Global Lords: I Have Information System-Chapter 517 - 370: A Girl’s Nightmare, Castle Night 1

Furthermore, Lem believes this technology can operate on multiple levels. This means that when a person leaves one virtual reality, they may not necessarily return to the "real" world. Instead, they might switch between different parallel realities while not being sure if this is the "original" real world. This will lead to the boundary between truth and fiction becoming increasingly blurred. Lem evidently sees it as a potential threat:

"The accumulation of such illusory realities could lead to real life being regarded as fantasy."

Biotechnology

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Image/Illustration by Lem for "Dzienniki gwiazdowe"

Lem has always been aware of the dark side of technology and its potential threats. As early as the 1960s, he believed that technology would eventually invade the human body. In "The Twenty-First Voyage" of "Dzienniki gwiazdowe," the protagonist Ian Tichy lands on a planet called Dychtonia. The inhabitants of this planet are so advanced that they can freely manufacture and modify their own bodies. As Ezra Gruntor explains:

"Initially, this technology was used for some obvious purposes, such as acquiring: ’good health, mental harmony, and ideal bodily beauty,’ but it soon evolved into uses such as: ’skin jewelry’ for women and ’sideburns, crests, double-rowed toothed jaws’ for men. After a while, the residents of Dychtonia completely abandoned humanoid forms."

Transhumanism

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Image/Scene from the 1968 film "Thousand-Layer Cake" directed by Andrzej Wajda

If Lem truly could foresee the post-truth world, could he also foresee transhumanism? Of course, he did not use the term, but his short story published in 1955, "Czy Pan Istnieje, Mr. Jones?" (tentative translation: "Mr. Jones, Do You Exist?"), was very close to this concept.

The story was later adapted into a radio program and a movie, "Thousand-Layer Cake" ("Przekładaniec"), directed by Andrzej Wajda. This time, Lem reflects on the purely hypothetical problem of the time: How should the legal status of a person who has undergone a series of surgeries to implant computer components into their body, replacing almost all original parts (including the brain) with artificial technology, be determined? The person is then sued by the company that funded their surgeries, as the company believes he is their property.

The issue discussed in this story only became a hot topic in the contemporary world with the advancement of robotics development. Its creation is a pioneering exploration of potential problems that may arise in the scientific field. Until recently, this problem was not named transhumanism.

The darkness always comes to an end, just as the full moon symbolizing wizards must set in the west, with the death of Europe’s last "witch," Anna Gould, the notorious witch trial movement finally exited history entirely in 1782.

Even though early Christianity was persecuted by the Roman Empire, once it was established as the state religion in AD 392, Knights became akin to evil dragons. In their mission to spread the faith worldwide, they were hostile to all phenomena that did not conform to the Bible, including some new thoughts and sciences (for example, both Copernicus, who proposed heliocentrism, and Galileo, the physicist, were severely persecuted by the Church). During the centuries-long dark rule and mental confinement in Europe, the persecution of women was particularly extreme.

The written word is a testament to history. In English (whicce→witch) or German (Hagedise→Hexe), the initial interpretation of witches referred to females possessing certain abilities, wisdom, and skilled in herbs. But with the intervention of Christianity, the meaning of the term "witch" was transformed from celestial to old herbal women, dwelling in forests or wastelands, knowledgeable in concocting medicines and poisons, and then transmuted into dangerous, venomous witches prone to using poisons to cause harm.

In Christian doctrine, women should live subordinated to men, and as stated in the Bible: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Christianity could not tolerate the existence of these heretics, and thus, they readily transferred the disasters previously blamed on demons onto witches, solemnly explaining to the populace that their destructive labor included spreading plagues, livestock deaths, causing male impotence, infanticide and child consumption, milk theft, summoning storms, and so forth.

The powerful doctrines led the chaotic and unknown people to believe that these irresistible forces were the work of witches.

In witchcraft works from that period, people richly and intricately depicted the appearances and activities of witches. They coexisted with darkness, nestled with forests, flew naked at night, liked using magic to inflict damage on people and livestock, covertly undermined Christian Churches, held secret witch feasts, and made contracts and mated with demons, etc.

In the woodcut "Witches’ Feast," which depicted witches gathering to hold ceremonial witch gatherings, people’s mysterious and bizarre imaginations about witches were complete and intense: on a high and dark night, amidst a desolate field in the forest gathered a group of naked witches, engaging joyously and eerily in a banquet with the Devil. The scene depicted long-handled forks, crystal mirrors, witches’ cauldrons, bristle brushes, bones, and other items symbolizing witches strewn everywhere, with cats and male goats, the two close animals of witches, discretely present in unremarkable corners and backgrounds. In the foreground, three witches encircled a smoking earthen jar. The witch on the right sat on the ground, holding a long-handled spoon in her right hand, watching the rapidly rising steam from the jar. To the left upper side of the steam, there was a skeletal, sharp-beaked bird head, transforming into a flying animal witch.