganism, teledildonics, and more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cyberpunk, Technology, Cultural, Art Design, Philosophy

317 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Paul H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

In retrospect, probably not a book that I should have read at age 11 (?!); I had never seen anything like it, and I still credit Mondo 2000 with introducing me to a ton of things -- psychedelics, hacker culture, etc. Obviously amazingly dated now, but still worth reading.

[Jeffrey Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, a guide to the cutting edge of technology, is 25 years old this year. So...not so much cutting edge, but in places really cute. When they take a couple of paragraphs to explain this whole e-mail thing that no one had ever heard of, or when they spend a couple of pages doting on the rise of this new CD-ROM thingy and what it will mean for the tech world this book is, at best, quaint. But you have to remember this book appeared a whole year before Myst became the killer app for CD-ROM tech in the desktop. It also appeared a full year before DOOM. So, no talk of shareware here, but a few pages on the Electronic Freedom Foundation. Overall where this remains relevant is more in the attitude and the emerging philosophy towards what the new tech can do for us. Sadly Mondo 2000 ceased publishing long before the really cool stuff stgarted emerging. And to take its place we got Wired magazine. So is it any wonder we are more slaves to our tech than the other way around? Our guide vanished, done in by magazines for tech that do little more than fawn over the latest hardware and obsequiously kow-tow and praise the lates version of Windows and Office and fawn over Google and You Tube. Although Google has produced some cool ideas most of them have vanished into the ether by now. We've lost our way and instead of think pieces on how we can best use the tech we have we now allow it to overtake our lives and wilingly invite merchants into our deepest data archives to gather and collate our spending, reading, sleeping, eating and other habits for their benefit. The revolution will not be televised but it will be advertised and there is plenty of merch out there to show the world you are the rebel instead of the sheep. Yeah. When we need the likes of R.U. Sirius, Queeen Mu and Rudy Rucker to point the way, when we feel the absence of Timothy Leary Marshall Mcluhan and Buckminster Fuller and we need help and guidance and rebels to point the way we can just turn to thinkgeek.com to guide us and allow our inner geeks to be hijacked to the higher purpose of selling out and merchandising. I would suggest we all should have a look at this book and maybe a few others that try to free our minds. We need critical thinking in our leaders. Good book.

[Angela Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A research book for my 90's blog: Damn The Man, Save The Empire! at http://co-optingthe90s.blogspot.com/

This was a weird ride through 'alt-culture' in the 90's. Very cool stuff for the clove-smokin', NIN-listening, goth freak kid inside of you.

[Calciferocious]

the future was supposed to be cool, goddamn it.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've actually been reading this on and off for 5 or 6 years but I finished today (7/1/07). It really was fun. It has just about everything out of the mainstream included. Since it was written in 1992 the technology stuff is actually almost funny (talking about this new CD technology) and I'm sure much of the rest of it is out of date but still interesting. Would probably be really cool to read this and then read something simillar but current to see how things have changed and what predictions came true and which ones were completely off.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the year of its publication and the fledgling nature of the internet as it was back then, much of the content appeals primarily to young men. This is neither good nor bad; it simply is what it *was*. Many who've read and enjoyed this book engage in hopeful speculation that one day R. U. Sirius will publish an updated sequel.

[Hali · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you play a tabletop RPG, you sometimes get a bunch of supplemental material with it. This could include maps of the world you're in, bios of NPCs (non-player characters), descriptions of monsters, and the like. That is what this reads like. It wouldn't be out of place alongside a cyberpunk tabletop game - but reading it on its own feels shallow and silly.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know when I'm at my geekiest and silliest? That's what this book is like. Loads of fun, and filled with predictions of the future, both sublime and ridiculous. This directly pre-dates Wired magazine.

[Darkness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Embraced the "cyberpunk" movement. Defined it in a manual; Rucker and company even invented 'hypertext' before the internet had pictures and renamed in the 'hyperlink'. This is the roots of tech culture; the real street level, real world embracing of tech as a way of life.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notable interviews with Kathy Acker + Avital Ronell.