A Fear of Perfect Endings

It’s a bit late, but I’ve just finished my first summer reading! And as with any good book, countless reflections flooded my mind as soon as I closed the back cover.

So, let’s start with my first thought, a question:

What if there were mechanical presidential candidates? You know, just bolts and rust instead of handshakes and idiocy?

Evidently, there would be fewer gaffes concerning sporting events, but that’s a story for another time.

Now, where was I? Ah, the book!

Written by the famed Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano illustrates a world more dependent on machines than a teenage girl with her mobile Facebook app. There are super computers, mindlessly calculating how many door knobs, dinner plates, television sets, washing machines and everything else to produce for society. There are engineers, whose doctoral degrees allow them to sit behind office desks and act only when an instrument requires wire-replacement. Then, with one flick of a switch, another machine whirs to swap out the faulty cables.

Of course, the number of necessary engineers is also determined by the computers.

At face value, Vonnegut paints an unwelcome conclusion to the post-Second World War culture. Yet, I find it hard to believe that he really expected us to fear dominance by machinery – after all, most of us are probably too busy clicking on Groupon deals to contemplate such nonsense. Instead, I wonder if, beneath the irony and genius in Kurt’s prose, a deeper anxiety awaits to be found.

Perhaps it is a fear of the perfect ending. See, even in Vonnegut’s flawless world where the robots do all the hard work – and replace our kitchen appliances every few years! – the humans aren’t happy.

To refrain from spoilers, I’ll just reiterate that last part; the humans aren’t happy.

Is it because we prefer continual change over finality? Does the idea of “progress” signify the root of all our desires? Would we really rather live with a malfunctioning dishwasher?

I have zero sufficient answers but, hell, at the very least, maybe we just enjoy watching presidential candidates who stupidly criticize Olympics preparations.

What are your thoughts on Vonnegut, machines and the likes? An inquiring mind wants to know.