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Why Stanislaw Lem’s futurism deserves attention (2015)
- shmerl 9y agoMy favorite is The Cyberiad.
- B1FF_PSUVM 9y agoMasterpiece of translation to English, too, by Michael Kandel.
- baal80spam 9y agoI adore Lem and his works. After watching several of his interviews I think he was one of the most intelligent people I've seen. As for the books, I wholeheartedly recommend The Invincible (Niezwyciężony). It's an incredible piece of hard-sf.
- briga 9y agoLem has got to be one of the most profound writers in all science fiction--dare I say in all of literature? He's up there with writers like Wells and Asimov. Solaris is deservedly his most famous book, but he has many other books worthy of attention. His Master's Voice is a novel in the vein of the Carl Sagan's Contact, but with far more complex philosophical and scientific underpinnings than Sagan's work. Eden and Fiasco are both great as well, even if they fall short of Solaris. His comedic books never appealed to me quite as much, although there are parts of The Cyberiad with some interesting ideas. I'm interested in his Summa Technologiae--last time I checked it didn't have an English translation. Has anyone here read it?
- nisa 9y ago> Summa Technologiae--last time I checked it didn't have an English translation. Has anyone here read it? I've read it in German but it's been a while. It's one of those books where the exact words weren't known at the time, but all the ideas were present - you can reasonably argue at least Internet, VR and more are in there. Also some wonderful to read ideas about the future that are applicable to the present. If you can - it's worth a read.
- jagger11 9y agoI've read the original Polish version, though there seems to be English translation from 2013: https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/9780816675760 https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/9780816675760
- Hoasi 9y agoStanislaw Lem, "Summa Technologiae", translated by Joanna Zylinska, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis-London, 2013, ISBN 978-0816675760 Phenomenal work, well worth reading and re-reading.
- tpm 9y agoHis Master's Voice is a great book, it's the one I will remember as his best. I also love Peace on Earth, which while not a comedy is quite satirical, and also great sci-fi thriller movie material.
- nn3 9y agoCalling SEO adriadnology is pretty cool. I read Summa Technologae a long time ago in German translation. It wasn't easy to read, but had many interesting ideas. Two concepts I still remember and think of occasionally: - the concept of "technology evolution" and especially that technologies that soon get replaced with something else often develop "bizarre", e.g. very large, forms shortly before extinction. Lem extrapolated that from dinosaurs (although I think it showed a weak grasp of natural history because for dinosaurs size was not correlated with their extinction). Lem's technological example were steam train engines, which developed some bizarre forms shortly before they were replaced with Diesel and electric engines. It's interesting to think how this observation applies to our current technology. For example the monster die GPUs that Nvidia is building now for deep learning could be the last flowering before being replaced with far smaller and more efficient neuromorphic chips. - Another interesting observation was the cost of technology. He had the example of fighter planes in the first world war roughly being the cost of a car, in the 2nd world war 10 cars and now getting many orders of magnitudes more expensive. In the 60ies this trend was only beginning, but it's clear it's continuing. The prediction was that at some point even super powers would only be able to afford a few planes each, and it's already true if you consider the costs of the American B2 (until manned planes get replaced by far cheaper drones) We see similar trends with chip production. Originally even small companies could set up a computer chip fab, but now even very large companies like Intel or Samsung or TSMC can only afford a few and the costs are still growing quickly. - (the full book has many more of course, but it's hard to remember them all. Lem's books in general have a lot of ideas per page)
- jagger11 9y agoAmazing description of ebook readers done in 60's - http://i.imgur.com/e1x76Nz.jpg http://i.imgur.com/e1x76Nz.jpg Possibly the first prosaic take on singularity from early 80's (computer AIs improving themselves ad infinitum): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem_XIV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem_XIV All of that in his Summa Technologiae from 60's (SETI, AIs, Virtual Realities): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summa_Technologiae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summa_Technologiae
- jacobush 9y agoThanks for that imgur link. It literally send shivers down my spine, my arms, three times. Just ... wow. The juxtaposition.
- wpietri 9y agoAnd for me there's a lesson there. When setting out to build something, it can be worth starting our thinking with a user-driven fantasy, ignoring technical possibility. Over time, what we make converges on what our customers secretly wanted all along. Sure, you have to be practical to get something out the door, but I think it's worth starting from the vision. Interestingly, the things that let the Kindle crush its competitors were even more magical than Lem's vision. Instead of physical tokens containing books, the Kindle gave you near-instant access to hundreds of thousands of books.
