Paper | Mirgorod, Vol. 23/24 (2025) | pp. 229–255
Filip ŚWIERCZYŃSKI
Abstract: This paper’s thematic axis and purpose is to outline the technological alienness embodied by self-replicating microrobots—as the central singularity of Stanisław Lem’s (1921–2006) The Invincible (1964)—from the perspective of Bernhard Waldenfels’ (b. 1934) xenological thought. Starting by recognising speculative fiction as the most complete space laboratory for probing the categories of otherness and alienness, this article examines the various levels of their manifestation in the novel, as well as exploring the implications of meeting the Unknown. The closing section is devoted to the problem of encountering the actual and upcoming technological Other, with its probable consequences.
Keywords: Stanisław Lem / The Invincible / Bernhard Waldenfels / otherness / alienness / xenology / self-replicators / nanorobotics / evolution / machines / astrobiology / science fiction studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32017/mirgorod-2025-23.24-8
Cite this paper: Świerczyński, F. (2025). “The Spectra of Technological Alienness: Around Stanislaw Lem’s The Invincible”. Mirgorod: The Annual of the History and Epistemology of Contemporary Literary Studies, 23/24, pp. 229–255. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32017/mirgorod-2025-23.24-8
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