science with Lem

[wetal]

This is what I was driving at and also wanted to mention Stephen Hawking and Isaac Asimov.

[YODA]

They are not "scientific" as well as Lem's books are not.

I`m afraid You are wrong...

[YODA]

They are not "scientific" as well as Lem's books are not.

I`m afraid You are wrong...
St. Lem isn`t  a researcher himself obviously, however scientists from very many countries all over the world have been inspired by his books for a few dozen years (trust me )
Once (Soviet Union was still existed then and "a discipline" was very important there) in spite of approved plans of Lem`s visit he was almost kidnapped from the airport just by the scientists of Soviet Cosmic Centre. They kept him away for two days...
tell me pirxowa, please... "why?" and "what for?" Consider this.
I`m recommending You Lem`s "Summa Technologiae". You should read it necessarily - You shall change your mind about this question and we`ll return to the conversation
Cheers. Y.

[pirxowa]

I`m afraid You are wrong...
St. Lem isn`t  a researcher himself obviously, however scientists from very many countries all over the world have been inspired by his books for a few dozen years (trust me )

:-) I am a scientist myself. Trust me. :-)

Please give me an example of ANY scientific discovery made under inspiration of Lem.

[Terminus]

What he may mean is that some scientists are inspired by Lem on a daily basis. That doesn't necesarily have to yield the specific discoveries. How do you inspire a serious discovery anyway? If somebody is a dork working his time fruitlessly, as it, as you must know, happens too often in Polish science, no inspiration will revieve his/hers creativity.

[pirxowa]

What he may mean is that some scientists are inspired by Lem on a daily basis. That doesn't necesarily have to yield the specific discoveries.

Which means that it is not a SCIENTIFIC inspiration. It may be at most a philosophical one. Lem is not a researcher. He may be considered a philosopher, but not a scientist in the sense of natural science.

How do you inspire...

The only inspiration in my work are the discoveries of other scientists.

...a serious discovery...?

Not yet. When I receive the Nobel prize, I will tell you.

[Terminus]

You don't need to tell me what inspires a scientist.
I was just speculationg about what Yoda meant.

As for Nobel prize, I wish you all the very best.

[Ryszard]

My 3 cents.
Lem is not a scientist, but he is scientificly minded.
Having plenty of time, he is able to absorb many diverse ideas and reach reasonable conclusions not that much of scientific kind, but rather philosophical in nature.
He puts many of this in his writings.
He also maybe called humanist, maybe due to his medical education. I think this is important, because he adds human factor to all scientific divagations. To be clear, not humanist ideas, but rather human factor - human nature influencing science and technology.
It is inspiring. Just do not take it literaly.
I found myself influenced by this philosophy in my everyday professional activities.

[Miranda]

Two more pence:
What about really great discoveries e.g. in physics? (I am a scientist myself, but different branch, so I can’t tell). To find out something really “big”, isn’t it necessary to be a philosopher as well? Or let’s say a visionary.

As long as Pirxowa says one is only inspired by the discoveries of other scientists one can’t really leave the given horizon. Of course everyone will accept your work as scientific (in a narrow sense) as well, for you never leave the scope of the whole scientific community. Well done jobs! Important jobs, that’s not the point.
But so many here said they are inspired by Lems books themselves…Maybe because he leaves with his books the well known scientific fields and steps aside into a new arena of science – with speculation, prognosis, unbound ideas, open possibilities. Somebody wrote: Lem writes for ordinary people. Doesn’t he write for ordinary scientists? My aunt Annie would not read Lem, that’s for sure.
Now, isn’t he, who doesn’t claim to know what science ('really') is, the ‘real scientist’? Remember once they agreed on the earth as the centre of the universe as the Bible was the scientific thruth! Bad example, I agree, but anyway, you know what I mean….

[Ritch]

Please give me an example of ANY scientific discovery made under inspiration of Lem.

Not exactly scientfic discovery but a technological improve was the virtual reality prophetized by Lem, he called phantomatics.

I'm not sure but I think he also foresaw the nanotechnology

[Deckard]

Just a few days ago I had an opportunity to read an internet article on artificial intelligence (that article was given in Polish section) where the scientist was pointing at philosophy as a mean of inspiration for making new scientific discoveries.
If philosophy can be inspiring then Lem's books can be an inspiration for a scientist as well. That's because Lem is not only a great writer but also a philosopher.

I think the same story goes with adventure and science-fiction novels. They were motivating lots of people in their quests for the answers.

CU
Deck

[daffodil2006]

Lem was interested in natural science since his early childhood. In his autobiographic novel HIGH CASTLE(vusokij zamok, I'm sorry if the title's translation isn't correct, I read Lem's books in Russian) he told us about his first experince in Biology and Chemistry. His works are illustrated with numerous scientific observation. He isn't brilliant in details, but he is really great in the main ideas and the whole threads of thinking. That's my conclusion which I made after reading SUMMA of TECHOLOGY.

[Metalist]

Lem was a scientific visionary. Which is a very important part of science as well as any other developmental venture.

[Pekka]

Not exactly scientfic discovery but a technological improve was the virtual reality prophetized by Lem, he called phantomatics.

I'm not sure but I think he also foresaw the nanotechnology

In Astronauci (this indeed was translated into Finnish!) the message from Venus is decyphered by connecting computers in different places on Earth to create a modular supercomputer...wasn´t it quite visionary in 1950?Strange, I have never seen anywhere anybody else pointing this out...

Pekka