Trurl's+Machine+-+Martin+Anderson

Trurl's Machine   by Stanislaw Lem In this story, the great inventor Trurl creates the worlds greatest thinking machine. Everything starts to go wrong though when Trurl asks the eight-story machine the answer to 2 + 2. After much deliberation, it answers SEVEN. The machine becomes enraged when Trurl and his friend, Klapaucius begin to insult the it. It escapes and begins to chase Trurl and Klapaucius into the surrounding mountains. The machine catches up with them eventually and Trurl faces off with his creation in the dramatic conclusion.

Stanislaw Lem was born in Lwow, Poland on September 12, 1921. He attended Lwow University and later Jagiellonian University to study medicine. He purposely failed his final exams in order to avoid being forced to become a military doctor. Stanislaw published his first poems in 1946 and his first science fiction novel, __The Man From Mars__ in the same year. He wrote a novella titled, __Hospital of the Transfiguration__ which was suppressed by the communist regime until he completed a sequel that followed more socialist doctrine in 1955. He became internationally known for __The Cyberiad__, a collection of short stories. "Trurl's Machine" is part of this collection. Lem continued to write science fiction for most of his life. He died of heart disease on March 27, 2006 at the age of 84.

The absurdity of the events in the story make it very interesting. The quick witted Klapaucius acts as a comic foil to Trurl's stubborn personality. Overall, I like this story and would recommend it to anyone.