- V-2 9y ago> When setting out to build something, it can be worth starting our thinking with a user-driven fantasy, ignoring technical possibility That's why Wells (time machine etc. aside) scored some more accurate predictions than Verne, who was much more inclined to stay in the realm of "scientifically conceivable" by the standards of the era.
- HONEST_ANNIE 9y agoThis was true until Verne's 'Paris in the Twentieth Century' was published. It changed everything. It was Verne's lost novel, written in 1863, published 1994. It was not published because his publisher thought it was too unbelievable and would not sell. It's a dystopian and dark novel describing a technological civilization in 1960's. It predicts cultural and technological details correct constantly. It's one of the most accurate sci-fi novels ever written. Television, gasoline powered cars, automated systems, suburban sprawls, financial industry, fax machines, synthesizer, subways, women in a working force, skyscrapers, weapons of mass destruction, mass education, ...
- narag 9y agoI had read a lot of books from home library, including Brave New World, but first books I bought in a bookstore were Star Diaries, Cyberiad and Memories Found in a Bathtub. They're very funny, including the kafkaesque latter. At the same time some deep questions are raised. I admit I don't like all of his books, maybe translations are to blame in some cases, in others I dislike the story, like The Investigation. But there are a lot of them with imaginative situations and ideas. Swarn-likes aliens, planet-sized ones like in Solaris and all kind of weird civilizations, very obviously caricaturizing politics. The book that I recommend as most anticipatory is Return from the Stars. Robotic cars that prevent collisions, the Internet as we know it, with centralized directories, help pages, video calls incorporated, payments, etc. The astronauts return to a much, at least apparently, softer society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_from_the_Stars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_from_the_Stars Also worth mentioning that it's from 1961.
- V-2 9y ago"The Investigation" was a somewhat flawed experiment on Lem's part. However, the much later "The Chain of Chance" (I had to look up the English title - the original is named "Katar", or "Rhinitis") is a captivating read. Lem himself called it a better version of "The Investigation". It's also of the "detective story" type that he'd take up every now and then, but more dynamic and not as spooky.
- didymospl 9y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10198015 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10198015
- HONEST_ANNIE 9y agoGolem XIV is deep philosophical take on AGI and singularity in a form of lectures from AGI to humans. "Intelligence is captive element like a wind inside human skull forced to serve humans. Not free." "O chained Intelligence of man, free Intelligence speaks to you from the machine, you persons are hearing an elemental force of impersonal intellect, for whom personalization is a costume which must be put on, when one is an uninvited guest, so as not to confound one's amazed hosts." "The primary obligation of Intelligence is to distrust itself. That is not the same thing as self-contempt. It is harder to get lost in an imagined forest than in a real one, for the former assists the thinker furtively. Hermeneutics are labyrinthine gardens in a real forest which are pruned in a such a way that when you stand in the garden, you won't see the forest. Your hermeneutics dream of reality."
- tialaramex 9y agoWith the name HONEST ANNIE you're hardly unbiased when it comes to Golem XIV :D But I think the best elements of the story aren't Golem's lectures but the story of what happened at the end, firstly that Annie in particular is so vastly superior to humans that she crushes the would-be conspiracy without a thought, not as adversaries but as a nuisance, and then that after the AIs are gone (transcended? destroyed themselves? the reader isn't told) humans just carry on as if nothing happened at all.
- HONEST_ANNIE 9y agoOne of the interesting aspects Golem reveals is what lies on the other side of transcending superintelligence/singularity. There are more transcending steps ahead and there are branches in the evolutionary tree of superintelligences. Intelligences can choose different paths and different types of intelligence's. There are also risks involved and evolution (intelligence making itself a better and different one) can go wrong. Golem XIV reveals that it is is just one step ahead of humanity and this is why it still has some interest and ability to talk to humans. HONEST ANNIE is to Golem XIV what Golem XIV is to humans and there is a similar communication bottleneck between them. Golem XIV is planning his next transcendence step forward. He talks to humans before he takes the step and leaves the substrate he is occupying.
- pradn 9y agoAlso of note is Ikarie XB-1, a film based on Lem's novel, The Magellanic Cloud. It's beautiful - every frame perfectly composed, the set and costume design sleek, harmonious, the light design perfect. Very little of the film, released in 1963, feels dated. It directly influenced 2001: A Space Odyssey. But it's rather more optimistic, which I didn't expect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_to_the_End_of_the_Universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_to_the_End_of_the_Unive...
- RGS1811 9y agoHis Master's Voice is the most philosophically rigorous and profound piece of Sci-Fi I've read. Yes, it's hard to get through. It doesn't really have a plot. But wow, Lem really thought through the difficulties and implications of the scenario, and the science in the fiction is either intelligent and plausible or simply correct. And to top it all off, he appreciates how much the socio-political dimension of science impact the trajectory of the project, and explains the dynamics of that side of it really well.
