Man vs Machine

The setting of Kurt Vonnegut's first novel - "Player Piano" - is a dystopian world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. During the first part of this 1952 novel, there is a mention of an old factory machinist, Rudy Hertz. Hertz was the best of the best in what he did. When the machines came, Hertz's "essence" was captured and stored into a tape, which dictated how these machines were to function. The turner-on of power, the setter of speeds, and the controller of the cutting tool - this was Rudy Hertz's essence as far as the machines were concerned.The machines had all the information for functioning while Rudy Hertz was no longer needed.

Further on, it was described that the world in the book had already undergone two industrial revolutions: A first industrial revolution that devalued a human's muscle functions and a second industrial revolution that devalued a human's routine mental tasks. Both of these functions were taken over by machines. The prospect of a third industrial revolution was being considered - one that would devalue human thinking altogether.

A player piano is a modified piano that "plays itself" without the need for a human pianist. The piano keys move according to a pattern of holes punched in an unwinding scroll. The instrument produces the sound itself, driving hammers that strike the strings, with the keys moving up and down based on the pattern of holes. Consequently, a player piano, like its ordinary counterpart, can also be played by hand. When a player piano operates under automatic control, the movement of its keys produce the illusion that an invisible performer is playing the instrument.

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The essence of a human being… humans being obsolete… machines dominating the world… that's what "Player Piano" is all about. It's not a new concept. The Matrix trilogy touches on this, as well as a number of other things in contemporary culture.

So, will the world ever get to a point where machines would rule the world? Take note that this novel was written in 1952. In this day and age, 55 years later, there are already machines that have taken over our basic muscle functions and our routine mental tasks; and to a certain extent, there are computers out there that can already think and are capable of rough analysis and primitive comprehension.

I'm just three (3) chapters into this 35-chapter novel, and it's already gripped me and gotten me thinking. Hopefully, the novel ends well for its characters. Hopefully, everything ends well for us.

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Anywhoo… I just went from Haruki Murakami's "Hard-boied Wonderland and the End of the World" to Kurt Vonnegut's "Piano Player". I enjoyed the former, and the latter is already enjoyable early on. This means that I'm probably just going to alternate between reading Murakami and Vonnegut novels for the next several months. Good books. Good times.