Stanisław Lem Publishes The Cyberiad

Publication · Europe

A working robot built after Trurl’s Electronic Bard from The Cyberiad, at the Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw. Robot modeled on Lem’s Electronic Bard (Elektrybałt), Copernicus Science Centre, Warsaw. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Karel Čapek gave us the word "robot" in R.U.R., previously mentioned in this timeline. In 1965 Stanisław Lem published a new book of dire warnings (er, I mean fables).

The book was Cyberiada and its heroes, Trurl and Klapaucius, are rival robot constructors who can build almost anything. In one story Trurl builds the Electronic Bard, a machine that writes poetry on command; asked for a love poem in the language of pure mathematics, it obliges, and its verse drives the kingdom's poets to despair.

These fears have never been hard to imagine. What took sixty years was for fable to connect with theory, technology, data and compute to start turning into reality.

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random.

Sources

https://culture.pl/en/work/the-cyberiad-stanislaw-lem

Movements

artificial intelligence

Filed under

Ideas: science fiction
Other subjects: computer poetry, Electronic Bard, Michael Kandel, Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad, Trurl

Le Random editorials

Explore all Le Random editorials and artist interviews

Le Random podcast

Timeline Ch 4—Digital Era Pt I (1960s) with Dr A Michael Noll — listen with transcript on Le Random (07 Sep 2023, 60 min). Chapter 4’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify
Timeline Ch 4—Digital Era Pt II (1960s) with Michael Spalter — listen with transcript on Le Random (21 Sep 2023, 77 min). Chapter 4’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify