It’s an electronic computing machine-a brain, if you like. This chamber alone, the smallest of the thirty-nine used, contains enough wire to reach from here to the moon four times. There are more vacuum tubes in the entire instrument than there were vacuum tubes in the State of New York before World War II. (116)
Kurt Vonnegut’s specialty is to write the things about the modern advancement …show more content…
The theme of the novel Player Piano is oriented towards the role of machine by taking the scientific realities of the early 1950’s and the projection is at the present to make the readers to imagine what will happen in future. After the second industrial revolution in Ilium, a hierarchy is formed by the working class people in which the managers and engineers occupy the top level. Managers and engineers are the creators of the sophisticated machines by introducing the up-to-date technology and at present they are working with machines rather than with people. Paul and Anita think about the third industrial revolution which may occur soon.
‘Do you suppose there’ll be a Third Industrial Revolution?’
Paul paused in his office doorway. ‘A third one? What would that be like?’
‘I don’t know exactly. The first and second ones must have been sort of inconceivable at one time.’
‘To the people who were going to be replaced by machines, maybe.A third one, eh? In a way, I guess the third one’s been going on for some time, if you mean thinking machines. That would be the third revolution, I guess- machines that devaluate human thinking. Some of the big computers like EPICAC do that all right, in specialized …show more content…
The first character is Anita who is an ambitious and calculating woman and the second character is, Ed Finnerty whose taste is described as follows. “Socially destructive, undisciplined antics” (40). Finnerty holds out a tremendous appeal to the young manager. Paul and Anita’s relationship is a disturbing one. Anita hates Paul because of his cruelty. Paul and his friends go to the bar and they enjoy the sophisticated life. Paul says about the modern world,
As he shifted from one foot to the other, he recalled the fully mechanized saloon he, Finnerty, and Shepherd had designed when they’d been playful young engineers. They’d set up the experimental unit about five doors down from where Paul now stood, with coin machines and endless belts to do the serving, with germicidal lamps cleaning the air, with uniform, healthful light, with continuous soft music from a tape recorder, with seats scientifically designed by an anthropologist to give the average man the absolute maximum in comfort.