Stanislaw Lem

Stanisław Lem was a Polish writer whose work spanned novels, short stories, essays, and criticism, with philosophy and futurology running through much of it. His science fiction is often satirical and funny, as in The Cyberiad, a set of tales about two robot constructors trying to outdo each other, and Tales of Pirx the Pilot, stories about the pilot Pirx. He was best known worldwide for Solaris, published in 1961, and also wrote Summa Technologiae, a philosophical work that anticipated virtual reality and artificial intelligence. He died in 2006.