The Six Thousand

Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (born March 22, 1946 in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American computer scientist and science fiction author, 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. Rucker often uses his novels to explore scientific or mathematical ideas. His recent non-fiction book is "The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul." (Source: wikipedia.)