Larry Wachowski

Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered... states. In his later works Dick's thematic focus strongly reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology. He often drew upon his own life experiences in addressing the nature of drug abuse, paranoia and schizophrenia, and transcendental experiences in novels such as A Scanner Darkly and VALIS. The novel The Man in the High Castle bridged the genres of alternate history and science fiction, earning Dick a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, a novel about a celebrity who awakens in a parallel universe where he is unknown, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel in 1975. "I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have, because the world we actually have does not meet my standards," Dick wrote of these stories.
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Mamoru Oshii is a Japanese filmmaker, television director, and writer. Famous for his philosophy-oriented storytelling, Oshii has directed a number of popular anime, including Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, Ghost in the Shell, and Patlabor 2. He also holds the distinction of having created... the first ever OVA, Dallos. For his work, Oshii has received and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or and Golden Lion. He has also attracted praise from international directors such as James Cameron and the Wachowski brothers. Presently, Oshii lives in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan with his dogs – a basset hound named Gabriel and a mutt named Daniel. Because of his dogs, in the "Next on FLCL" part at the end of the second episode of FLCL Haruko says that "Oshii is probably the only director that loves dogs. He thinks he's a dog himself." As a student, Mamoru Oshii was fascinated by the film La jetée by Chris Marker.
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Kevin Kelly is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog. He has also been a writer, photographer, conservationist, and student of Asian and digital culture. Kelly was born in Pennsylvania in 1952 and graduated from Westfield High... School, Westfield, New Jersey in 1970. He dropped out of University of Rhode Island after only one year. Kelly lives in Pacifica, California, a small coastal town just south of San Francisco. He is a devout Christian. He is married and has three children; Tywen, Ting and Kaileen. Among Kelly's personal involvements is a campaign to make a full inventory of all living species on earth, an effort also known as the Linnaean enterprise. The goal is to make an attempt at an "all species" web-based catalog in one generation . He is also sequencing his genome and co-organizes the Bay Area Quantified Self Meetup Group. Kelly's writings have appeared in the New York Times, Esquire, The Economist and other periodicals —in addition to the books he has authored and the magazines he either edited, founded, or helped to found.
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