Episode 336: That Oceanic Feeling (Stanisław Lem's "Solaris")
About this episode
David and Tamler discuss Stanislaw Lem's 'Solaris' and its themes of communication and understanding.
David and Tamler tackle the first half of the VBW Madness topic tournament winner, Stanislaw Lem's science fiction masterpiece, Solaris , about a mysterious ocean planet that resists all attempts to understand and communicate with it. We talk about the epistemological obstacles that obscure the meaning of the ocean's behavior, the "guests" that appear to the researchers drawn from their buried memories, Lem's critique of science and lots more. Plus, there's an inexplicable dearth of research into male preferences for breasts or buttocks and their correlation with egalitarian and materialist values. But once again it's evolutionary psychology to the rescue. Mehmetoglu, M. (2026). Buttocks or Breasts? Identifying Latent Subgroups in Male Preferences for Female Bodily Features. Evolutionary Psychology, 24(2), 14747049261452897. [pubmed.gov] Solaris by Stanislaw Lem (trans. by Bill Johnston) [amazon.com affiliate link]
More episodes of Very Bad Wizards
- Episode 335: The Wright Stuff
- Episode 334: Let's Get Metaphysical
- Episode 333: P-hacking the Mind
- Episode 332: Talking to Myself ("The Other" by Jorge Luis Borges)
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