The Futurological Congress
(Stanislaw Lem)
Ijon Tichy is given a room on the hundredth floor of the one-hundred-and-six-floors Costa Rica Hilton. This (the Costa Rica Hilton, not Ijon?s room!) is also the venue of the eighth world futurological congress. The agenda for this year?s congress is ?the population explosion and possible methods of keeping it in check.?
Within the first few pages, the population is decreased by one. A delegate standing right next to Ijon is shot dead while reaching into his back pocket for a handkerchief to wipe his nose. Ijon is hardly out of the blood-spattered shirt when he has to go save the Pope. This he will do by notifying someone of his recent acquaintance, a devout and loyal Catholic who wishes to kill the Pope so as to jolt the conscience of the world.
Ijon?s world becomes more and more bizarre when he drinks a glass of water from the bathroom sink of his hotel room, water that contains hallucinogens. Ijon?s bad acid trip begins here and gets progressively worse as the story gets progressively entertaining!
This book made me laugh out loud. At the same time it made me think about our world and the problems plaguing it. Is Stanislaw Lem?s portrayal of a futuristic earth so far-fetched? Or is there a possibility that some of the elements may be a prediction of things to come? If so, what, if anything, can we do to prevent them from coming true?
The topics that were to be discussed on the first day of the Futurological Congress included the world urban crisis, the ecology crisis, the air pollution crisis, the energy crisis, the food crisis and the technology, military and political crises. Although written more than thirty years ago, The Futurological Congress touches on issues that are still relevant in today?s world.
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