"Not Welcome Here": Biological versus Postbiological in Lem's Space Operas.

This essay offers a technocentric perspective on two space operas by Stanis»aw Lem, The Invincible (1966) and Fiasco (1987), novels that span much of his creative career. As an evolutionary philosopher, Lem was decades ahead of his time in recognizing the idea of postbiological evolution and how tec...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Science Fiction Studies Vol. 50; no. 1; pp. 34 - 66
Autor principal: Ćirković, Milan M.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: University of California Press Mar2023
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:This essay offers a technocentric perspective on two space operas by Stanis»aw Lem, The Invincible (1966) and Fiasco (1987), novels that span much of his creative career. As an evolutionary philosopher, Lem was decades ahead of his time in recognizing the idea of postbiological evolution and how technology shapes it. Pivoting around this central theory, Lem shows how our understanding of mind in the universe is narrow and anthropocentric, while engineering and the design space of evolution act as fixed Archimedean points.