The Orchid Cage: A Science Fiction Novel
暫譯: 《蘭花籠：科幻小說》

Herbert W. Franke (1927-2022) was born in Vienna. He studied physics and philosophy there. In 1951 he received his doctorate in theoretical physics. Today Franke is known as the most important post-war German-language writer of the science fiction genre. In 2017, he was awarded the title "Grand Master of Science Fiction" by the European Science Fiction Association for his complete works. However, Franke is also recognized worldwide as a pioneer of algorithmic art. His intellectual work is based equally on the rationality of the researcher and the creativity of the artist - thus a pioneer of bridging art and science since the 1950s. He was particularly interested in creating aesthetically interesting structures with the help of computers. In addition to creating works of art, Franke has also been intensively involved in questions of rational aesthetics. In his "rational theory of art," published as early as the mid-1960s, he described the perception of art as a construct that can be grasped with the help of information theory. Since his student days, he has also worked as a speleologist and was the first to describe theoretically that stalagmites could be dated by the C14-method in 1952. Today, his method is well established and forms an important building block for climate research of the fading ice age; thus, Franke is also one of the pioneers of paleoclimatological research based on isotope measurements. In addition, Franke was also concerned with the aspect that a program should be sought to describe the physical world instead of a "world formula." Using cellular automata, he developed visualizations of different world models, addressing the question of the extent to which "real" chance plays a role in such a world program. He published these findings in a philosophical-theoretical book entitled "The P-Principle" in 1995. In 1980, the Austrian Ministry of Education and the Arts awarded him the professional title of Professor, and in 2007 he received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and the Arts 1st Class. In 2008, Franke was appointed Senior Fellow by the prestigious Zuse Institute Berlin ZIB. The research project "math goes art" initiated there investigated the interaction of mathematics and art, in particular in the context of three-dimensional worlds on the web. In 2018, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Design in Karlsruhe. The first part of the archive Herbert W. Franke was given to the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in autumn 2017. It comprises about 22 linear meters of documents and about 50 books. The archive consists of documents, sketches, correspondence, typographical scripts, manuscripts, photographs, as well as sound and image recordings of his sixty years of activity in the field of art and science; it also displays his historic computers and programs. It reflects on the three major spheres of Franke's work: computer art, science fiction, and speleology, from the 1950s to the present day.

赫伯特·W·弗蘭克（Herbert W. Franke，1927-2022）出生於維也納。他在那裡學習物理學和哲學。1951年，他獲得理論物理學博士學位。今天，弗蘭克被認為是戰後德語科幻文學最重要的作家。2017年，他因其完整作品獲得歐洲科幻協會頒發的「科幻大師」稱號。然而，弗蘭克在全球也被認可為算法藝術的先驅。他的智識工作同樣基於研究者的理性和藝術家的創造力——因此，自1950年代以來，他一直是藝術與科學之間橋樑的先驅。他特別感興趣於利用電腦創造美學上有趣的結構。除了創作藝術作品外，弗蘭克還深入探討理性美學的問題。在1960年代中期，他發表的「理性藝術理論」中，他將藝術的感知描述為一種可以借助信息理論理解的構造。自學生時代以來，他還擔任洞穴學家，並於1952年首次理論性地描述了鐘乳石可以通過C14方法進行年代測定。今天，他的方法已經得到廣泛應用，並成為研究消退冰河時期氣候的重要基石；因此，弗蘭克也是基於同位素測量的古氣候學研究的先驅之一。此外，弗蘭克還關注一個方面，即應尋求一個程序來描述物理世界，而不是一個「世界公式」。他利用細胞自動機開發了不同世界模型的可視化，探討了「真實」機會在這樣的世界程序中扮演的角色。他於1995年在一本名為《P原則》的哲學理論書中發表了這些發現。1980年，奧地利教育與藝術部授予他教授的專業稱號，2007年他獲得奧地利科學與藝術一級榮譽十字勳章。2008年，弗蘭克被著名的柏林祖斯研究所（Zuse Institute Berlin，ZIB）任命為高級研究員。那裡啟動的研究項目「數學進入藝術」探討了數學與藝術的互動，特別是在網絡上的三維世界背景下。2018年，他獲得卡爾斯魯厄設計大學的榮譽博士學位。赫伯特·W·弗蘭克的第一部分檔案於2017年秋季交給卡爾斯魯厄藝術與媒體中心（ZKM）。該檔案包含約22米的文件和約50本書籍。檔案由文件、草圖、信件、排版手稿、手稿、照片以及他在藝術和科學領域六十年活動的聲音和影像錄音組成；它還展示了他的歷史電腦和程序。它反映了弗蘭克工作的三個主要領域：電腦藝術、科幻文學和洞穴學，從1950年代到現在。