
Google.pl's crazy doodle - atmb4u
http://www.google.pl/
======
kitsune_
Stanislaw Lem is probably my most favorite sci-fi author. He's very popular in
Europe, but not so much in the US it seems. His works are hilariously funny,
philosophical and have a certain magic to them. When I saw the robot I was
almost certain that it had to be about him.

I don't know about the quality of the English translations of his books, but
in German, they are fabulous. There are a lot of word plays that are hard to
translate.

By the way, many will recommend Solaris in here because there were two films
based on it, one by Tarkovsky and one by Soderbergh. While it's not a bad book
it's probably not his best and not entirely exemplary of his other books.

This is a good introduction to his work:
<http://world.std.com/~mmcirvin/vitrifaxintro.html>

~~~
utunga
A funny story - how I got my first Stanislaw Lem book from a Washington Square
park bookseller..

Guy had a table with a wide range of second hand books mostly sci fi. I
carefully picked over the pile and chose some of my favorite authors - some
that were quite hard to get.

When I went to purchase about three books, the guy said "OK since you are
obviously a man with taste in SF I'm gonna let you see my other 'special'
stock" - and out came a small tray of books from under the table. Not
previously on sale. Maybe it was just a clever marketing ploy - but this is
how I found my first Stanislaw Lem book (which he recommended).

Since then I've always tried to buy Lem at SF second hand stores but actually
very hard to come by (in English). I did buy a brand new copy of 'His Master's
Voice' the other day and was not disappointed.

Don't think he actually wrote that many SF books - I _think_ I have them all
now but maybe I'm mistaken.

~~~
utunga
maybe there's a startup sales model in there somewhere ;-) the next groupon?

~~~
mseebach
Up-selling based on making the customer feel he's special, selected or
privileged is not exactly a new model.

~~~
sixtofour
But it is patentable in the United States.

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yesimahuman
Also reminded me of this game: <http://machinarium.net/demo/>

~~~
kefs
Machinarium is great. I'm happy it was included with the original Humble
Bundle.

Which reminds me, everyone should go check out the recently released Humble
Introversion Bundle. Pay what you want for 5+ great cross-platform games by
independent developers, and choose who your money goes to.. charity or the
developers.

<http://www.humblebundle.com/>

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cstuder
Some easter eggs (and spoilers) by the designer:
[https://plus.google.com/101765089097091765365/posts/1MaYwxJz...](https://plus.google.com/101765089097091765365/posts/1MaYwxJz62X)

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tikhonj
For the curious: the doodle is for Stanislaw Lem, one of my favorite science
fiction authors.

For those who haven't read any of his books, I personally recommend _Solaris_
and _Fiasco_ , although most of the other books I've read by him are also
great.

Edit: Oh yeah, for something a little bit more funny, read _Tales of Pirx the
Pilot_.

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bermanoid
Just a warning: if you've made it almost all the way through, don't be a moron
like me and bump a key on your keyboard, you'll get immediately bounced to an
actual Google instant search, and you'll have to start over from the
beginning...

~~~
switz
Yeah, I hit the "N" key when the big robot had a speech bubble with N in it.
Oops.

~~~
tfb
I did the same thing. I'm pretty bummed about it because I don't have time to
go back and do it again. Anyone know what happens after that?

~~~
avree
The robot drops down a thimble and some thread, then clears the screen and
drops you into an instant search for Stanislaws Lem.

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btreeworship
It is currently also the doodle at <http://www.google.de/>

I found myself forgetting what my original search desire was after playing
through the animation. In my opinion, it was one of the best ones google has
done.

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Tichy
My nickname (Tichy) is from Lem's books. Definitely one of my favorite authors
ever.

~~~
ableal
I suppose that Tichy Ijon (lastname firstname) is a pun on tachyon. Nicely
fitting the current LHC head scratching ...

My first look at the doodle popped up "Trurl and Klapaucius" in my head - and
it's been many years. Queue one Cyberiad for re-read ...

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sireat
I should mention that it is not only on google.pl, but should be on most
(East?) European countries google.com .

Great tribute.

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gulbrandr
The JS script for the animations is here:
<http://www.google.pl/logos/2011/lem.2.js>

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praptak
Here are some original pictures by Mróz, whose style inspired the doodle:
<http://solaris.lem.pl/galeria/rysunki-mroza/category/23>

Site already lags, be patient.

