„Summa Technologie is a „mother-essay from which most of Lem’s later essayistic books stem. It was written in times when most of the discussed issues – today sometimes quite obvious ones – belonged to the world of fantasy. The ambition behind this project still amazes, especially if we take into consideration that Lem tried to set up a secular edifice of knowledge, competing in its universalism with Saint Thomas Aquinas and his Summa Theologica.
At the same time the book rivals world futurology — in the domain of foreseeing future ways of science and technology. Current generation, interested in biotechnology and informatics, shall find in Lem’s “Summa” the project and prophecy of todays’ successes of these disciplines.
The English translation (University Of Minnesota Press, 2013) is the work of Joanna Zylinska, professor of new media and communications at Goldsmiths, University of London.
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