“...now his desire was no longer merely to return and report what he had found out about their companions' deaths but to request that this planet be left alone in the future... Not everywhere everything been intended for us.”
Throughout history, humankind has harbored the idea that they are the center of existence in that everything around the universe revolves around them. The novel is set at a time humans are delving into space exploration with their own assumptions of what they will find and do about it. The crew in the narrative encounters an advanced race of non-sentient machines with far much more progressive cybernetics than humans. Furthermore, in unison, the micro-machines form a hive intelligence that overpowers the humans during a confrontation. Thus, the quotation refers to the human’s incapacity to control or subdue this technology contrary to their expectations. They come to understand that this is not meant for them to control or take as they have done for ages.
“Every part contained a memory of the other parts it was directly attached to.”
The quotation alludes to the interconnectedness of the bionic swarms the crew finds in the alien wasteland. Lem as a futurist and a major contributor to the hard science fiction incorporates future concepts such as internet and Artificial Intelligence in the novel before their time. The motif of progressiveness in hard science fiction allows for the prediction of future scientific concepts. Even though the narrative is also engulfed in fantasy, the idea of autonomous devices working in unison is the basis behind modern internet and A.Is. The statement is a profound conception in regard to science considering Lem wrote the narrative in the fifties when space exploration was just in its infancy.
“But don't attack what already is, that which in the course of millions of years has achieved a balanced existence of its own, independent, not subject to anyone or anything, except the forces of radiation and matter…”
The statement further accentuates the subject of the worth of robotic life in contrast to human life. It expresses the moral code that humankind should adopt while exploring new territory in that they should extend the same decorum they would want to be reciprocated by. The remaining crew gets to learn modesty when they interacting with foreign life forms after observing the evolution of the robotic beings. Moreover, the life forms are much more superior to human technology which resonates with the human survivors. It also extends to the notion of imperialism and colonization among human beings.
