vestal (03/26/83)
How about Lem's "The Cyberiad" for computers in fiction? It's admittedly a somewhat bizzare book -- the first time I read it I went through quite a few pages before figuring out that everyone (and a lot of things) was a machine. I can see two themes which crop up in Lem's work: He likes to tweak the noses of people who have a high-minded view of intelligence, the human soul, etc.; and he likes to make fun of bureaucracy (perhaps curious and perhaps not - Lem is Polish). If the notion that computers can be made which are intelligent is something you regard as drivel, don't bother reading him. If you're willing to humorously (and occasionally morbidly) explore some of the disquieting properties of a world where intelligence is created and modified as easily as an omelette, you might try some of his works. Some other books: The Futurological Congress -- What happens when research into psychadellics progresses to the stage we can make people hallucinate whatever the government chooses? The Star Diaries -- Bizzare travels by the courageous space explorer Ijon Tichy Uranium Earplugs and Other Stories -- more in the vein of "Cyberiad". A Perfect Vacuum -- Reviews of non-existent books. One section I really enjoyed was a discussion of how the laws of physics are really established and modified by super-advanced civilizations in some universal chess game. Memoirs Found in a Bathtub -- The final days of NORAD in the rockies -- slow, but maybe good for anti-militarists (or people submerged in some huge bureaucracy) who like to see such things ridiculed. Solaris -- We came to the stars, we found intelligence, and we'll be damned if we can make head or tail of it. Return from the Stars -- what is the price of world peace? If you go shopping, check inside the cover to make sure that Michael Kandel had a hand in the translation from the original Polish. I've stumbled across some other translations which weren't very good.
leichter (03/27/83)
If you want to know more about Stanislaw Lem, see the review of his most recent book (at least the most recent to be translated into English) and a long inter- view with him in last Sunday's (20-Mar) New York Times Book Review. -- Jerry decvax!yale-comix!leichter leichter@yale
ucbcad:ingres (03/31/83)
#R:uw-beave:-43100:ucbcad:6200001:000:522 ucbcad!ingres Mar 31 10:00:00 1983 One Russian robotics expert, in an introduction to a technical work in his field, writes the following (approximate translation): This book is intended to be a technical exploration of the field of robotics for the expert. It is not recommended for beginners. Beginners who are looking for an introductory text should read the excellent work of Stanislaw Lem. I do not know for sure if he refers to "Cyberiad" and similar works or if Lem has written a beginners introduction to robotics. Anybody else know? Ken
pct@vaxine.UUCP (Pierre Trepagnier) (01/30/84)
Non-blank The January 30 issue of The New Yorker has an autobiographical article by Stanislaw Lem which makes for interesting reading. He discusses his work and the impulses behind it. Here is a quote [He is discussing growing up in Poland during WWII.]: "The unfathomable futility of human life under the sway of mass murder cannot be conveyed by literary techniques in which individuals or small groups of people form the core of the narrative. It is, perhaps, as if somebody tried by providing the most exact description of the molecules of which the body of Marilyn Monroe was composed to convey a full impression of her. ...I began writing science fiction because it deals with human beings as a species ... and not just with specific individuals, be they saints or monsters."