219 works selected for the 40 candidate questions. Selections approved by Ben Breen, 29 September 2026. Arguments are unverified. Quotations were chosen by machine and are unchecked.
5 of 219 works
1906FedorovFedorov,The Philosophy of the Common TaskRussianTreatisePartial text
Nikolai Fedorov
Философия общего дела
Russian · Treatise
Partial text · No English translation
Open source →- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
Yes. Makes the defeat of death and the physical resurrection of all ancestors the common task to which science and technology should be directed.
- Q15Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?
1917LeninLenin,The State and RevolutionRussianTreatiseFull text
- Q35Does treating the state as an artificial machine give its members grounds to redesign it?
Yes. Lenin interprets Marx as requiring the working class to smash ready-made state machinery rather than merely take possession of it.
- Q35Does treating the state as an artificial machine give its members grounds to redesign it?
1924ZamyatinZamyatin,WeRussianFictionFull text
- Q22Does organizing daily life by fixed schedules strengthen or weaken self-government?
Weakens. The narrator praises the Tables of Hours that fix when everyone rises, works, eats and walks, and hopes to absorb even the two personal hours; the novel shows this as the end of freedom.
- Q22Does organizing daily life by fixed schedules strengthen or weaken self-government?
1925BelyaevBelyaev,Professor Dowell's HeadRussianFictionFull text
Alexander Belyaev
Голова профессора Доуэля
Russian · Fiction
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q16Would replacing bodily organs with artificial substitutes preserve the identity of the person?
Yes. A scientist's severed head is kept alive by machines and remains himself, thinking and suffering, without a body.
- Q16Would replacing bodily organs with artificial substitutes preserve the identity of the person?
1933BerdyaevBerdyaev,Man and MachineRussianPeriodicalFull text
- Q31Can reliance on machinery become a form of idolatry?
Yes. Berdyaev describes faith in technics as the remaining strong faith of modern civilized humanity, whose attachment to it may change humanity’s own image.
- Q31Can reliance on machinery become a form of idolatry?