
Stanislaw Lem’s Futurism (2014) - emptybits
http://nautil.us/issue/17/big-bangs/the-book-no-one-read
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markvdb
Do watch "Solaris"[0], the 1972 USSR Andrei Tarkovsky[1] science fiction film
inspired by the Lem book. Even if you'ree not into science fiction . It's
magnificent.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_(1972_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solaris_\(1972_film\))
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Tarkovsky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Tarkovsky)

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adrianN
In what way do you find the film to be magnificient? I found it to be
extremely boring. I also read the book, thinking that the movie might
misrepresent it, but alas, the book was even more boring. Literally nothing
happens. The molasses like plot really conveys the feelings of the researchers
in the book. You spend ages studying the text with barely any payout.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
Many things happen. None of them are stock superhero/villain Hollywood
Explodium.

If you want your science fiction to spoon feed you thrills and wisecracks,
neither Lem nor Tarkovsky are going to be a good fit for you.

Edit: see also -

[https://culture.pl/en/article/13-things-lem-predicted-
about-...](https://culture.pl/en/article/13-things-lem-predicted-about-the-
future-we-live-in)

~~~
stormking
> Many things happen. None of them are stock > superhero/villain Hollywood
> Explodium.

One can find a particular movie or book boring without being a simpleton who
needs "stock superhero/villain Hollywood Explodium", so please drop the
snobbery.

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twic
Here's a short story of Lem's that was only recently rediscovered and
translated:

[https://przekroj.pl/en/literature/the-hunt-stanislaw-
lem](https://przekroj.pl/en/literature/the-hunt-stanislaw-lem)

~~~
mlang23
Thanks for sharing this!

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Causality1
Good article but I'm mighty tired of this clichéd opening to seemingly
everything I read.

>on a warm September evening in San Francisco, where I was relaxing

~~~
shrimp_emoji
>In math, a “singularity” is a function that takes on an infinite value,
usually to the detriment of an equation’s sense and sensibility. In physics,
the term usually refers...

The dictionary defines "singularity" as...

>...you will find a challenge, if not a beauty; and that you will proceed in
your own way after all, since in casting off man, man will save himself.”

In short, the future is a land of contrasts.

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DonHopkins
I just finished "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub":

"Why, the Trojan Horse marked the birth of cryptoequestrianism!"

~~~
glangdale
"Hey, the Building, hey! What makes the Building stay? The Antibuilding makes
it stay! Hey!"

I reread this periodically and every time am blown away at the paranoiac
weirdness of that one. It's a nice balance of the 'zany' Lem (Futurological
Congress) and the 'serious' Lem.

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dang
Discussed last year:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16896880](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16896880)

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wazoox
Read "The futurology congress". That's both plain crazy and so prescient, a
wonder.

