SOURCE: “Stanislaw Lem and a Topology of Mind,” in Science-Fiction Studies, Vol. 19, Pt. 2, July, 1992, pp. 161–65.

In the following essay, Weissert examines Lem's investigation of the human mind and evolutionary consciousness in his fiction, particularly as reflected in his portrayal of inorganic extraterrestrial intelligence in Solaris and The Invincible.

Reading the fiction of Stanislaw Lem, one inevitably discovers the recurring theme of contact with another noetic species—that is, a species with the property of mind. Although Lem explores a wide range of possible forms of other species, the result of the contact in each case runs from relatively benign failure to find a common language, as in The Invincible, to total genocidal fiasco, as in his most recent novel, Fiasco. In that work, Lem expounds his “window of contact” theory, which delimits the period of time during which two noetic species may actually communicate with each other. According...