"Pilot Pirx is a fictional character introduced in 1966 in the science fiction stories of Polish writer Stanisław Lem: ten short stories (published in English in two parts, 1979's Tales of Pirx the Pilot and 1982's More Tales of Pirx the Pilot) and the novel Fiasco. In the stories, Pirx is progressively depicted as a spaceship cadet, beginner pilot, seasoned pilot, navigator, and finally, captain (komandor). While this overall story line resembles that of a bildungsroman, Lem writes that it was not his intention; he was going to write only 2–3 stories. Therefore, Pirx does not really have any background: no family, not even a first name. The timid attitude of Pirx towards women, as seen in stories The Conditioned Reflex and The Albatross, (the only two where Pirx interacts with women) may lead to the conclusion that he is a 'confirmed bachelor'. … Although Pirx appears in the first half of Lem's later novel Fiasco, the identity of the protagonist in the second half is never firmly established, but Pirx is one of the two possibilities. The bulk of the novel is set much further in the future, and it is vastly different from Lem's previous works. Unlike traditional heroic space pilots, Pirx is as an ordinary 'space truck driver' and has little if anything heroic about him. Personality traits of Pirx include cold blood, self-control and common sense—which serve Pirx well in all his predicaments. Pirx is also described as 'noble-minded and even honest' (zacny aż do poczciwości). Pirx is of average intelligence and he rather relies on his instinct. Often he solves his problems by chance, but he does 'give a chance a chance', a philosophy elaborated by Lem in his essay, The Philosophy of Chance. For example, in the story The Inquest, where Pirx is tasked with identifying a perfect android among a space crew, all his smart questioning and tests are for nothing and only by chance the circumstances give Pirx a chance. In this story Lem also puts forth the idea that what may be perceived a human weakness is in fact an advantage over a perfect machine. In this tale Pirx succeeds because a human can hesitate, have doubts, but a robot cannot, because it is programmed to be perfectly effective. In a sense, Pirx here is an anti-hero: he defeats the perfect robot due to his lack of resolution, mistakes, and his decency—the latter may also be perceived as a drawback, because it stands in the way of ideal effectiveness. …"
W - Pilot Pirx, W - Tales of Pirx the Pilot
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