Stanislaw Lems Summa Technologiae in English for the first time in 50 Years
I know there are some people from english speaking countries reading this thing here and this is a recommendation that really comes from my heart. Stanislaw Lems Summa Technologiae is available in English for the first time since (nearly) 50 Years! I read this monster more than twenty years ago, then again and then again and it totally blew my mind, every single time – actually it is one of the reasons, why this blog is what it is.
Imagine scientific Futurism combined with Electronics, Engineering and that Lemian Weirdness, that only he could achieve. Kevin Kelly on Steroids right from the dawn of the space age. Read this, it’s totally and highly recommended. Yes, it is indeed that good.
With Summa Technologiae, his masterwork of non-fiction which has been translated into English for the first time, Lem has taken Western civilisation for a spin – with spectacular consequences. The book will be a fabulous shock to those who know only his science fiction, such as Solaris or The Cyberiad. Others will have caught tantalising glimpses of Summa, published in 1964, in a few essays. Diehards may even have read it in translation, notably German or Russian. […]
Summa is not for the faint-hearted. Starting with a title that pastiches Thomas Aquinas’s 13th-century Summa Theologiae, Lem sets out to replace god with reason. Zylinska’s introduction lays out the map. Is the phenomenon that is humanity typical or exceptional in the universe? Does plagiarising nature count as fraud? Do we need consciousness for human agency? Should we trust our thoughts or perceptions? Are we controlling technology – or vice versa?
It is amazing how much Lem got right, or even predicted. This ranges across artificial intelligence, the theory of search engines (he called it “ariadnology”), bionics, virtual reality (“phantomatics”), technological singularity and nanotechnology.
American Scientist: A brilliant trip back to the technological future – Stanislaw Lem’s forgotten masterwork Summa Technologiae, now in English half a century after publication, is a heady mix of prescience, philosophy and irony
Amazon.com: Summa Technologiae (Electronic Mediations)
Stanislav Lems The Congress – Trailer
via Twitch
Ganz, ganz großartiger Trailer zu Ari Folmans The Congress mit Harvey Keitel und Robin Wright, der lose auf Stanislav Lems Der futurulogische Kongress basiert. Ari Folman hatte 2008 den fantastischen Waltz with Bashir gedreht, und wie bei Waltz mischt er hier wieder Animation und Realfilm zu einem opulenten und für Lem angemessen weird aussehenden SciFi-Dingsbums, Der Film feiert auf dem Cannes Filmfest im Mai Premiere, für mich ein Pflichtfilm – ich liebe Stanislav Lem und ich liebe Waltz With Bashir und die Kombination aus beiden macht mich wirklich ziemlich feucht im Schritt.
Auf dem Poster sieht man übrigens im Hintergrund Picasso mit einer Blondine im Arm entlanglatschen, Osama Bin Laden und Jesus mit einem Herz-Tattoo-Print auf seinem Gewand. Der Trailer ist jetzt bereits gespickt mit Filmzitaten, mit The Congress könnte Ari Folman sein Mashup aus Tarantinoschem Zitatkino, französischem Fantasy-Opus und polnischer Science Fiction geschaffen haben und – ich beton’s extra nochmal – mich macht das extrem feucht im Schritt. Absolutes und komplettes Must Watch. Endlich eine angemessene Lem-Verfilmung. Ichkriegmichgarnichmehreinfantastisch. Mindblowing.
A loose adaptation of Stanislaw Lem’s “The Futurological Congress,” a 1971 black humour science fiction detailing the exploits of the hero of a number of his books, Ijon Tichy, as he visits the Eighth World Futurological Congress at the Costa Rica Hilton. The book is Lem’s take on the common sci-fi trope of an apparently Utopian future that turns out to be an illusion.
Robin Wright (Robin Wright) receives an offer from Miramount to be scanned. In this way, her alias can be freely exploited in all films the Hollywood major decides to produce, even the most downmarket ones, the ones she has turned down until now. For 20 years she disappears to return as guest of honor at the Miramount-Nagasaki Convention in a transformed world of fantastical appearances.
Amazon-Partnerlink: Der futurologische Kongreß: Aus Ijon Tichys Erinnerungen (suhrkamp taschenbuch)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
„Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story“ online auf Arte+7
Waltz with Bashir – A Lebanon War Story als Graphic Novel
Interview mit Ari Folman, Regisseur von „Waltz with Bashir“
Stanislaw Lems One Human Minute: The Movie
Vor vier Jahren hat Zoltán Verebes aka Pater Sparrow Stanislaw Lems „One Human Minute“ („Eine Minute der Menschheit“) verfilmt. Ich hatte die Meldung dazu vor fünf Jahren bei den Filmfreunden gebloggt und seitdem nie wieder davon gehört, bis grade eben. Zoltán hat den Film nämlich komplett auf Youtube online gestellt, leider nur auf Ungarisch mit englischen Untertiteln. (Ich schaue zwar vorwiegend Filme im Original, aber nur solange ich die Sprache verstehe, also Englisch. Filme auf Japanisch oder eben Ungarisch finde ich eher anstrengend, aber ey: Es ist ein Lem!)
Youtube Direktminute, via Swen
Stanislaw Lems Story ist eigentlich ein Review des fiktiven Buchs „Eine Minute der Menschheit“, das alle Geschehnisse beschreibt, die eben in dieser Minute auf der Erde passieren. Im Film füllt dieses Buch auf mysteriöse Weise einen kompletten Buchladen und ein paar Polizisten der Paranormalen Spezialeinheit finden heraus, was es damit auf sich hat. Quiet Earth hatte damals ein paar Stills und Moodboards aus dem Film, Snip:
Zoltán Verebes goes by the pseudonym Pater Sparrow who was famous for his short films in Hungary and went on to study at the London Film School. This is his first feature which is currently in post-production. Based on the work One Human Minute by world famous Polish scifi author Stanislaw Lem, the story unfolds somewhere in the 21st century.
“A bookshop renowned for its rare works is mysteriously and completely filled with copies of a book entitled 1, which doesn’t appear to have a publisher or author. The strange almanac describes what happens to the whole of humanity in the space of a minute. A police investigation begins and the bookshop staff are placed in solitary confinement by the Bureau for Paranormal Research (RDI Reality Defense Institute). As the investigation progresses, the situation becomes more complex and the book increasingly well known, raising numerous controversies (political, scientific, religious and artistic). Plagued by doubts, the protagonist has to face facts: reality only exists in the imagination of individuals.”
