TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION
Kurt Vonnegut published Player Piano in 1952 — pre-AI.
In Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut wrote about an automated society. The 1952 novel is set in a future society that is mechanized — machines do everything from brain work to manual work, and they make all the decisions! The novel posits a war with most Americans fighting overseas. The managers and engineers back at home have to create automated systems. After the war, the new reality leads to serious conflicts.
Get Jan Bossing’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
The story is told through characters who live inside the system, and those who view it from outside. The action and insights of the fantasy novel have some important and serious implications for us, as we try to learn to live with the benefits of science and technology!
Vocabulary becomes very important. So do concepts. So do experiences. The main characters have to try to live their lives with the realities of the new world. Why do people exist at all? What work can they do? If they don’t work, what do they do? There are expected conflicts, obvious heroes, brave acts, mob action, legal process, military intervention — sound familiar yet?
People and machines, and how they use and abuse each other. What if people are really of no use? Yikes!
