R. U. Sirius (born Ken Goffman in 1952) is an American writer, editor, talk show host, musician and

cyberculture Internet culture is a culture based on the many way people have used computer networks and their use for communication, entertainment, business, and recreation. Some features of Internet culture include online communities, gaming, and social media ...

celebrity. He is best known as co-founder and original editor-in-chief of ''

Mondo 2000 ''Mondo 2000'' was a glossy cyberculture magazine published in California during the 1980s and 1990s. It covered cyberpunk topics such as virtual reality and smart drugs. It was a more anarchic and subversive prototype for the later-founded ''Wi ...

'' magazine from 1989 to 1993. Before that he founded and edited the magazines ''High Frontiers'' and ''Reality Hackers''. Sirius was chairman and candidate in the

2000 U.S. presidential election The 2000 United States presidential election was the 54th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Republican candidate George W. Bush, the governor of Texas and eldest son of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush ...

for the Revolution Party. The party's 20-point platform was a hybrid of

libertarianism Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

and

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

. At one time, he was a regular columnist for ''

Wired News ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fran ...

'' and ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'', and contributing writer for ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

'' and ''Artforum International''. He's also written for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' and other publications. Sirius has written several hundred articles and essays for mainstream and subculture publications. He was editor-in-chief of '' Axcess'' magazine in 1998, GettingIt.com 1999–2000, and ''H+ Magazine'' 2008–2010.

Activities

1990s

In 1993 R.U. Sirius was quoted in ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'' magazine about the internet and its future. This July 1993 piece, ''The Whole World is Talking'', was ''The Nation''s first article about the internet. Sirius recruited

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...

to be a contributing editor for ''Mondo 2000'' and has taught an online course in Leary's philosophy for the Maybe Logic Academy. He co-authored Leary's last book, ''Design for Dying'' (1998), and wrote the introduction for a 1998 edition of Leary's 1968 book ''The Politics of Ecstasy''. Sirius appeared in the films '' Synthetic Pleasures'' (1995) and ''

Conceiving Ada ''Conceiving Ada'' is a 1997 film produced, written, and directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson. Henry S. Rosenthal was co-producer of the film. The cinematography was by Hiro Narita and Bill Zarchy. Synopsis Emmy Coer is a computer scientist obsessed ...

'' (1997). His mid-1990s techno-rock band Mondo Vanilli recorded an unreleased CD titled ''IOU Babe'' for

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...

's Nothing Records. The music was available on the internet for several years and is currently available on bandcam
IOU Babe, by Mondo Vanilli
Sirius has been a speaker at many events, such as the

Starwood Festival The Starwood Festival is a seven-day Neo-Pagan, New Age, multi-cultural and world music festival, taking place every July in the United States of America. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops on a variety of subjects. Th ...

br>
He delivered the second Keynote address for the Virtual Reality conference, Oslo VR, in 1994.

2000s

During the 2000s Sirius published four books. In 2005 he began hosting two weekly

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

s, the ''RU Sirius Show'' and ''NeoFiles''. Both went on unannounced hiatus in August 2007 because their financial backer withdrew his support. In September 2006 Sirius helped launch the webzine ''

10 Zen Monkeys 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

'' with fellow GettingIt.com alumni

Jeff Diehl Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

and

Lou Cabron Lou may refer to: __NOTOC__ Personal name * Lou (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lou (German singer) * Lou (French singer) * Lou (surname 娄), the 229th most common surname in China * Lou (surname 楼), the 269th most co ...

. All these projects were part of a media network named MondoGlobo. From October 2008 to May 2010, Sirius was head editor of the

transhumanist Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Transhuma ...

magazine ''H+ Magazine''. He then turned his attention to a project documenting the history of ''Mondo 2000''.

2010s

On June 7, 2011, R. U. Sirius launched ''Acceler8or'' a counter-culture, Singularitarian/Transhumanist website. It went on hiatus in November 2012. Mondo 2000 was relaunched online in 2017.

Bibliography

Books

* ''Transcendence: The Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity.'' (2015) (with

Jay Cornell A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasia ...

). Disinformation Books. . * ''Everybody Must Get Stoned. Rock Stars On Drugs.'' (2009). Citadel. . * ''True Mutations''. (2007) Pollinator Press. . * ''Counterculture Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House''. (2004) Villard Books. . * ''The Revolution: Quotations From Revolution Party Chairman R. U. Sirius''. (2000) Feral House. . * ''21st Century Revolutionary: R. U. Sirius 1984–1998''. (1999) Fringecore . * ''Design for Dying''. (1998) (with

)

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

. . * ''How to Mutate & Take Over the World: an Exploded Post-Novel''. (1997) (with St. Jude)

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

. . * ''Cyberpunk Handbook: The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook''. (1995) (with St. Jude and

Bart Nagel Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Bartholo ...

) Random House. . * ''Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge''. (1992) (editor with

Rudy Rucker Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known f ...

& Queen Mu) Harperperennial Library. .

Articles

Steal This Millennium
With Stew Albert.

Salon.com ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including re ...

, October 19, 2000.
The RU Sirius Show
an
NeoFiles
80-odd podcast interviews, and counting. (With co-hosts including Sherry Miller, Diana Brown, Steve Robles and producer Jeff Diehl.)
"Todd Brendan Fahey and His Acid-Laden Writing Style"

References

External links

* *
R.U. Sirius at Discogs

R.U. Sirius Radio
*
Sirius' weblog at 10ZenMonkeys.com

"Yes, We Are: An Interview with RU Sirius"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sirius, R.U. 1952 births American columnists American male journalists American libertarians American magazine editors American online publication editors American talk radio hosts American psychedelic drug advocates Living people American transhumanists