Mars is not an alternative for Earthlings Interwiew with TOMASZ LEM, son of Stanisław Lem – Polish science fiction writer, philosopher and futurologist, author of such books as Solaris, The Cyberiad, The Star Diaries, Fables for Robots, Tales of Pirx the Pilot, The Futurological Congress, Observation on the Spot.
Copyright by Anna Lem
In his books Stanisław Lem reached the furthest frontiers issues
of
the
coming
condition,
directly
future
technological
universe,
of
but
from
mankind
changes,
threats
actually
the in
to
Earth:
the
our
heraised
human
context
of
civilization
and the planet itself. Did he believe that mankind could really be saved by the settlement of other planets/
(which doesn’t, of course, determine future engineering possibilities which are unimaginable today). However, in order to save mankind we should probably start from rescuing the Earth, that is from preventing climate changes which we cause – for example by giving up fossil fuels for the benefit of renewable energy. Besides, if we cannot use the Earth’s deposits in a responsible way, why should we be able
systems?
to do so on another planet?
I don’t remember my father ever seriously expressing
Stanisław Lem often expressed very important topics in
the idea that mankind should look for another place in the universe, as an alternative to the Earth. Such an idea is rather unreal from the point of view of the extrapola-
a humorous way. Would he be amused by the fact that Elon Musk has sent a cheery-red car with a dummy on board, listening to David Bowie, towards Mars?
tion of technologies which we now have at our disposal
20
S pac e I n va d e r s / W e Da r e to I n v i t e Yo u
