Summa Technologiae (the title is in Latin, meaning "Sum of Technology" in English) is a 1964 (1967 - second edition) book by Polish author Stanisław Lem. Summa is one of the first collections of philosophical essays by Lem. The book exhibits depth of insight and irony usual for Lem's creations. The name is an allusion to Summa Theologiae by Thomas Aquinas and to Summa Theologiae by Albertus Magnus. Paraphrasing the author, the book tries to "examine the thorns of roses that have not flowered yet" - in other words, to deal with problems of the remote (and in some cases, not so remote) future. The primary question Lem treats in the book is that of civilization in the absence of limitations, both technological and material. He also looks at moral-ethical and philosophical consequences of future technologies. Despite its age and a number of inaccuracies in specific domains (e.g., mathematics, biology, sociology), the book has lost no momentum in the past years. Surprising as it can be, some issues discussed in the book sound more contemporary nowadays than 40 years ago. Among the themes that Lem discusses in the book and that were completely in the realm of science fiction then, but are gaining importance today, are virtual reality, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and technological singularity. Translator’s Introduction Joanna Zylinska Summa Technologiae 1. Dilemmas 2. Two Evolutions Similarities Differences The First Cause Several Naïve Questions 3. Civilizations in the Universe The Formulation of the Problem The Formulation of the Method The Statistics of Civilizations in the Universe A Catastrophic Theory of the Universe A Metatheory of Miracles Man’s Uniqueness Intelligence: An Accident or a Necessity? Hypotheses Votum Separatum Future Prospects 4. Intelectronics Return to Earth A Megabyte Bomb The Big Game Scientific Myths The Intelligence Amplifier The Black Box The Morality of Homeostats The Dangers of Electrocracy Cybernetics and Sociology Belief and Information Experimental Metaphysics The Beliefs of Electric Brains The Ghost in the Machine The Trouble with Information Doubts and Antinomies 5. Prolegomena to Omnipotence Before Chaos Chaos and Order Scylla and Charybdis: On Restraint The Silence of the Designer Methodological Madness A New Linnaeus: About Systematics Models and Reality Plagiarism and Creation On Imitology 6. Phantomology The Fundamentals of Phantomatics The Phantomatic Machine Peripheral and Central Phantomatics The Limits of Phantomatics Cerebromatics Teletaxy and Phantoplication Personality and Information 7. The Creation of Worlds Information Farming Linguistic Engineering The Engineering of Transcendence Cosmogonic Engineering 8. A Lampoon of Evolution Reconstructing the Species Constructing Life Constructing Death Constructing Consciousness Error-based Constructs Bionics and Biocybernetics In the Eyes of the Designer Reconstructing Man Cyborgization The Autoevolutionary Machine Extrasensory Phenomena Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
