Stanislaw Lem: Eight good questions about technology

“Who causes whom? Does technology cause us, or do we cause it? Does it lead us wherever it wishes, even to perdition, or can we make it bend before our pursuit? But what drives this pursuit if not technical thought? Is it always the same, or is the ‘humanity/technology’ relation itself historically variable? If the latter is the case, then where is this unknown quantity heading? Who will gain the upper hand, a strategic space for civilization’s maneuvers: humanity, which is freely choosing from a widely available arsenal of technological means, or maybe technology, which, through automation, will successfully conclude the process of removing humans from its territory?...Is there another potential direction in which our civilization could develop, other than a technical one?”

Stanislaw Lem, Summa Technologiae (1964) 

Stanislaw Lem, on solicitude to spark plugs and broken bells

"I used to be a philanthropist to old spark plugs. I would buy fragments of incomprehensible gadgets….I would turn some crank or other to give it pleasure, then put it away again with solicitude. To this day I have a special feeling for all sorts of broken bells, alarm clocks, old coils, telephone speakers, and in general for things derailed, used up, homeless, discarded.”

                                   Staislaw Lem