Journal article
Indecision and Splendid Excess: Analogies of Evolution in Stanislaw Lem's Summa Technologiae
Science-fiction studies, Vol.40(3), pp.428-438
11/01/2013
DOI: 10.5621/sciefictstud.40.3.0428
Abstract
Summa Technologiae (1964) represents Stanislaw Lem's endeavor to theorize the history of technology and to make predictions about its future based on complex and sometimes divergent analogies he uncovers between technological and biological evolution. I argue that Lem's persistent indecision or ambivalence concerning the exact relationship between technology and biology is actually a strength of the book, possibly its philosophical essence. While Lem generally opts for a technical vocabulary borrowed from cybernetics, his prose is populated with other quasi-scientific and quasi-fictional personae, not all of whom agree about either the method or the implications of analyzing techno-evolution. At times, voices in the text adopt anecdotal or satirical strategies that fruitfully undermine Lem's own over-serious use of biological analogies to discuss topics such as virtual reality ("phantomatics") or communications media. The result is prose that oscillates between something close to sociobiological doctrine and a freer stance resembling the parodic or sardonic raconteurs of Lem's fiction. To conclude, I briefly suggest that the underlying theory of language in Summa may inhibit a fully adequate analysis of techno-evolution but that this inadequacy may itself have the salutary effect of enabling the multiplicity of unrestrained speculations that Lem's monumental book comprises.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Indecision and Splendid Excess: Analogies of Evolution in Stanislaw Lem's Summa Technologiae
- Creators
- David Wittenberg
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Science-fiction studies, Vol.40(3), pp.428-438
- Publisher
- Science-Fiction Studies
- DOI
- 10.5621/sciefictstud.40.3.0428
- ISSN
- 0091-7729
- eISSN
- 2327-6207
- Number of pages
- 11
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/01/2013
- Academic Unit
- Cinematic Arts; English
- Record Identifier
- 9984397925602771
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