Between an Animal and a Machine Stanisław Lem's Technological Utopia
Material type:
ArticleSeries: Publication details: Bern Peter Lang International Academic Publishers 2018Description: 1 electronic resource (246 p.)Content type: - text
- computer
- online resource
- Biography, Literature and Literary studies
- Literature: history and criticism
- Literary theory
- Literary studies: general
- Society and Social Sciences
- Society and culture: general
- Social groups, communities and identities
- Gender studies, gender groups
- Philosophy and Religion
- Philosophy
- Animal
- Kowalska
- Lem's
- Machine
- Majewski
- Malgorzata
- Paweł
- Stanisław
- Technological
- Utopia
- autoevolution
- cybernetics
- literary studies
- posthumanism
- queer studies
- transhumanism
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The subject of this book is the philosophy of Stanisław Lem. The first part contains an analysis and interpretation of one of his early works, The Dialogues. The author tries to show how Lem used the terminology of cybernetics to create a project of sociology and anthropology. The second part examines Lem's essay Summa technologiae, which is considered as the project of human autoevolution. The term «autoevolution» is a neologism for the concept of humans taking control over their own biological evolution and form in order to improve the conditions of their being. In this interpretation, Summa is an example of a liberal utopia, based on the assumption that all human problems can be resolved by science. Various social theories, which can be linked to the project of autoevolution, are presented in the final part.
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eng
Freely available e-book