Review of Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

It's 2025. The Western world, and much of the non-Western world, is wholly dependent on machines, computers, and other electronics. And AI has become the #1 technological concern for the future. It's going to make humans redundant! It's going to collapse the economy by putting people out of work! Etc., etc. Turn back the clock 75 years and those concerns were directed at robots. Works like R.U.R. and War with the Newts by Karol Capek portrayed societies wherein humans become second-class citizens to robots. Tackling the topic from a broader, more corporate angle is Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952). Still relevant in 2025?

Player Piano is the story of Paul Proteus. An intelligent engineer, Paul is a key leader at Ilium Works, a production facility for electronics and robotics that automate many forms of work. Also a good employee, Paul ruffles no feathers and keeps his nose clean. At least at the beginning of the book. As things develop, Paul has increasing contact with the reeks & wrecks—the skilled men and women who have been displaced from the labor force by machines and are now at loose ends. He finds himself increasingly sympathetic to their plight, something his ambitious wife Anita hopes he will forget in pursuit of a more lucrative position at the company's Pittsburgh location.

In a parallel storyline, Vonnegut features the Shah of Bratpuhr. A counter-point to Paul's story, the Shah initially comes across as a goofy foreigner whose ignorance of Western ways puts him at a loss. But as the book moves along, the silly, innocent questions the Shah asks (along with his burbling style of speech) reveal him to be something of an odd “voice of reason”. He bumbles his way into a few keys scenes, becoming foil to the ideology of Paul's company. (And the Shah does ensure Player Piano has satirical undertones, as otherwise its drama may have been of the melo- variety.)

It's important to note Vonnegut's view to automation is not entirely pessimistic. In fact, it's presentation is one that makes it seem inevitable rather than wholly controllable. It's here that the sub-theme of corporate life almost becomes the main theme. Where Paul is portrayed as a down-to-Earth guy who gets satisfaction meeting internal goals, his wife Anita, on the other hand, as well as several people around Paul, are portrayed as people for whom the ladder climbing and status-seeking of corporate life are prime motivators. Anita drives Paul to rise higher in the company, while some of his colleagues sell their souls, in essence, for the chance at promotion and better position.

But Vonnegut takes corporate life/existence to another level: he parallels it, lightly albeit, with socialism. The desire to conform, the propaganda, the group think—all have borne out over the years as, indeed, more socialist than individualistic. To be clear, Vonnegut does not draw a 1:1 comparison, only that corporations, be defaults, have some similarities with Marxist doctrine in how they are organized and run. Profit seeking is, naturally, elided.

In the end, Player Piano shows its age a touch for the relatively simplistic (i.e 1950s) manner in which corporations are presented. Everything else, however, remains salient. AI has replaced robotics as the hot labor topic, but the fundamental idea of machines/computerss taking jobs remains the same, just as the question: Is it inevitable? remains relevant. Fahrenheit 451 is the more famous American dystopia of the 50s. Taking books away touches a nerve among the literati. But I would argue Player Piano is the more socio-economic relevant novel of that period, and remains worth a read today.