This isn't a novel, as some critics have argued. This book contains no fictitious elements and if some departure from truth is present in this book, then only in the sense that art is a "beautiful lie". The whole story about the "state and identifications cards" - that to some critics seemed a "sure lie"- is authentic with one reservation - that the metaphysical aspects were added later by a mature Lem.

The child I once was has been described in detail. However at that time I was unaware of the fact that I was lonely; I liked loneliness, had few friends and I preferred my sometimes-strange meditations to company of fellow students. Already in those times I must have been a loner. But since a child does not have the opportunity to for a comparison I can only see from today's perspective that my childhood was not entirely an ordinary one.