“So what, exactly, is this ‘Summa’? A collection of essays about the fates of civilizations, permeated by a ‘universal engineering’ leitmotif? A cybernetic interpretation of the past and future? A depiction of the Cosmos as the Constructor sees it? A story about nature’s and human hands’ engineering work? A scientific and technical forecast for the coming millennia? A collection of hypotheses—too bold to claim genuine scientific rigor? — All of that, in a little way. To what extent can one trust this book—how much, and to what degree? — I have no answer to that question. I don’t know which of my conjectures and assumptions are more plausible. Among them there are none that are invulnerable, and the passage of time will overturn many of them.”
That is how the author himself defines the range of questions discussed in this book—and his attitude toward them. In an engaging form, S. Lem touches on many problems of contemporary science as well as on issues that will face science in the future.