Player Piano Pontificating

Kevin Day, October 14th, 2007

“Most fascinating game there is, keeping things from staying the way they are.”

That could be the official motto for engineers and hackers, but it’s actually a quote from Dr. Paul Proteus, an engineer and the main character of Kurt Vonnegut’s first book, Player Piano.

It was written in 1952, but the story takes place in roughly the year 2000. Despite the time difference, Vonnegut pegged society pretty well. For instance, if a factory worker gets displaced by a machine they have two choices: join the Army, or join the Reeks and Wrecks, a group that repairs broken machines and lives off government subsidies.

Another example of an accurate prediction is this scene where a foreign ambassador, Khashdrahr, is shown the home of a member of the Reeks and Wrecks in order to observe a typical American family. His escort, Doctor Dodge, is selling him on the benefits of civilized society:

“And this is the ultrasonic dishwasher and clotheswasher,” said Dodge. “High-frequency sound passing through the water strips dirt and grease off anything in a matter of seconds. Dip in, take out, bingo!”

“And then what does the woman do?” asked Khashdrahr.

“Then she feeds the clothes through this ironer, which can do what was an hour’s ironing in three minutes. Bing!”

“And then what does she do?” asked Khashdrahr.

“And then she’s done.”

“What is it she is in such a hurry to get at? What is it she has to do, that she mustn’t waste any time on these things?”

“Live!” said Doctor Dodge expansively. “Live! Get a little fun out of life.”

“And how is it you live and get so much fun out of life?” asked Khashdrahr.

Wanda blushed and looked down at the floor, and worried the carpet edge with her toe. “Oh, television,” she murmured. “Watch that a lot, don’t we Ed? And I spend a lot of time with the kids, little Delores and young Edgar Jr. You know. Things.”

“Where are the children now?”

“Over at the neighbors’ place, watching television, I expect.”

That conversation isn’t limited to married women though. If the word television were replaced with internet, it would describe my life fairly well. I guess except for the kids thing of course.

This is a fun book for engineers partly because there are lots of small examples of how technology affects people’s lives, and partly because the engineers are at the top of the social ladder. Oh, well, I guess everything couldn’t come out the way he predicted.

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