Lecturer: Maksym Tsizh – Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, researcher at the Astronomical Observatory of Lviv University, a fan of Lem’s work.
In my lecture I will try to cover the work of the famous science fiction writer from Lviv in terms of scientific topics and described fantastic (or not so fantastic) technologies in his works. We will talk about what Stanislav Lem fantasized about, what he dreamed about and predicted, we will see the percentage of true predictions and realized technical inventions, we will compare his wildest dreams with reality.
The science fiction writer left a colossal legacy: 17 great novels, 8 cycles of novels and short stories (and dozens of other works that were not included in any of them), 8 plays, diaries, interviews, journalism – and in each work he showed how quirky human thought can be and how endless human imagination can be. Lem was a man of just fantastic erudition, and we will see this by going through a wide range of scientific and philosophical questions which he touched upon.