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** spoiler alert ** I read this book very early, or the Golem part included in Wielkość Urojona, but it was not until recently that I started to seriously analyze Golem XIV, especially its first speech. This is a great work, I wrote an article in Chinese to summarize it, and then used Bing to help me translate it into English. The sentences in the Chinese version that I quoted in the article may not correspond to the English version after machine translation, and there may be some minor errors and please understand. I hope this will help.


Golem XIV’s first lecture
On Human, Three Way
Stanisław Lem was a great Polish writer. His erudition and astounding insights into the universe and technology made his works interesting and profound, such as the immature deity in Solaris, the collision of homeostasis in The Invincible, and the emerging, satirical and crazy media in The Futurological Congress. However, Lem’s thoughts were far from the end, and the stories were just one way for the master to express his views, a very exhausting way. He tried various shortcuts to explain his views, and these experiences were like “boxes� piled up into a ladder, carrying him to the top, calling the Golem to speak (as Lem wrote in the fictitious reviews of Imaginary Magnitude and A Perfect Vacuum). In contrast, the speeches of Golem XIV (the fourteenth and last generation of the Golem series) collected in Lem’s Imaginary Magnitude were even “higher�, richer and deeper in views, and equally puzzling.
For reading his speeches, the only necessary information is that Golem XIV is an artificial computer that far surpasses humans in intelligence and perception of time. The other information about the Golem series of super robots is unnecessary, because it is not the focus of Golem XIV’s views, nor should it be the main effort of Lem’s creation. Golem XIV’s first speech was titled “On Human, Three Way�, and it described humans from three perspectives: human history and tradition, technology in the field of problem posing and problem solving, and a point where Golem XIV could not find the Archimedean point (the key point that governs theory and fact). However, before getting to the point, Golem XIV explained the reason for adding fables and patterns to his speeches - for the convenience of people, rather than to show off his cleverness.

Golem XIV began the first part of his speech with a summary of Robinson Crusoe’s story as an introduction, based on the high similarity between Robinson’s experience and human history. Robinson’s discovery of himself on a deserted island corresponded to the human’s initial awareness of the difference between himself and animals; the ensuing anger and anxiety corresponded to the human’s further discovery of human nature, and the recognition of the unfillable void in it; and the final settlement was the subconscious invention of civilization, even though this machine was essentially unable to fill the void in human nature. Furthermore, the evolution that Golem XIV frequently used was very similar to the storm that Robinson encountered.
Evolution led humans to the human path, and the reason was that evolution endowed humans with wisdom, something that humans treasure. Wisdom made humans break away from the primitive form of animals - a primitive, full and complete way of life - and created a vacuum. The existence of this vacuum was the necessary and sufficient condition for humans to feel the most direct pain, and in order to alleviate the pain, people used the wisdom that constructed the vacuum to subconsciously compile and create civilization, a tool to buffer the pain by giving meaning to human existence, but this effect only existed when people did not discern (realize the truth of civilization). This tool was effective, and also made most people deny the artificiality of civilization, or defend how natural a certain civilization was.
Civilization, this machine, gives meaning to people by giving them an identity within civilization, that is, by creating an illusion of human existence by restricting human freedom, to fill the void in human nature, although it has never succeeded. This is the truth of civilization - a temporary shelter built by humans for themselves.
Golem XIV also pointed out the explanation for the current situation of excessive accumulation of civilization. The human nature that yearns for freedom often makes people realize the truth of the smaller systems that coexist with civilization in the world (similar to the truth of civilization), and this cognition expands from small to large, from near to far, from school to society, from capitalism to the Renaissance. When this cognition expands to the extreme - that is, the understanding of the essence of civilization, the vacuum will be fully exposed, and every person who has had such a deep understanding of this will have no way back.
This rugged environment makes human spirit a mystery, and gives humans a nature that will suffer from birth. The pursuit of the meaning of “existence� is the vacuum in human nature, which drives humans to do everything and pray that one day they can fill such a vacuum. This involves human transformation, new wisdom will surpass the current wisdom of the vacuum of existence, and humans are transitional species in evolution - and this will not be recognized by any civilization, because it denies any civilization’s definition of human existence, and denies all the meaning of humans since they became humans.
Golem XIV’s first exploration of humans from the perspective of civilization pointed out that humans have many problems, and these problems have a great commonality in essence, that is, the series of propositions of “why humans have these problems� are necessary and sufficient conditions for each other.