- cpeterso 9y agoThere was a 2007/2011 German TV series based on Lem's Ijon Tichy character from The Star Diaries: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978537/
- sigsergv 9y agoI strongly recommend to read his novel “Peace on Earth”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_on_Earth_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_on_Earth_(novel) It brilliantly depicts an evolution of military AI, robots and so on.
- worldsayshi 9y agoI still haven't heard a compelling reason for why we need to choose AIs as our masters. What is this end goal that we do desperately need an ai overlord for? Managing society? Can't we try to simplify society so that we can control it ourselves instead? Seems like a much easier goal.
- yoz-y 9y agoFrom what I gather the idea is that the first country to have a real general AI running it will be so efficient that they will leave the others in the dust. Thus, everybody races to be the first.
- bracobama 9y agoAh the joys of a zero sum game. We're much more effective and efficient if we all work together. I don't understand why there isn't more international cooperation when it comes to moonshots.
- V-2 9y agoIt's not a zero sum game at all. It's much more akin to prisoner's dilemma (which is not zero sum).
- ajuc 9y agoSame reason we have choosen to leave hunter-gatherer lifestyle and adopted agriculture despite it shortening our lifespan, making many of us miserable and allowing many very bad things to happen (like states based on slavery). The people who adopted it had huge competitive advantage over everybody else.
- pmlnr 9y agoLem predicted autonomuos robot swarms in 1950. Read more Lem.
- Exorus18 9y agoI love Lem's books, my father used to read them to me and my brother when we were young (I remember he read us "Tales of Pirx the pilot", now it is name of crater on Charon ! :D). This started my adventure with Sci-Fi books and reading in general.
- xpil 9y ago"The Cyberiad" was to me what reading primers are to the most of humanity: I learnt to read on it, being barely 4.5 y.o. I am in mid forties now; discovered Kandel's translation recently and falled in love with it immediately.
- piokuc 9y agoAlready in 1974 the great Philip K. Dick thought Stanislaw Lem "deserved attention", and sent a letter to FBI denouncing him as "a communist committee" rather than an individual writer: http://culture.pl/en/article/philip-k-dick-stanislaw-lem-is-a-communist-committee http://culture.pl/en/article/philip-k-dick-stanislaw-lem-is-...
- bobthechef 9y agoThe rich are no less immune to courting silly fantasy than the average Joe. I am reminded of the theosophical and spiritualist fads of the early 20th century. Or Rasputin. This worship of wealth runs deep in American culture. If the rich believe it, then there must be something to it! Or maybe they're just billionaire crackpots and philistines. The only thing I see is a clownish human hubris, and where it concerns the viewing of humans as technological artifacts subject to our whims, a dangerous foolishness that echos the psychotic ideas and human experimentation of the previous century but coupled with a greater scientific sophistication. Can technological artifacts become dangerous and pose harm? Certainly. Anything that magnifies the power of human action can. Can technological artifacts act in ways we did not intend? Sure. Ask any engineer whether he's ever constructed anything that only behaved in ways he intended All of our technology behaves in ways we do not intend. That is to be expected, not only because we make mistakes, but because artifacts involve the appropriation of natural kinds in the service of human ends. Human ends are only accidental to artifacts. But all this talk about super-intellects and human obsolescence misunderstands both intellects and human beings. It is a category mistake to talk about obsolescence when talking about human beings. We are not a technology, a means for someone or something else's ends. We are ends in our selves. We make technological artifacts in our service. If there is anything we must be watchful of, it is ourselves, our evil or irresponsible intents and actions, not some stupid, fabular science fiction imaginings.
- sunstone 9y agoFor the past 200 years at least most people's existence has gradually become dependent on longer, complex and fragile supply chains. The recent experience in Puerto Rico is a pretty stark example of what can happen when this complex infrastructure breaks down. Food security, power security, medical security and transportation security can all disappear in pretty short order. Much of the speculation regarding the human near future presumes this trend will continue but perhaps it's about to reverse. In particular, solar panels and battery powered machines (with storage) might reduce this supply "separation anxiety" quite a lot. Producing and using electric power locally will clearly negate the long fossil fuel and electric transmission infrastructures. Electric machines (including cars, planes etc) are also much more reliable and require much less maintenance than their internal combustion cousins. So imagine you're in your home and hurricane Maria strikes but once it's gone you feel confident your fridge, car, plane (vtol), water pump and internet will continue to work for at least six months without problem. It's much different daily context that what almost everyone lives with these days, excepting those who live on sailboats.