As I understand it, Player Piano draws on what was happening at GE as tool and die craftsmen were being forced to 'teach' their skills to the machines that would replace them. I treasure my worn paperback of the book.
Sally ________________________________ From: futurework-boun...@lists.uwaterloo.ca [futurework-boun...@lists.uwaterloo.ca] on behalf of Arthur Cordell [denar...@sympatico.ca] Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2013 1:59 PM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Subject: Re: [Futurework] The average are done for Player Piano, author Kurt Vonnegut's<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut> first novel<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debut_novel>, was published in 1952. It is a dystopia<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia> of automation<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation>,[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano_(novel)#cite_note-jcpn2kv-1> describing the dereliction it causes in the quality of life<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life>.[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano_(novel)#cite_note-jcpn2kv-1> The story takes place in a near-future society that is almost totally mechanized, eliminating the need for human laborers. This widespread mechanization creates conflict between the wealthy upper class—the engineers and managers who keep society running—and the lower class, whose skills and purpose in society have been replaced by machines. The book uses irony and sentimentality, which were to become a hallmark developed further in Vonnegut's later works.[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano_(novel)#cite_note-jcpn2kv-1> http://tinyurl.com/pvhdwms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano_(novel) From: futurework-boun...@lists.uwaterloo.ca [mailto:futurework-boun...@lists.uwaterloo.ca] On Behalf Of Keith Hudson Sent: Shttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano_(novel)unday, September 29, 2013 11:56 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Subject: [Futurework] The average are done for The following is part of an article in today' s Sunday Times The average are done for. You don't need to be. Toby Harnden Do you want your child to have a job in 2033. If so, according to a book that is gripping policy makers in Washington, they had better start deferring to computers. Society i about to be divided into Big Earners and Big Losers and those who rage against the machine are destined for the scrap heap. Tyler Cowen, an economics profesor at George Mason University in Virginia, delivers the bad news cheerfully. Inequality is on the rise, he argues, and the middle class will soon be seen as a quaint feature of a bygone era. Over the next two deccades, he predicts, society will become a "hyper-meritocracy" in which 15% will be richly rewarded for thir adeptness in harnessing technology and the remaining 85% will be consigned to a fragile existence in which wages freeze or fall and few get a second chance at success. His book, Average is Over, concludes that we are about to enter "the age of genius machines, and it will be the people who work with them that will rise". For the rest, life will be decidedly tough and although the fracturing of society is "not inevitable in a metaphysical sense", he told the Sunday Times, he had little optimism that governments would do the things necessary to make the situation better. An engaging and eclectic thinker, Cowen, 51, was chess champion of New Jersey at 15, has written a guide to ethnic dining and is a prolific blogger. The Los Angeles Times has described him as a [polymath]. Last year he was invited to Downing Street to deliver a seminar on industrial policy and warned against Britain embracing the politics of envy. Cowen emphasises the important of humility in accepting that computers usually know best and has reflected this in his own life. He met his wife 10 year ago via Match.com, a medium that forced them "out of our usual intuitions and to our mutual benefit". He is enthused by the advances in chess brought about by computers and accepts that he might not have succeeded as a young player using software "because I'm not sure how humble I was back then." The key, he says, is to realise that, as in "freestyle chess", in which players can consult competer programs, "the human and the computer together are strpnger than just the computer and certainly gronger than just the human". Being the best at chess -- or anything in life -- is no longer good enough. "The humans who are best at freestyle chess are not the grandmasters but people who are smart and know something about chess but also know whento defer to the computer and when your isdom actually counts for something." Computer algorithms, he argues, are becoming better at knowing what we want than we do -- and successful people will just go along with this. Reading Amazon or Yelp revview leads to better choices -- as does walking away from a business deal because a software pro9gram tells you it's too risky, even if your gut is telling you to hang in there. The downside is that employers will also usee computers with "oppressive precision" to measuere output, weed out slackers and spot those who have not always been steady and conscientious. Making a fresh start will become next to impossible. How do we nhelp ourchildren in this brave, somewhat scary new world -- to be part of the 15% Cowen says that the future is too unpredictable to produce lists of jobs to gravitate towards or to avoid. But he does advise avoiding excessive specialisation: ""Do what you enjoy, learn general skills and learn how to retrain yourself."
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