~~~
D_Alex
And here is the story to which the final scene in the Google doodles refers:

English: <http://english.lem.pl/home/bookshelf/how-the-word-was-saved>

Polish: <http://www.wattpad.com/133117-stanislaw-lem-cyberiada>

Well worth the 5 mins it takes to read!

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cfontes
I love Douglas Adams and it looks like the same kind of literature... I've
never heard of Lem before so, gonna give it a try. Thanks for the info, it's
really hard to find good Sci-fi with a hint of humor on it.

~~~
bprieto
Actually, Lem is more like a XX century Jonathan Swift, but if you love Adams
you will like Lem.

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ratfink
The constructor you control in the doodle is Trurl, the other at the end is
Klapaucius. The ending is from the first story in the Cyberiad where Trurl
build a machine that can create anything that begins with the letter 'N' the
Klapaucius tells it to create nothing and the machine destroys half the
universe before they get it to quit.

Here is the full text to that first story:

[http://webspace.webring.com/people/fc/churud_geo/cyberiadn.h...](http://webspace.webring.com/people/fc/churud_geo/cyberiadn.html)

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RyanMcGreal
Here's the Guardian's take:

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/23/stanislaw-lem-
go...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/23/stanislaw-lem-google-
doodle)

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karteek
Its got a nice set of puzzles/games in it. Not sure what it is about. Any
polish users to rescue?

Edit: After going through all of them, I got redirected to search term
"Stanisław Lem"

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switz
Check out some of Lem's drawings here: <http://english.lem.pl/gallery/lems-
drawings>

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AlexV
Brilliant doodle by Google! The drawings are exactly Lem's style, so I
recognized them immediately, having grew up on Lem's book.

Truly amazing and timeless books. :)

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mechanical_fish
Okay, redundant though this is, I should underline that this Doodle is _very
specifically_ about Stanislaw Lem's _Cyberiad_ , which is great and I highly
recommend it. As joshu says, English speakers should look for the Kandel
translation, which is unbelievably good. Meanwhile, Polish speakers should
count themselves fortunate that they can read the original!

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dagge
What tools did they use to create this doodle?

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ck2
That definitely drew me in, kinda fun too.

The owl reminds me of Bubo, the golden mechanical owl from the original Clash
of the Titans.

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teja1990
I had no idea about Stainslaw Lem till now. Just because of that doodle , I'm
gonna read his work :)

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zalthor
In case anyone was looking for the popup text info in english (hit the '?' on
the right) <http://www.google.pl/?hl=en>

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bobbles
When you finish the game it takes you here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem>

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mtts
Doodle is awesome. So is the book these are from.

The baby cannon. Hehehehe ...

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deafmetal
The Cyberiad is a great book for kids too. I must have read it when I was
about 8 or 9 and it set me off on a life-long journey through Science
Fiction...

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test5625
If you want to read LEM, start with "The Star Diaries". It's concentrated.
Each story is just 20 pages and is packed with futuristic ideas.

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alex3t
Same on google.ru and others European sites

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bdonlan
What exactly is this based on?

~~~
aamar
The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem.

Great book, 60 years old today:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/nov/23/google-
dood...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/nov/23/google-doodle-
stanislaw-lem-anniversary)

~~~
praptak
The graphic is inspired by Daniel Mróz, the author of the Cyberiad
illustrations (Click the "?" at the beginning.) The puzzles contain some
motives from the Cyberiad (2+2=7, the machine that can do everything that
starts with "N".)

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ageyfman
Lem is great, and this doodle is a great remembrance. Great job, Google.

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JoshTriplett
This doodle appears on google.com at this point, not just google.pl.

~~~
andiw
Not for me (US), I see a thanksgiving turkey. Oh well...

~~~
stock_toaster
I get the turkey too. If you click his wing he cycles feather colors and hates
and shoes.

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vl
It's only crazy if you haven't read Lem's stories.

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joshu
Is that Klapaucius or Trurl? I think it's Trurl.

~~~
shrikant
Yep, Trurl built the insane robot that gets cheesed off when you insist on the
correct answers in arithmetic operations.

 _Edit_ : Yup, can confirm this - Klapaucius asks the robot that create
anything beginning with "N" to create "nothing" causing it to implode.

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trurl
AWESOME

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subdecoy
Endut hoch hech!

------
shortlived
LEM!

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marcel-oelke
Awesome!

