Lem: The Cyberiad

THE PABLES FOR THE ‘Translated from the Polish by MICHAEL KANDEL Ilusteated by DANIEL MROZ CYBERIAD CYBERNETIC AGE STANISLAW LEM A CONTINUUM BOOK THE SEABURY PRESSHow the World Was Saved (One day Trorl the constructor put together a machine that could create anything starting with n. When it was ready, he tied it out, ordering it to make needles, then nankeens and negligees, which it did, then mail the lot to narghiles filed with nepenthe and numerous other narcotics. ‘The machine carried out his instructions to the letter. Still not completely sure ofits ability, he had it produce, one after the other, nimbuses, noodles, nuclei, neutrons, naphtha, noses, nymphs, naiads, and natrium. ‘This last it could not do, and ‘Tru, considerably ieritated, demanded an explana tion, "Never heard oft” said the machine. What? But i’ only sodium. You know, the metal, the clement “Sodium starts with an s, and T work only in, “Bat in Latin it’s natrium, “Look, old boy,” said the machine, “i I could do every thing starting with min every possible language, I'@ be a ‘Machine That Could Do Everything in the Whole Alpha. bet, since any item you eate to mention undoubtedly starts svith m in one foreign language or another. I's not that eas. T can't go beyond what you programmed. So no sodium,” “Very wel," said Trurl and ordered it to make Night, ‘whith it made at once—small perhaps, but perfectly noctar nal, Only then did Trur invite over his friend Klzpaucius the constructor, and introduced him to the machine, pris ing its extraordinary skill at such Tength, that Klapaucius grew annoyed and inquired whether he too might not test the machine Be my guest,” said Tru. “But it has to start with n.”4 The Cyberiad “NP” said Klapaucins. “Allright, lt it make Nature.” The machine whined, and in a trice Trudl’s front yard was packed with naturalists. ‘They argued, cach publi hheavy volumes, which the others tore to pieces; inthe dis tance one could see faming pyres, on which martyrs to Na- ture were sizling; there was thunder, and strange mush: room-shaped columns of smoke rose up; everyone talked at ‘once, no one listened, and there were all sorts of memo- rands, appeals, subpoenas and other documents, while off to the side ata few old men, feverishly scribbling on scraps of paper. “Not bad, ch?” said Trurl with pride, “Nature to aT, admit itt” ‘But Klapaucius wasnt satisfied ‘What, that mob? Surely you're not going to tell me thats Nature?” “Then give the machine something else,” snapped ‘Trl “Whatever you like.” For a moment Klapaucius was at a loss for what to ask. But after a little thought he declared thathe would put two more tasks to the machine; fit could fulfill them, he would admit that it was all Trurl said it vas. Trut) agreed to this, whereupon Klapaucius requested Negative “Negative” cried Tru, “What on earth is Negative?” “The apposite of postive, of course,” Klapaucins coolly” replied, “Negative attitudes, the negative of a picture for ceumple, Now don't try to pretend you never heard of Negative, Al ght, machine, get to work!” ‘The machine, however, had already begun. First it men- ulactured antiprotons, then antielectrons, antineutrons, antineuttinor, and labored on, wnt from out of all hit antimatter an antiworld took shape, glowing like a ghostly loud above their heads “H'm," muttered Klapaucius, displeased. “That's sup- How the World Was Saved 5 posed to be Negative? Well. let's say it is, forthe sake of peace. ... But now here's the third command: Machine, do Nothing! The machine sat stil. Klapaucixe rubbed his hands in ‘siumph, but Tras sid ‘Well, what did you expect? You asked it to do nothing, and it’s doing nothing “Correction: I asked it to do Nothing. but it’s doing nothing. “Nothing is nothing! “Come, come, It was supposed to do Nothing, but it hasn't done anything, and therefore I've won, For Nothing, my dear and clever colleague, is not your runof themill nothing, the result of idleness and inactivity, but dynamic, aggressive Nothingness, that is to say, perfect, unique, ubiquitous, in other words Nonexistence, ultimate and su. preme, in its very own nonperson!” “You're confusing the machine!” cried Trurl, But sud denly its metalic voice rang out “Really, how can you two bicker ata time like this? Oh. yes, I know what Nothing i, and Nothingness, Nonexis tence, Nonentity, Negation, Nullity and Nihilty since all these come under the heading of n, nas in Nil. Look then upon your world for the last time, gentlemen! Soon it shall nolonger be ‘The constructors froze, forgetting their quarrel, for the machine was in actual fact doing Nothing, and it did it in this fashion: one by one, various things were removed from the world, and the things, thos removed, ceased to exist, a5 if they had never been. ‘The machine had already disposed Of nolars,nightzebs, noes, nes, nallyrakers,neottemes and nonmalrigers, At moments, though, it seemed that instead of reducing, diminishing and subtracting, the machine was increasing, enhancing and adding, since it liquidated, in

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