[bttrfl]

Invincible is just one of many books showcasing Lem's profound understanding of AI and its limitations servicing the mankind.

I recommend Tales of Pirx the Pilot, the collection of short stories, many of which paint AI as a true reflection of human intelligence with its flaws, quirks, instincts. From AI crashing a starship during a landing to an android "dying" rock climbing.

There is also a preface he wrote to his book called Golem XIV which gives reader a historical overview of the evolution of AI. Golem is of course the name of the model and XIV is its version, just like ChatGPT 4, but many iteration later. Lem describes how each iteration was more and more expensive to build, but more and more intelligent and useful. Until it became more intelligent than men and... lost all interest in affairs of our kind. As always, he was on point.

[fiforpg]

To my taste, the Pirx stories read as some of (if not the) most fiction-y Lem in existence. As opposed to the rest: thinly disguised philosophical studies. Sometimes really thinly, as in Golem XIV, or completely naked in Summa Tecnologiae. Other times, the fiction plot is laid thicker, as in Katar (The Chain of Chance), pretending to be a pulpy detective story.

Now, Pirx tales felt less cerebral, and much more human. Full of really tight action, too. Great gateway into Lem, overall.

Protip: check out Cyberiada, philosophy masquerading as a parody, and at the same time a book for children.

[peteradio]

Seems some contradictions exist in this mans writing. Elsewhere in this thread AIs are described as devoid of and self direction but here we have an AI which has disdain which would be hard to interpret as anything but self direction.

[helpfulContrib]

Get your finite non-linearity fix here:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080010/

Great movie, well recommended ..

[cubefox]

That's a movie adoption of (in my opinion) one of his best short stories, at least in terms of plot twist. I haven't seen the movie though.