Preview of The Chain of Chance Summary:

Lem is a social philosopher whose vision is largely independent of ideological or economic particulars. In The Chain of Chance, he records and extrapolates trends which our civilization may display purely by virtue of having exceeded a certain numerically critical mass. His principal theme is that, at that point, certain structural regularities may begin to emerge spontaneously, in the same sense that the chaotic Brownian movements of gas molecules emerge as observable macro-properties (pressure, temperature) of gases. Lem, it may be fair to say, sets out to study the society as a Brownian system.

The writer reminds us that, as human beings, we cannot but always try to inquire into the causality behind the events that happen in our lives. The efforts to explain the world by determining answers to the question "Why?" give us an impression of understanding and control over its complexity. We seek to establish...