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e70cd2b
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The fate of a single man can be rich with significance, that of a few hundred less so, but the history of thousands and millions of men does not mean anything at all, in any adequate sense of the word.
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Stanisław Lem |
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28bb247
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it is easy not to believe in monsters, considerably more difficult to escape their dread and loathsome clutches.
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Stanisław Lem |
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046a985
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We take off into the cosmos, ready for anything: for solitude, for hardship, for exhaustion, death. Modesty forbids us to say so, but there are times when we think pretty well of ourselves. And yet, if we examine it more closely, our enthusiasm turns out to be all sham. We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos.... We are humanitarian and chivalrous; we don't want t..
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racism
jingoism
new-worlds
imperialism
space-exploration
science-fiction
self-image
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Stanisław Lem |
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72823b5
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And yet we knew, for a certainty, that when first emissaries of Earth went walking among the planets, Earth's other sons would be dreaming not about such expeditions but about a piece of bread.
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science
lem
planet
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Stanisław Lem |
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551ee50
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For what are myths if not the imposing of order on phenomena that do not possess order in themselves? And all myths, however they differ from philosophical systems and scientific theories, share this with them, that they negate the principle of randomness in the world.
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order
randomness
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Stanisław Lem |
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ebd74b3
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A man craves ultimate truths. Every mortal mind, I think, is that way. But what is ultimate truth? It's the end of the road, where there is no more mystery, no more hope. And no more questions to ask, since all the answers have been given. But there is no such place. The Universe is a labyrinth made of labyrinths. Each leads to another. And wherever we cannot go ourselves, we reach with mathematics. Out of mathematics we build wagons to car..
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universe
science
truth
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Stanisław Lem |
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914afe3
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Of the two powers, the two categories that take possession of us when we enter the world, space is by far the less mysterious. . . . Space is, after all, solid, monolithic. . . . Time, on the other hand, is a hostile element, truly treacherous, I would say even against human nature.
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time
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Stanisław Lem |
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2337f8a
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Certainly not! I didn't build a machine to solve ridiculous crossword puzzles! That's hack work, not Great Art! Just give it a topic, any topic, as difficult as you like..." Klapaucius thought, and thought some more. Finally he nodded and said: "Very well. Let's have a love poem, lyrical, pastoral, and expressed in the language of pure mathematics. Tensor algebra mainly, with a little topology and higher calculus, if need be. But with feeli..
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poetry
mathematics
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Stanisław Lem |
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9b6f174
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I see a poem as a multi-coloured strip behind peeling plaster, in separate, shining fragments.
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Stanisław Lem |
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5e31dbc
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Come, let us hasten to a higher plane Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn, Their indices bedecked from one to n Commingled in an endless Markov chain! I'll grant thee random access to my heart, Thou'lt tell me all the constants of thy love; And so we two shall all love's lemmas prove, And in our bound partition never part. Cancel me not -- for what then shall remain? Abscissas some mantissas, modules, modes, A root or two, a torus an..
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Stanisław Lem |
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c777500
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She was beautiful all right, beautiful in a way that was at once seductive, demonic, and raspberry.
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Stanisław Lem |
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8d2c4db
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Books are no longer read but eaten, not made of paper but of some informational substance, fully digestible, sugar-coated.
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Stanisław Lem |
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7ca5aef
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Every science comes with its own pseudo-science, a bizarre distortion that comes from a certain kind of mind.
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Stanisław Lem |
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9c182ff
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It's true that even though I'm a world unto myself, I've just a speck of dust in the avalanche of events. But nothing will ever force me to think like a speck of dust!
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Stanisław Lem |
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5e77bd9
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There was a time we tormented one another with excessive honesty in the naive belief it would save us.
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Stanisław Lem |
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f25c8da
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I spent the afternoon in a bookstore. There were no books in it. None had been printed for nearly half a century. And how I have looked forward to them, after the micro films that made up the library of the Prometheus! No such luck. No longer was it possible to browse among shelves, to weigh volumes in hand, to feel their heft, the promise of ponderous reading. The bookstore resembled, instead, an electronic laboratory. The books were cryst..
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Stanisław Lem |
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2994e66
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I had noticed that I had no difficulty conversing with robots, because absolutely nothing surprised them. They were incapable of surprise. A very sensible quality.
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Stanisław Lem |
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fb7c380
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It was not possible to think except with one's brain, no one could stand outside himself in order to check the functioning of his inner processes.
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impartiality
the-other
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Stanisław Lem |
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cfe0237
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Everyone knows that dragons don't exist. But while this simplistic formulation may satisfy the layman, it does not suffice for the scientific mind. The School of Higher Neantical Nillity is in fact wholly unconcerned with what does exist. Indeed, the banality of existence has been so amply demonstrated, there is no need for us to discuss it any further here. The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered three distin..
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existence
science
philosophy
non-existence
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Stanisław Lem |
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8885f76
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One day Trurl the constructor put together a machine that could build anything beginning with the letter 'n'.
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Stanisław Lem |
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bfa2f0e
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Purpose informed every scene on Earth, the planet that produced life, because every detail there had its "benefit," its teleology. True, it did not always--but billions of years of organic labor had accomplished much: thus flowers possessed color for the purpose of attracting insects, and clouds existed for the purpose of dropping rain on pastures and forests. Every form and thing was explained by some benefit..." --
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michael-kandel
p-27
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Stanisław Lem |
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93b84ef
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It was not that the ocean depths served the creatures there with darkness, to protect them from attack--a darkness they could light, as they needed, with luminescence--but vice versa: the darkness gave rise to those that were pressure-resistant and could illuminate themselves.
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michael-kandel
p-27
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Stanisław Lem |
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4ed5cc8
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Not everything everywhere is for us.
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Stanisław Lem |
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5e2b502
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Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible.
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Stanisław Lem |
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6c41e95
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The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes.
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Stanisław Lem |
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bccb0d9
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Not only does God play dice with the world--He does not let us see what He has rolled.
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Stanisław Lem |
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a1c2673
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You are only a puppet. But you don't realize that you are.
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Stanisław Lem |
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af2f35f
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If man had more of a sense of humor, things might have turned out differently.
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Stanisław Lem |
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8250f1d
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Everything is explicable in the terms of the behavior of a small child.
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Stanisław Lem |
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d5a6c6e
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He who has had, has been, but he who hasn't been, has been had.
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Stanisław Lem |