The General Theory of Everything ( pl, Ogólna Teoria Wszystkiego) is a sarcastic coinage of

Stanisław Lem Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer of science fiction and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fiction stories are of satirical ...

introduced in 1966. The biographical sketch of

Ijon Tichy Ijon Tichy (Polish pronunciation: ) is a fictional character who appears in several works of the Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem: initially in ''The Star Diaries'', later in ''The Futurological Congress'', ''Peace on Earth (novel), Peac ...

in "The Twenty-eighth Voyage" of Tychy's ''

Star Diaries , image = File:TheStarDiaries.jpg , caption = First edition , author = Stanisław Lem , translator = ''English:'' Michael Kandel , illustrator = Stanisław Lem , cover_artist = Marian Stachurski , country = Poland , language = Polish, Engli ...

'' says that a grandfather of Ijon, Jeremiasz Tichy, "decided to create the General Theory of Everything, and nothing stopped him from doing this". Apart of being a precursor of the term "

Theory of Everything A theory of everything (TOE or TOE/ToE), final theory, ultimate theory, unified field theory or master theory is a hypothetical, singular, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all asp ...

," the term GTE was used to characterize Lem's essays of fundamental character, such as ''

The Philosophy of Chance ''The Philosophy of Chance'', with subtitle ''"Literature in the Light of Empiricism"'' ( pl, Filozofia przypadku. Literatura w świetle empirii) is an essay by Polish author Stanisław Lem on the literary theory and the influence of literatur ...

'' and ''

Science Fiction and Futurology ''Science Fiction and Futurology'' ( pl, Fantastyka i futurologia) is a monograph of Stanisław Lem about science fiction and futurology, first printed by Wydawnictwo Literackie in 1970. The official Lem website describes the book as a triple f ...

'',"Fantastyka i futurologia"
at Lem's official website as well as the pseudoscientific work of Polish scifi writer Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg, ''Jednolita teoria czasoprzestrzeni'' The Uniform Theory of the Spacetime"(1990)Lech Keller
"Przyczynek do biografii Stanisława Lema"
(retrieved February 16, 2020), Acta Polonica Monashiensis (Monash University: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) Volume 3 Number 2, R&S Press, Melbourne, Vic., 2019, p. 9

References

{{Stanisław Lem Stanisław Lem