Summa Technologiae

Summa Technologiae
First edition
Author Stanisław Lem
Cover artist Daniel Mróz
Country Poland
Language Polish
Publisher Wydawnictwo Literackie
Publication date
 1964
Published in English
 2013
Pages 448
ISBN 978-0816675760

Summa Technologiae (the title is in Latin, meaning "Summa (Compendium) of Technologies" in English) is a 1964 (1967 - second edition) book by Polish author Stanisław Lem. Summa is one of the first collections of philosophical essays by Lem. The book exhibits depth of insight and irony usual for Lem's creations. The name is an allusion to Summa Theologiae by Thomas Aquinas and to Summa Theologiae by Albertus Magnus.

Paraphrasing the author, the book tries to "examine the thorns of roses that have not flowered yet" - in other words, to deal with problems of the remote (and in some cases, not so remote) future. The primary question Lem treats in the book is that of civilization in the absence of limitations, both technological and material. He also looks at moral-ethical and philosophical consequences of future technologies.

Despite its age and a number of inaccuracies in specific domains (e.g., mathematics, biology, sociology), the book has lost no momentum in the past years.[1] Among the themes that Lem discusses in the book and that were completely in the realm of science fiction then, but are gaining importance today, are virtual reality (Lem calls it "phantomatics"), theory of search engines ("ariadnology", after Ariadne's thread), technological singularity,[2] molecular nanotechnology ("molectronics"), cognitive enhancement ("cerebromatics"), artificial intelligence ("intellectronics"). [1]

The book was originally published in Polish; translations into German, Hungarian and Russian[3] appeared by the 1970s, to be followed by Czech later on. The first full English translation of the book appeared in 2013, by Joanna Zylinska.[4] Chapter I "Dilemmas" and fragments of chapters II "Two Evolutions", IV "Intellectronics" and VI "Pasquil on the Evolution" had earlier been translated by Frank Prengel.[1]

In the preface to the first edition Lem mentions the crucial role of Iosif Shklovsky's popular science monograph Вселенная, жизнь, разум (English: Universe, Life, Intelligence, Moscow, USSR Academy of Sciences Publisher, 1962) in shaping Lem's Summae.

Contents

The book has 8 chapters, each dealing with far-fetched implications of a certain concept:

1. Dilemmas
Lem starts by presenting his views on future prognostication and motivations in writing the book.
2. Two Evolutions
This chapter considers similarities between several evolutions: biological, technological and social.
3. Space Civilizations
An overview of contemporary (to the book) SETI efforts and theories is given, with their criticism.
4. Intellectronics
A word coined by Lem to speculate on the field that is known today as artificial intelligence: The day will come when machine intelligence will rival or surpass the human one. Moreover, problems facing humankind may surpass the intellectual abilities of flesh and blood researchers. What shall we expect (or fear) in this conception of the future?
5. Prolegomena to Omnipotence
Technological evolution gives us more and more abilities—in fact, sometime in the future we should be able to do everything at all! Or maybe not?
6. Phantomology
Another term invented by Lem for what is known now as virtual reality. Human perception is limited by biology—so maybe we can bypass the real omnipotence in favor of an imitated one? Even in this case, Lem finds many surprising problems.
7. Creation of the Worlds
May it be that instead of painstaking research we can "grow" new information from available information in an automatic way? Starting with this question Lem evolves the concept to the creation of whole new Universes, including (as a special treat) the construction of a heaven/hell/afterlife enabled one.
8. Pasquinade on Evolution
Biological evolution did a rather lousy job designing humans and other animals. Can engineers do better?

The first edition also contained:

9 Art and Technology
(Polish: Sztuka i technologia.) After Leszek Kołakowski severely criticised the chapter, it was removed in later editions, both Polish and foreign. In 1988 Lem remarked that during the time past the subject had gained it its actuality.[5]


Translations

  • English: Lem, Stanisław (2013). Summa technologiae. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0816675767. , first complete English translation; translated by Joanna Zylinska[2]
  • German: Lem, Stanisław. Summa Technologiae, Transl. Friedrich Griese, Frankfurt, Insel Verlag, 1976, ISBN 3-458-15021-8
  • Spanish: Lem, Stanisław. Summa Technologiae, Transl. Bárbara Gill, Buenos Aires, Ediciones Godot, 2017, ISBN 978-987-4086-35-8

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Book No One Read", by Lee Billings, September 10, 2015
  2. 1 2 "A brilliant trip back to the technological future", New Scientist, May 15, 2013
  3. ↑ Russian translation of second edition: Mir , 1968, USSR, "Сумма Технологии" (transliteration: Summa Technologii, translation: Sum of Technology).
  4. ↑ Stanislaw Lem, "Summa Technologiae", translated by Joanna Zylinska, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis-London, 2013, ISBN 978-0816675760.
  5. ↑ Stanisław Lem, Filozofia przypadku, 3rd edition, 1988, chapter XI.
  • Partial translation into English (by Dr. Frank Prengel) at the Wayback Machine (archived October 12, 2004)
  • Lem's short description of the book, in English
  • The rise of data and the death of politics (2014-07-19), Evgeny Morozov, TheGuardian.
  • Searle, Rick (22 November 2014). "Summa Technologiae, or why the trouble with science is religion". Utopia or Dystopia. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
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