Observation On The Spot

Observation on the Spot (Wizja lokalna, literally also means "crime scene investigation") is a science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem which has not been translated into English. It deals with Ijon Tichy's traveling to a faraway planet, Entia (which is a Latin equivalent of their self-name) to study their civilization. The title of the novel has to do with the use of a computer to generate (predict by modeling) information about this planet based on scant data available because it takes a long time for light to travel there -- these technical details are not worked out properly and are quite irrelevant to the main thrust of the novel. Lem has worked out in considerable detail both the history of the Entian species since primeval times and to this day and the present social structure of the technologically highly advanced and socially libertarian Entian society. Major topics of the book are: the problems of the society of plenty based entirely on automated production where individuals have little to do; imposition of ethical laws through technology i.e. the ethicsphere which has made it impossible to harm individuals physically; and the ideological opposition of two dominant systems, which is basically a parody of Western-Soviet Union split taken to the absurd.