And for me there's a lesson there. When setting out to build something, it can be worth starting our thinking with a user-driven fantasy, ignoring technical possibility. Over time, what we make converges on what our customers secretly wanted all along.
Sure, you have to be practical to get something out the door, but I think it's worth starting from the vision. Interestingly, the things that let the Kindle crush its competitors were even more magical than Lem's vision. Instead of physical tokens containing books, the Kindle gave you near-instant access to hundreds of thousands of books.
> When setting out to build something, it can be worth starting our thinking with a user-driven fantasy, ignoring technical possibility
That's why Wells (time machine etc. aside) scored some more accurate predictions than Verne, who was much more inclined to stay in the realm of "scientifically conceivable" by the standards of the era.
This was true until Verne's 'Paris in the Twentieth Century' was published. It changed everything.
It was Verne's lost novel, written in 1863, published 1994. It was not published because his publisher thought it was too unbelievable and would not sell.
It's a dystopian and dark novel describing a technological civilization in 1960's. It predicts cultural and technological details correct constantly. It's one of the most accurate sci-fi novels ever written. Television, gasoline powered cars, automated systems, suburban sprawls, financial industry, fax machines, synthesizer, subways, women in a working force, skyscrapers, weapons of mass destruction, mass education, ...
Also, a surprisingly accurate description of the Machine Learning (to be exact, reinforcement learning) process from the story "Ananke" inside https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Pirx_the_Pilot written in 60s/70s.
The Pirx stories, esp. Ananke and The Haunt are among my favourite short stories of all time. I've always seen them as parables rather than Sci Fi novels, because in the end the "problem" is always human nature, not technology per se. The're also parables in the sense that Lem wrote about political things he couldn't address directly in the political climate at the time.
I love Pirx and having a Polish connection in my life I think gave me a richer appreciation even of a translation. Definitely going to check out more Lem after reading this thread. And can't agree more on Lem's prescience - the lovely thing is that my enjoyment whilst reading was never broken by picking holes in the descriptions around technology. Thank you Lem.
I use that story as an example of how hard it is to automate translation of poetry. I don't have an original Polish copy, but my friend and I have compared his Hungarian translation to my English one. The poems are very different, but the intent of them is there.
Lem's brilliant English translator, Michael Kandel, wanted to adapt the The Cyberiad as an animated film, using CGI (this was pre-Toy Story!) Lem never agreed, but he never entirely rejected the idea either.
I saw some clips that had been created as demos, probably in the early 1990s. My recollection is that even by the animation standards of the day, it wasn't great, but there were like two guys working in their spare time without funding, and they had to invent a lot of their own tools.
Heh, I just commented[1] without having seen your comment, on the same topic. There's a link in my comment to a more literal rendition[2] of the original Polish. How does the Hungarian one pan out? :)
As I recall, it's about a suitcase. Every word begins with K, which is a common letter in Hungarian. The second link you give has images of many translations, including the Hungarian one. I'll see if I can get my friend to send me a literal translation.
Possibly the first prosaic take on singularity from early 80's (computer AIs improving themselves ad infinitum): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem_XIV
All of that in his Summa Technologiae from 60's (SETI, AIs, Virtual Realities): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summa_Technologiae