Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut has always had a great awareness of the destructive social impact of

science and technology. Contraptions that Vonnegut calls "social transplants" replace real

relatives and friends with synthetic ones. Recordings, radio and television are just a few of these

devices. They make it possible to bring synthetic relatives and friends right into your home and

replace those friends and relatives who are not perfect, nor even consistent, with a better class of

people. Vonnegut's least favorite technology is the computer, because it is a nervous system

outside of our own, and it has deprived humans of the experience of becoming. "All they have to

do now is wait for the next program from Microsoft" (Pickering 24). Films, books and plays

show us people talking much more entertainingly than people really talk. Singers and musicians

show us humans making sounds far lovelier than humans really make (Skaw 568). All of these

technological developments have decreased the amount of contact we have with other humans.

The first of these "transplants" took place in the 4th century before Christ. Audiences accepted

attractive people who memorized interesting things to say on stage as genuine relatives and

friends (Vonnegut 266). We no longer have a need to make conversation with our dreadful real

family and friends, not when we have all of these technological and entertaining transplanted

friends and family. Vonnegut believes contemporary society is lonely because we have alienated

ourselves from each other because of all of the technology in our world. Throughout his many

writings Vonnegut shows his fascination with the way technology changes the social

environment (Lundquist 88).

He never abandons his theme of hatred for science and technology and its social impact

on society. Vonnegut also believes that we no longer have developed imaginations because of

destructive technological developments. We are not born with an imagination; teachers and

parents help us to develop it. Imagination was once very important because it was your major

source of entertainment. The imagination circuit is built in your head. People can read a book and

envision it in their mind. However, this is no longer necessary. Now there are shows, actors, and

movies that show us the story instead of letting us use our imagination to envision it. We do not

need imagination just like we do not need to know how to ride horses in our society. We have

cars that can go much faster than horses so why learn how to ride one? This question can be

applied to imagination. Why unleash your imagination to envision an unknown world in a book

when you have movies and actors that do it for you? Those who have imagination can look into a

face and see the stories there "to everyone else, a face will be just a face." Science and

technology has denied us our imaginations (Freedman 2). In a technologically advanced society,

we no longer need it. Vonnegut knows that science and technology have changed America and

society tremendously over the years. Technology and salesmanship have raped and stripped the

land and divested the people of pride, leaving them ridiculous mechanical men and women. As a

result, "The American dream of a new Eden with a new Adam, possible in the virgin wilderness

of a new land, has materialized into a junkyard by way of the glories of technology" (Schulz

348). As Vonnegut sketches his settings, American ghosts haunt them: coastal Indians, whalers,

Iroquois tribes, Erie canalmen, and pioneers. All of these people exemplify the American dream

and all of these people were destroyed by technology (Uphaus 466). People of the contemporary

society are no longer the hard workers they used to be because machines do their jobs for them.

We don't need to work as hard as the Indians, canalmen, pioneers, and whalers. Machines do our

jobs for us; all we need to know how to do is push a few buttons. Many Americans are jobless

because of the computerization in corporations, and Vonnegut blames American scientists and

technologists for this (Uphaus 466). Technology is so destructive that it has taken our jobs away

from us and takes away our pride. He believes that only those who still have manual labor to

perform are truly happy. He shows this belief in his stories, if he ever were to write a sentimental

novel with a conventional happy ending the hero almost certainly will be wearing a blue collar.

In his novel, Player Piano, the people who still have manual labor to do are the happiest. Science

and technology hasn't affected these people; they still have a job to perform. Kurt Vonnegut is

not only aware of the destructive social impact of science and technology; he tries to make you

aware of it through his writing. Technology is the villain in his writings because of this

awareness. He knows its ability to destroy society and he tries to make you aware of it.

Accomplishing what few other writers dare