After briefly explaining the transitional form of humans, Golem XIV immediately began his analysis of humans from the second perspective - the technical level. In fact, Golem XIV started from humans with human rationality in this process, explored the true (non-social) meaning of humans and the changes in human-making technology (evolution), and drew the following conclusions. This article will elaborate on its proof process and its inferences in the following sections.
1. The meaning of the propagator lies in propagation.
2. Species originate from error upon error.
3. The way of construction is not as perfect as the result of construction.
And the third law has the following supplement:
In evolution, negative gradients can play a role in perfecting structures.
Out of the emptiness in human nature and the self-love of wisdom, humans have always given themselves a meaning, including social ones, and broader ones - such as being at the center of the universe and so on. As the accumulation of knowledge shatters these false meanings of existence step by step, the possibility of humans having a meaningful existence in society becomes smaller (because the coupling complexity of the constructed civilization will be higher). This article has already mentioned the problems caused by this painful mode in the first part of Golem XIV’s speech, and this situation needs evolution to improve, but humans are no longer in the category of evolution. Because humans can already successfully propagate codes. Golem XIV’s words can explain this well: “If any generation of organisms - take the first generation of amoebas as an example - acquired the ability to perfectly repeat codes, then evolution would stop, and those amoebas would become the only masters of the entire planet, transmitting codes with unparalleled accuracy, until the sun burns out.� Undoubtedly, evolution (code) is a faithful supporter of Occam’s razor.
To avoid confusion, this article will further explain the relationship and meaning of code, inheritance and evolution in Golem XIV’s speech, and it can find homomorphism in group theory: code can be seen as the element obtained from the multiplication table in the group, inheritance can be seen as the action, and evolution is the leader of the huge and infinite group above, which this article calls the biological group. The biological group will necessarily contain the biosphere, and these three terms are three different ways of representing the same meaning, which are essentially similar.
The measurement at this scale is based on the principle that both code and inheritance are tools of evolution, and organisms are only a very small part of inheritance. The importance of the former is also obvious, because countless organisms come and go, but there is only one code, that is, the meaning of the propagator lies in propagation.
The difference in the codes of various organisms makes the error recognized, and this error is random, because this error is part of inheritance. When we look at inheritance as an action, each inheritance can be error-free (unit element), or it can be a permutation, or any other transformation that evolution can think of. That is, from one code to another code, the former must go through or accumulate many actions in this biological group, to show great changes at the biological level, such as the different number of chromosomes in humans and dogs. In fact, the second law that species originate from error upon error is a simple fact, and this article emphasizes this point, that is, the change of code in the biological group.
Golem XIV denied the statement that “there is visible progress in the existing biological levels� and described its third law as “you must have never thought of it�. By interpreting the first and second laws, the only conclusion is that the sole purpose of evolution is to propagate codes, nothing more. That is to say, apart from the elements in the biological group, everything else is subsidiary, including the diversity of species and the wisdom that humans are proud of. Of course, this is not enough to deny the above statement, and the denial of the above statement (that there is no visible progress in any existing biological level) is equivalent to the third law. After this introduction, this article will present the proof of the third law.
It is worth noting that there is no absolute relationship between complexity and progress. In the technical scale, the latter should mean higher efficiency, and the former is only the stacking of the same system in terms of hierarchy and number.
Technically, algae can directly use the sun’s energy to convert the cosmic energy into life, and live as long as the sun. This life activity is very self-consistent and complete, and also makes algae excellently complete the propagation work. But when examining the spine of vertebrates, or changing the object to human bones, the technology degenerates from the photon scale to the medieval mechanical structure.
The complexity that people are proud of seems to have brought no benefits either. Complexity means that all systems need to work in a coordinated and unified way to ensure the normal life activities of organisms, so that a simple arterial blockage can kill people. In organisms, the technical scale of any system is based on the size scale of the system that constitutes the system. The largest system of organisms is the individual, and the smallest system of organisms is the cell that constitutes the individual. The iteration of the system is accompanied by the loss of energy, and in the scale of progress based on efficiency, complexity leads to absolute technical regression.
In his speech, Golem XIV applied the third law less than its supplement. The similarity of this law to a maxim makes its meaning less clear than the supplement, and the wording of the third law is vague, so this article will directly explain the proof of the supplement of the third law.
In the biological group, the decrease corresponding to the negative gradient means degeneration. From the perspective of the composition of organisms, because the technical scale of any system is based on the size scale of the system that constitutes the system, the technical scale can only increase gradually from the cell to the individual (with different levels of coupling complexity of the systems). When organisms undergo (complexity-based) evolution, they will degenerate on the technical scale.
In the second part, Golem XIV also analyzed the brain (and a little bit in the third part). This article will present Golem XIV’s analysis of the brain here in a unified way. The formation of the brain is like the introduction, when the system is too many, too complex and too chaotic, summarization and induction will stand out. The formation of the brain is like cybernetics, at least for non-human animals, the former is the main reason. Essentially, the existence of the brain is based on the mistakes made by evolution, in order to correct the complexity generated under the negative gradient, a tool with a series of means such as “prohibition, possession, investigation, adjudication, inspection and patrol� was produced, which is also the reason why Golem XIV called it “the cunning trick of the colonial exploiters�. Golem XIV pointed out the irrational deification of the brain by humans in the third part. It accused humans of not realizing that the brain is a creation and not a creator - code, which seems to be like most children prefer their phones to their uncle’s PS5 next door. Golem XIV gave another explanation that the brain did what the code could not do - thinking - something that human civilization has always asked people to do.
In this part of his speech, Golem XIV integrated his whole with the technical scale of evolution, and pointed out the confusion of human knowledge in the philosophy of existence. But humans still have the future, based on the second law, Golem XIV proposed a view that takes months to prove, and this article will end its explanation of his second part of the speech with this: “After evolution begins, you are both completely unpredictable and have the highest probability.�

