- Title: His Master’s Voice
- Author: Stanislaw Lem
- Published: 1967
- Translated: by Michael Kandel
- Publisher: Pro Auctore Wojciech Zemek
- ISBN: 978-83-63471-56-9
“His Master’s Voice (HMV)” is quite different from other SF novels. At first, there is no adventure, no thrill, and no action. You are reading explanations, descriptions, and a little bit of gossip. At the same time, the story crosses many bipolar borders: science and politics, human beings and aliens, life forms and non-life forms, and understanding and prejudice.
The story begins with the accidental detection of an artificial signal in neutrino rays. It is the first contact — the first message — from extraterrestrial life. Is it possible for us to interpret their message without a Rosetta Stone? Two people who speak different languages might communicate with each other because they share many commonalities. But what about humans and ants? Or can we really understand a script written in a lost language?
Communication is a contract among participants. TV or radio signals might travel from Earth and reach other planets many thousands or millions of years later. Do we expect that the signal could be retrieved and reinterpreted as videos or sounds? Lem’s HMV questions this very naive assumption about communication: that intelligent life forms can communicate with each other. The book also warns you of the dogmatic pursuit of the scientific method.
(Spoiler Warning) I usually do not read the editor’s note. However, I somehow started reading it when I picked up the book. Well, I instinctively realized that the note was not a note, but part of the story.
