Cobb Anderson created the "boppers," sentient robots that overthrew their human overlords. But now Cobb is just an aging alcoholic waiting to die, and the big boppers are threatening to absorb all of the little boppers—and eventually every human—into a giant, melded consciousness. Some of the little boppers aren't too keen on the idea, and a full-scale robot revolt is underway on the moon (where the boppers live). Meanwhile, bopper Ralph Numbers wants to give Cobb immortality by letting a big bopper slice up his brain and tape his "software." It seems like a good idea to Cobb.

When bopper robots discover a way to infuse DNA wetware with their own software code, a new lifeform results, ensnaring Della Taze and bringing pheezer Cobb Anderson out of cold-storage heaven. Reissue.

Rudy Rucker has seen the future. . .and it is extreme.The Godfather of cyberpunk—a mad scientist bravely meddling in the outrageous and heretical—Rucker created Bopper Robots, who rebelled against human society in his award-winning classic "Software. Now, in 2053, "moldies" are the latest robotic advancement—evolved artificial lifeforms made of soft plastic and gene-tweaked molds and algae, so anatomically inventive and universally despised that their very presence on the planet has thrown the entire low-rent future into a serious tailspin. So the moon is the place to be, if you're a persecuted "moldie" or an enlightened "flesher" intent an creating a new, more utopian hybrid civilization. Of course up there, there are other intergalactic intelligences to contend with—and some not so intelligent—who have their own agendas and appetites. This is scientific fabulation at its most brazenly inventive—funny, cutting-edge and deeply informed. No writer alive puts it all together like Rudy Rucker.Artificial life forms made of soft plastic and gene-tweaked mold and algae, moldies are evolved robots in the year 2053—anatomically inventive and universally despised. In a sleazy, low-rent future, sexual fraternization with moldies is strictly taboo—a societal sin that is of no concern whatsoever to Randy Karl Tucker. A Kentucky boy who has seriously strayed from the Heritagist religion's stern teachings about the evils of artificial life, Randy feels a definite something for Monique, moldie bookkeeper and maid at the Clearlight Terrace Court Motel But Monique1s sudden and inexplicable abduction from the planet—coupled with unsettling revelations about Randy1s own dubiousorigins—is dragging the degenerate flesher and all those around him into an ugly, conspiratorial mess. . .even as it pulls an unsuspecting humanity ever-closer to a stunning encounter with intergalactic intelligence.

This hilarious finale to the award-winning series offers more cutting-edge science, raucous social satire, and deeply informed speculations from one of science fiction's wittiest writers (San Francisco Chronicle).

It starts with Software, where rebel robots bring immortality to their human creator by eating his brain. Software won the first Philip K. Dick Award. In Wetware, the robots decide to start building people­—and people get strung out on an insane new drug called merge. This cyberpunk classic garnered a second Philip K. Dick award. By Freeware, the robots have evolved into soft plastic slugs called moldies­—and some human “cheeseballs” want to have sex with them. The action redoubles when aliens begin arriving in the form of cosmic rays. And with Realware, the humans and robots reach a higher plateau. Includes an introduction by William Gibson.