Wiadomości

1

Forum in English / Re: Lem has died.

« dnia: Marca 27, 2006, 10:31:12 pm »

Stanislaw Lem was much more than a writer. He was the most enlighted mind of the XX century, a philosopher and a scientist of the highest level.

The world still has to read, learn and understand Lem; mankind would benefit a lot doing so.

This is a sad day indeed. We will miss you Stanislaw, a real friend and a real master.

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Forum in English / Re: Fiasco

« dnia: Maja 28, 2005, 09:33:17 pm »

Thank you very much for the reference Sogo; I have not read "The Astronauts", I think it has not been translated to English.
It's interesting, because in fact this is one the hypothesis mentioned in Fiasco: some kind of religious monument. Now that you told me that idea was used in other of his books, I feel more confident that's the correct answer.
A huge, eternal, moving flame as a religious monument. How puzzling

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Forum in English / Re: Fiasco

« dnia: Maja 25, 2005, 02:05:38 pm »

Melting ice in space to cause rainfalls? Well, that's pretty difficult, with 0 Kelvins 'onboard'  (I mean absolute zero in the vacuum).

What's the problem with that? The sun manages to heat the earth through a large large vacuum...It's a problem of absortion of radiation, although I reckon ice is highly reflective.
The question is that the flame is mobile, and the only reason I can imagine for this is moving it to heat different parts of the ring. But as I said, the energy seems quite low to make any effect on the ring.

But You know, be Your theory true or not, You seem to be one of the few people here, who try to explain numerous mechanisms discovered among Lem's creations... and for that I'm sincerily grateful

Thanks, I read Fiasco very recently but I use to re-read the books I like most, which means I have read all my Lem's books several times.
Sadly there is few people active in this forum, it seems the Polish side sees all the action. I will have to desist trying to make people comment on Fiasco.

Besides, it proves You know "Fiasco" really good... I, myself, remember, that there was some moon, which was eventually destroyed... ehm... and that's about all

It's certainly the most "hard SF" book I have read from Lem, along with "The invincible". I guess most people who liked "Cyberiad" or the Tichy tales, dislike hard sf. In my case, I like all Lem's styles with the exception of "The investigation" and "The chain of chance".
One of the most interesting aspects of Fiasco is the thinking about the SETI program, imo the best you can find in SF.

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Forum in English / Re: "Win a book autographed by Stanislaw Lem&

« dnia: Maja 21, 2005, 09:24:37 pm »

Maybe it is (easier), but certainly the pronunciation is a problem for a person who speaks Romanic languages. I speak Spanish, which has few phonetic sounds, and the correspondence between spoken and written is very simple.
However, English is quite dificult to pronounce just looking a text, and German seems equally dificult to me. Reading and pronouncing a word like "kartoffel" seems straightforward, but reading "Deutschland" is a puzzle to me. In Spanish, earing that word, I would write something like "dossland" or "doschland", but I would probably lose some nuances.

Lucky you, Germans can enjoy Lem's complete works in their native tongue!
I hope someday all books will be translated to English at least. I throw the towel with the Spanish translations, it's already a miracle we have around 17 books available.

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Forum in English / Re: Fiasco

« dnia: Maja 21, 2005, 01:16:55 pm »

More mysteries about Fiasco.
In Quinta's moon, a huge underground complex exists to fuel an eternal, fast moving, plasma flame. It also seems an artificial atmosphere is created, made by inert gases. The flame radiates 1 billion joules; if I am not wrong, this is not a very strong energy source; it is comparable to a modern nuclear plant.

I don't think the mistery is explained in any part of the book. I thinked it's maybe related to the ice ring surrounding Quinta. Maybe a device to heat the ring from time to time to accelerate rainfalling...But it's to small and too far, so I am still puzzled about it.

Any idea?

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Forum in English / Re: "Win a book autographed by Stanislaw Lem&

« dnia: Maja 21, 2005, 12:57:47 pm »

Congratulations Ricardo, you are a lucky man;
I can understand your wish to learn Polish just to read Lem's books. I thinked about learning German myself because nearly all Lem's works are translated and published in that language (specially Summa technologiae! ) Sadly I am quite bad learning languages, so I will have to buy the rest of the books available in English.
Lem himself learned English just to read "Star maker" from Olaf Stapledon (incredible book), with the book in one hand and the dictionary in the other. Although I guess you all already knew that.

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Forum in English / Re: Fiasco

« dnia: Maja 03, 2005, 02:22:05 am »

No doubt Wojtyla was a great philosopher. His conclusions were very profound.

If "Fides et ratio" is a good example of his philosophy, I disagree with you. Lots of faith but lacking analysis...  

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Forum in English / Re: Fiasco

« dnia: Maja 03, 2005, 02:18:11 am »

I read about it in several small biographies, like this one:
http://underpear.gyuvetch.bg/lem/bathww97.htm

However, I still have to read a good biographic book about Lem. I will buy "Highcastle" or "S. Lem reader", sooner or later. Maybe Lem mentions Wojtyla there...

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Forum in English / Re: Fiasco

« dnia: Kwietnia 30, 2005, 12:50:33 am »

Thanks for the info, Terminus.
I am reading "Fides et ratio", and to be fair I don't see a clear relation between Arago and Wojtyla. The problem is that Arago talks very briefly along the book, so I can't get a clear image of his thinking.
I didn't know Wojtyla was so much into philosophy, I guess this could be the main common interest  between Lem and Wojtyla.