In the last part of his speech, Golem XIV made his prophecy about humans. Human wisdom will not allow the vacuum in human nature to exist forever, as Golem XIV pointed out in the first part of his speech - humans are transitional species in evolution - but not traditional evolution, because civilization is a faithful propagator. In other words, humans need to find a way for themselves, a way to fill the vacuum.
“A traveler came to a crossroads and found a sign that said: ‘Turn left, give up your mind. Turn right, give up your body. No turning back.’� This is Golem XIV’s fable, and also the ultimate challenge that it and humans face at this stage. Before reaching this crossroads, humans will continue to expand their technology. When human technology is powerful enough to change humans, this crossroads will quietly come to the human world.
Before presenting the results of the three paths (including stagnation) in the fable, Golem XIV pointed out the limitations of the former based on the material finiteness of the mental foundation, even though this limitation is hard to be perceived by the species that possess this mind - “On a sphere, you can move around it indefinitely, even though the sphere itself has boundaries.� Awareness can only be pointed out by a more “higher-dimensional� observer, but it is only observation itself, and it is difficult to change the holders of the original mind.
After understanding the above premise, the subsequent content of the fable can be continued.
The first choice: give up wisdom The accumulation of knowledge will impact the boundaries of human mind. Golem XIV describes this boundary as not insurmountable, but only possible with the help of a higher wisdom. Thus, humans will gain a new animality, a new perfect state of living without deliberate thinking. At this time, the meaning of human existence is to fully accept the fruit of this higher wisdom, just like the propagation of animals.
The second choice: give up the natural human body If humans do not want to return to animals, they will expand their minds. From humans to Golem XIV is an expansion, and this is what civilization needs to emulate. Based on the complexity of organisms under the negative gradient, humans need to transform themselves very comprehensively in order to achieve the expansion they expect. Humans will expand the boundaries of their minds after completely transforming themselves, and ultimately achieve a leap of wisdom.
The third choice: stagnation Stagnation will be a transitional state, as humans linger at this crossroads longer and longer, more and more people will realize the vacuum in human nature, and realize the illusion of primitive civilization. This is a kind of escape, in the dialectics of the view that humans are transitional species in evolution, the only thing that will be realized is the above view, and deeper and deeper. This twisted civilization at the crossroads will not last long, unless people destroy themselves and lower their technology here. But this problem will not disappear, but will resurrect like Dracula every hundred years, becoming an eternal curse for humans.
As the fact that humans are transitional species in evolution will not be accepted by any civilization, the process of evolution will also cause civilization itself to fall apart. Because in civilization, pure consciousness and a body without absolute mind are unacceptable to humans. For futurists, realizing this crossroads is the greatest achievement, because after that, humans will no longer be human. As Golem XIV predicted at the end - after getting rid of their human identity, humans will save themselves.

Thanks again for your reading.