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Stanisław Lem

I'm going to be reading The Cyberiad by Stanisław Lem for my Sci-fi book club. I will write my thoughts as I get into this book here. My blogs are notes that are not finished on publication, I keep updating them, so don't be surprised if you come back to a post and it's been added too and edited, hopefully for the better. I should start a blog called Rough Drafts. 

The introduction writes “ Soviet medicine was dominated by the eugenic theories of Trofim Lysenko,”

Google writes, “ No, Soviet medicine was not dominated by eugenic theories, but rather by Lysenkoism, a discredited biological theory championed by Trofim Lysenko. Lysenkoism, which focused on environmentally induced, heritable traits, had a detrimental impact on Soviet genetics and agriculture, but was not directly related to eugenics. While eugenics did exist in the Soviet Union, it was not the dominant ideology in medicine, and Lysenkoism was a separate and distinct phenomenon.”

So OK. No doubt Google has swerved right lately, but it also feels like an overstatement in the introduction too. 


First through, similar to Lewis Carroll in taking things to their logical end, with a George Orwell overlay. I feel like the above machines where 2+2=7 is a political machine. 

There's also a steampunk element. Machines everywhere, workshops, mechanics.

King Atrocious--there's a obvious naming trend in modern times. Viscous in Cowboy Bebop. 



Links to posts about The Cyberiad and Stanislaw Lem:

Osvaldo Simeone

Wikipedia bio of Lem

Wikipedia on The Cyberiad


Last updated 8/8/25. 


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