From 22 March to 24 March 2018 the Department of Philosophy of Samara University jointly with the Department of Russian and Foreign Literature with assistance from Research Council on Methodology of Artificial Intelligence (RCMAI) RAS, Samara Research Centre RAS, Strategic public movement “Russia 2045” and Association of Fantasy Researchers are holding scientific conference “IV Lem Readings” devoted to science fiction. The collected works of the First, Second and Third Lem Readings are available in the open sources: Nesterov A.U., Kuznetsova E.R. (edit.) Fantasy and technologies. Samara, 2009; Nesterov A.U. (edit.) Second Lem Readings. Samara, 2014; Nesterov A.U. (edit.) Third Lem Readings. Samara, 2016. Themes for discussion: - Artistic and philosophical heritage of Stanisław Lem - Theoretical foundations of science fiction: theoretical literature and philosophy approaches - History and modern condition of sci-fi literature: themes, ideas, authors - Models of future in science fiction: neo-human being and alternative social models - Scientific fiction and the war of ideologies - Cybernetic immortality and transhumanism - Science fiction and science and technology progress: prognostic models of real science and their history - Pedagogical potential of science fiction The collected works will be formed by the results of the conference. Conference participants must send an application to the address of the organizing committee including Surname, given name, patronymic, place of work and position, title of the report with abstract of 2000-2500 signs not later than 15 February 2018. Key dates: - 16 October 2017 – the first notification about the conference - 15 February 2018 – the end of the applications for participation receiving - 20 February 2018 – delivery of invitations - 1 March 2018 – forming of the conference programme - 22-24 March – holding of the conference - 15 September 2018 – the end of the acceptance of scientific articles in the collected works of the conference - 20 December 2018 – publication of the collected works of the conference Applications, suggestions and commentaries should be forwarded to Nesterov Alexandre Urievich and Demina Anna Ivanovna to org@gmail.com or phil@ssau.ru with notification “the fourth Lem readings” in the subject line of the letter, phone +7 846 267-47-87