Translated material
Stanislav Lem died
Lem was born on September 12, 1921 in Lvov into a family of doctors. In 1939-1941 he studied at the Lvov Medical Institute. During the German occupation, Lem worked as a mechanic's assistant and welder. In 1948 he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
Began publishing in 1946. Lem was not only a science fiction writer, but also a scientific theorist, well versed in the theory of evolution, mathematics, cybernetics, astronomy and physics. Among his most famous books are “Star Diaries”, “Solaris” (filmed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972 and Steven Soderbergh in 2002), “Robot Tales”, “Tales of the Pilot Pirx”.
"The world is really heading towards the abyss"
About me
I have already gone through so many political systems that I can complain as much as I like, especially since I don’t consider what I experienced particularly inspiring: the Soviets, the German occupation, then the Soviets again, then the People’s Republic of Poland, and now - who knows what.
About the future
We are heading straight towards a nuclear conflict. The world is truly heading towards an abyss. The Iraqi issue has been launched. Syria is also not particularly clean. Tehran will certainly not be afraid of the UN Security Council. I really believe that it doesn't matter who the president of Poland is. It matters who the President of America is. Every day, dozens of people are dying in Iraq, and this idiot says that the situation is improving. Well, what to do with such a person?
About the powers that be
President Bush has this thing about him: he's stupid. This is evidenced by the fact that he opposed the theory of evolution in favor of the so-called intelligent design , the essence of which is that it is not known what it is. His entire administration is promoting this idiotic theory, but they are simply not smart enough.
About Poland
Poland is a backwater of civilization that actually has no weight in the world. If I were thirty years younger, I would want to leave Poland again. There's just nowhere to go.
The only thing we can be happy about is freedom of the press and the absence of censorship. Everything else looks the way it looks. For example, intellectuals who have weight in today's Poland can be placed in one room.
Today in Poland anyone can become a professor, we have plenty of professors, but this frightening number does not want to turn into quality. My son studied physics at Princeton University and has a Ph.D. Returned to Poland. And what should he do here? Catching atoms with your hands?
About Putin
There is no question of friendship with Putin, because he doesn’t like us (the Poles. - Ed. ), and not only for the “orange revolution” (in Ukraine. - Ed. ), which, by the way, is nothing special changed.
About the meaning of life
In the endless starry void, suddenly there is a tiny, just microscopic glimpse of consciousness - mine or yours, an ant or some bird - and then, when life ends, it goes out, and this endless nothingness continues. It seems to me that this consciousness should shine.
From an interview with the Polish newspaper Przeglad, December 21, 2005