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There's a lot in Solaris (at least in the 1976 movie and the book). In almost all sci-fi which contains aliens, they're easily comprehend-able by humans - they
by sparsely 4y ago
There's a lot in Solaris (at least in the 1976 movie and the book). In almost all sci-fi which contains aliens, they're easily comprehend-able by humans - they have motivations we can describe in our own language, a physical form that while strange is likely a mashup of earth creature characteristics (after all that's where our vocabulary comes from). Solaris asks what it might be like if this isn't the case, and where the limits of our comprehension are.
- dreen 4y agoThere is another great story by Lem called Golem XIV about an AI, constructed by the US Military. It is tasked with destroying enemies of the US, to which it says something to the effect of "Why? That makes no sense" and proceeds to give a philosophical lecture, then sort of disappears. Lem was really good at breaking down common scifi tropes and presenting them from a point of view it hasn't been considered, sometimes surprisingly obvious.
- RangerScience 4y agoI think I found it! https://rtraba.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/golem-xiv.pdf https://rtraba.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/golem-xiv.pdf
- te0006 4y agoIt might be of interest that Lem wrote Golem XIV in 1981, more than _40_ years ago.
- scandox 4y agoIt's a persistent theme for Lem I guess. Fiasco and also His Master's Voice both investigate very similar ideas about the limits of comprehension.
- _0w8t 4y agoThis theme is even in the Return from the Stars. There there is a failure to understand human civilization 100 years later.