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Forum in English / Re: Fiasco

« dnia: Kwietnia 26, 2005, 06:49:35 pm »

Let's talk about other questions regarding Fiasco.
One of the most intriguing characters in Fiasco is father Arago (I am not sure of the name in the English translation).
Some persons suggest father Arago was created by Lem remenbering his old friendship with Karol Wotjyla.
Is there any similarity beween Arago behaviour and Wojtyla thinking?

Lem has been quite harsh towards christianism, so it's surprising to see that Arago is the most compassionate character of the lot.
IMHO Lem uses the figure of Arago to state that, as rationalism is necessarily limited, mankind needs also a good dose of ethics based on humility.
What do you think?

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Forum in English / Re: Fiasco

« dnia: Kwietnia 25, 2005, 06:04:34 pm »

In the End, it fails, after all difficulties the box is empty.

"The box is empty"; of course, this end is very explicit. Silly me, I missed it, thanks a lot for underlining this.

BTW, I have read the gold search tale again. But I don't see any special meaning, it just reads like a cautionary tale. I am sure the are more symbols related to the SETI search, but I did not find them...

Well, I will posting more questions about Fiasco in a near future. Hang there...

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Forum in English / Re: "There are no answers. There are only Cho

« dnia: Kwietnia 25, 2005, 01:38:09 pm »

I really should be replying to a heated discussion on The Singularity I am having by e-mail with a mathematician, but since you have been interested enough to visit my web site several times over the past few days, I feel obliged to reply to your posts here.

Thanks, but you are probably confusing me with other person. I have visited your page one time, if I remenber correctly.

I do appreciate your views on what you believe Lem thinks, but I still maintain only Lem can speak for Lem. Thank you anyway.

As many writers, Lems speaks through his books. If you interested in what Lem thinks, you should read them.
The bulk of his opinions on philosophy is found specially in Cyberiad and Diaries from the stars (the second part).

So you don't have to take my word, just read Lem books!

You know you are right. You know this is how it really is, and it just could not work any other way.
 Everyone else believes the vary same thing about their choices.

Not at all, any thinker worth it's salt is aware about the imposibility of obtaining an absolute certitude about anything.
In fact this is one of Lem's recurring themes.
About my own thinking, I am aware that solipsism and idealism are possible, but I don't see that's the case.

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Forum in English / Re: Fiasco

« dnia: Kwietnia 22, 2005, 01:28:22 pm »

Your interpretation sounds reasonable. I am re-reading Fiasco right now, so maybe I will add something to this idea soon.
About the saviour example, I mentioned it because it's a real one. When people is asked about what does they expect from a extraterrestial contact, this is a common answer. Specially christian priests, of course. They want to know if their beliefs are confirmed by other intelligent species. After all, they consider their beliefs to be universal!
I think this is a perfect example of human myopia, although your example of requesting a reunion with a president could be a better one.

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Forum in English / Re: THE EARTH DAY

« dnia: Kwietnia 22, 2005, 01:18:16 pm »

APRIL THE 22 IS ALSO LENIN`S BIRTHDAY    
  FOR THOSE WHO DON`T KNOW HE`S A LEADER OF THE WORLD PROLETARIAT.

Hello; from some comments in other thread I thinked you were anticommunist.

A question/ did anyone see orange rain in his country?/
 It was on Monday if I`m not mistaken.I connect it with the work of some POWER STATION which has same as in Chornobyl reactor. Reassure me Please.

Not here; anyway, I don't think this kind of rain can result from a nuclear reactor.
Orange rain...I have no idea, it could be the result of coal fueled power stations, or maybe a paper factory...

I comment this because most scientist today support nuclear energy as the only solution to global warming and other contamination problems.
It's not a good idea to acuse the nuclear industry for contamination they don't produce.

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Forum in English / Re: "There are no answers. There are only Cho

« dnia: Kwietnia 20, 2005, 04:38:55 pm »

BUT, have mercy - what a heck do you expect them to look like? It they really were randomly (not pseudo-randomly) selected - they would look exactly the same. A square here, straight line there. It's just the consequence of the fact that you use only two symbols. Use six, then we'll see what is the randomness.  

Mmmm...No, the main point of my little puzzle is about Pareidolia, the human tendency of seeing "faces in the clouds".
Most thinkers find purpose on nature, see the patterns, the mechanism, and deduce that a creator have designed it, or that a deep mistery about nature exist.
However, as humans we are condemned to find patterns anywhere, to match every information with our existing prejudices. I think that small labyrinth, which in reality amounts to a bag of stochastically (not random) distributed bars, show that lesson quite nicely.

The question about randomness is a secondary point. Most idealists try to scape the consequences of determinism and modern neuroscience through quantum mechanics. Most physics thinks that indeterminism exist at microscopic level, and others think indeterminism is NEEDED for QM and General Relativity to be correct.
However, as you pointed out: How can one find a diference between true randomness and stochastically generated noise? And, even if you can, does it matter? Would our universe, and our own nature as humans, be different if indeterminacy exist at any level? I don't think so.