The Invincible

I'd not heard of The Invincible, but Solaris had a transformative effect on me and you've convinced me to read the first two items on your list. Didn't Roadside Picnic become Tarkovsky's Stalker?

If I were to choose three fiction, those would make the cut. Fiction: The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem - It shed light on me in regards to microelectronics, swarm intelligence. Nothing ever eased my learning curve more for genetic algorithms like this short novel! It is also a good read in general. It also taught me that the difference in scientific vs force vs emotional approach to unknown. Would recommend as a springboard from a day-to-day acitivities. Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky - a Soviet sf classic, I've read it 3x already. It tells a story about a closed zone where 'aliens' left their artifcats, and how that changed people around them. Ender's Game - I don't think there is an explanation needed. It is a total classic. It helps a lot to understand outsiders, not just aliens but a humans too. All of the above are either hard or soft sf.

The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem. Little known, even in Sci-Fi circles.

The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem.