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Extensa
''Extensa'' is a 2002 science fiction novel written by Jacek Dukaj, Polish science fiction writer. It is the second stand alone novels by Dukaj, and the first published by Wydawnictwo Literackie, marking the writer's growing recognition in Poland. The novel protagonist is one of the few remaining, unaugmented human beings on Earth, and the novel's plot focuses on their life, as they consider whether to remain a traditional human being or embrace a transition to a transhumanist, singularitarian entity. It was translated into Hungarian in 2012. Plot The novel fits in the science fiction genre, describing a post- singularity society, where some humans have evolved further while others chose to remain behind. Like other works by Dukaj, the novel deals with highly advanced technology (like EPR paradox, related to the Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky bridge) and its implications for human society. The story depicts a world where there is a cultural conflict between those who support evol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacek Dukaj
Jacek Józef Dukaj (pronounced: ; born 30 July 1974) is a Polish science fiction and fantasy writer. His fiction explores such themes as alternate history, alternative physics and logic, human nature, religion, the relationship between science and Power (social and political), power, technological singularity, artificial intelligence, and transhumanism. He is regarded among the most popular Polish contemporary science fiction authors. He is the recipient of numerous national and international literary prizes including the European Union Prize for Literature, Janusz A. Zajdel Award and Eurocon#European SF Awards, European Science Fiction Award. Career He was born on 30 July 1974 in Tarnów. He graduated from High School No. 3 in Tarnów and subsequently studied philosophy at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He made his literary debut at the age of 16 when he published his short story "" ("The Golden Galley") in the ''Fantastyka'' science-fiction monthly. In 1997, he pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is an affinity group for contributors with shared goals within the Wikimedia movement. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within Wikimedia project, sibling projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by ''Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Post-human
Posthuman or post-human is a concept originating in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy that means a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human. The concept aims at addressing a variety of questions, including ethics and justice, language and trans-species communication, social systems, and the intellectual aspirations of interdisciplinarity. Posthumanism is not to be confused with transhumanism (the biotechnological enhancement of human beings) and narrow definitions of the posthuman as the hoped-for transcendence of materiality. The notion of the posthuman comes up both in posthumanism as well as transhumanism, but it has a special meaning in each tradition. Posthumanism In critical theory, the posthuman is a speculative being that represents or seeks to re-conceive the human. It is the object of posthumanist criticism, which critically questions humanism, a branch of humanist philosophy which claims that human nature i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SuperNowa
The Independent Publishing House NOWA (, meaning 'new' or 'nova') was the first underground publishing house in the Polish People's Republic (see samizdat). After opening in 1977, it soon became the largest independent publisher in Communist Poland. In 1989, after the fall of Communism and the change to a democratic political system, the publishing house changed its name to ''SuperNowa'' (meaning "supernew" or “supernova”) and became private in 1993. It continues to publish works to this day, including books by Andrzej Sapkowski. Beginning In 1977, Students at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin started an independent publishing house, creating their own magazine, ''Zapis'', and the first two issues were published under that name. The name ''Nieocenzurowana Oficyna Wydawnicza'' (NOWA-Uncensored Publishing House) was suggested by Janusz Krupski, Piotr Jegliński and Wit Wójtowicz, and that summer, the Lublin students contacted Mirosław Chojecki, an activist for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cultural Conflict
Cultural conflict is a type of conflict (process), conflict that occurs when different culture, cultural Value (personal and cultural), values and beliefs clash. Broad and narrow definitions exist for the concept, both of which have been used to explain violence (including war) and crime, on either a micro or macro scale. Conflicting values Jonathan H. Turner defines ''cultural conflict'' as a conflict caused by "differences in culture, cultural Value (personal and cultural), values and beliefs that place people at odds with one another." On a micro level, Alexander Grewe discusses cultural conflict between hotel-guests of different culture and nationality as seen in the British 1970s sitcom ''Fawlty Towers''. He defines this conflict as one that occurs when people's expectations of a certain behavior coming from their cultural backgrounds are not met, as others have different cultural backgrounds and different expectations. Cultural conflicts are difficult to resolve as parties ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiasco (novel)
''Fiasco'' () is a science fiction novel by Polish author Stanisław Lem, first published in a German translation in 1986. The book, published in Poland the following year and translated into English by Michael Kandel in the same year, is a further elaboration of Lem's skepticism: in Lem's opinion, the difficulty in communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (the main theme of the novel) is more likely cultural disparity rather than spatial distance. It was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The novel was written on order from publisher S. Fischer Verlag around the time Lem was emigrating from Poland due to the introduction of martial law. Lem stated that this was the only occasion he wrote something upon publisher's request, accepting an advance for a nonexistent novel. Plot summary At a base on Saturn's moon Titan, a young spaceship pilot Parvis sets out in a strider (a mecha-like machine) to find several missing people, among them Pirx (the spaceman appe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanisław Lem
Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer. He was the author of many novels, short stories, and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fiction stories are of satirical and humorous character. Lem's books have been translated into more than 50 languages and have sold more than 45 million copies. Worldwide, he is best known as the author of the 1961 novel ''Solaris (novel), Solaris''. In 1976, Theodore Sturgeon wrote that Lem was the most widely read science fiction writer in the world. Lem was the author of the fundamental philosophical work ''Summa Technologiae'', in which he anticipated the creation of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and also developed the ideas of human autoevolution, the creation of Simulacrum, artificial worlds, and many others. Lem's science fiction works explore philosophical themes through speculations on technology, the nature of int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Contact (science Fiction)
First contact is a common theme in science fiction about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient species' first encounter with another one, given they are from different planets or natural satellites. It is closely related to the anthropological idea of first contact. Popularized by the 1897 book '' The War of the Worlds'' by H. G. Wells, the concept was commonly used throughout the 1950s and 60s, often as an allegory for Soviet infiltration and invasion. The 1960s American television series ''Star Trek'' introduced the concept of the " Prime Directive", a regulation intended to limit the negative consequences of first contact. Although there are a variety of circumstances under which first contact can occur, including indirect detection of alien technology, it is often portrayed as the discovery of the physical presence of an extraterrestrial intelligence. As a plot device, first contact is frequently used to explore a variety of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Other (philosophy)
In philosophy, the Other is a fundamental concept referring to anyone or anything perceived as distinct or different from oneself. This distinction is crucial for understanding how individuals construct their own identities, as the encounter with "otherness" helps define the boundaries of the "self."''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'' (1995) p. 673. In Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, the Other plays a particularly important role in this self-formation, acting as a kind of mirror against which the self is reflected and understood. The Other is not simply a neutral observer but an active participant in shaping the individual's self-image. This includes the idea of the "Constitutive Other," which refers to the internal relationship between a person's essential nature (personality) and their physical embodiment (body), reflecting the interplay of internal differences within the self. Beyond this individual level, the concept of "the Other" extends to broader social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Evolution
''Homo sapiens'' is a distinct species of the hominid family of primates, which also includes all the great apes. Over their evolutionary history, humans gradually developed traits such as Human skeletal changes due to bipedalism, bipedalism, dexterity, and complex language, as well as interbreeding with other hominins (a tribe of the Homininae, African hominid subfamily), indicating that human evolution was not linear but weblike. The study of the origins of humans involves Interdisciplinary, several scientific disciplines, including Biological anthropology, physical and evolutionary anthropology, paleontology, and genetics; the field is also known by the terms anthropogeny, anthropogenesis, and anthropogony—with the latter two sometimes used to refer to the related subject of hominization. Primate evolution, Primates diverged from other mammals about (Myr, mya), in the Late Cretaceous period, with their earliest fossils appearing over 55 mya, during the Paleocene. Prima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transhumanism
Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the human enhancement, enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cognition, and well-being. Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as the technoethics, ethics of using such technologies. Some transhumanists speculate that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings of such vastly greater abilities as to merit the label of posthuman#Transhumanism, posthuman beings. Another topic of transhumanist research is how to protect humanity against existential risks from Existential risk from artificial general intelligence, artificial general intelligence, asteroid impact, gray goo, high-energy particle collision experiments, natural or synthetic pandemic, and nuclear warfare. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: , Romanization of Ancient Greek, romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: Help:IPA/Greek, [ɣnostiˈkos], 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Early Christianity, early Christian sects. These diverse groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (''gnosis'') above the Proto-orthodox Christianity, proto-orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Generally, in Gnosticism, the Monad (Gnosticism), Monad is the supreme God who emanates divine beings; one, Sophia (Gnosticism), Sophia, creates the flawed demiurge who makes the material world, trapping souls until they regain divine knowledge. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
