Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

18Stanlisaw LemThe Seventh Sallyor How Trurl’sOwn Perfection Ledto No GoodThe Universe is infinite but bounded, and therefore a beam oflight, in whatever direction it may travel, will after billionsof centuries return if powerful enough-to the point of itsdeparture; and it is no different with rumor, that flies aboutfrom star to star and makes the rounds of every planet. One dayTrurl heard distant reports of two mighty constructorbenefactors,so wise and so accomplished that they had no equal;with this news he ran to Klapaucius, who explained to him thatthese were not mysterious rivals, but only themselves, for theirfame had circumnavigated space. Fame, however, has this fault,that it says nothing of one's failures, even when those veryfailures are the product of a great perfection. And he who woulddoubt this, let him recall the last of the seven“The seventh Sally” from the The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem, translatedby Michael Kandel. Copyright © 1974 by The Seabury Press, Inc.Reprinted by permission of The Continuum Publishing Corporation.