The Dystopian Songs of A Player Piano

On the eighth day machine just got upset

A problem man had never seen as yet

No time for flight, a blinding light

And nothing but a void, forever night - Eighth Day, Hazel O' Connor 

Humanity's prevalence is ending; AI threatens our collective lives and livelihoods and has taken aim at our very souls. While automation and industrialization have provided many benefits, raising living conditions and improving comfort- Now, it wants to take control of our most human activities- creativity- and 'collaborate- or more insidiously do it for us—the demon seed already in our veins. 

Six String Prophecies

The rage of Punk at the architecture and artifice of modern control is so prevalent as to approach tropism. Whether it is the structural insecurity of Siouxsie Sioux's Cities in Dust, the social ramifications in Bad Religion's 21st Century Digital Boy, or Hazel O'Connor's Doomsday scenario of 8th day- the danger looms just around the corner. Even the verbose and ever-present provocateur Henry Rollins could not resist reminding us that we should not panic; this is what Punk prepared us for.' It may not be enough.

The Cake Is A Lie 

Technology inhabits every aspect of our daily lives; we are closer to the beautiful mech horrors of Crkshnk's art than our organic origins. We are all too willing to accept virtual worlds, inhuman influencers, and algorithms that guide our cultural discovery and growth paths. Regardless of its ability to cater to us, the question that looms is when machines will direct with bias rather than to our desires.

I worked in the 'smart technology' industry, from running cable and programming code to managing teams and sitting in on new product development. In this world, the infamous Steve Jobs reality distortion field is very real. Over ten years of industry involvement, my perspective shifted from wide-eyed Utopianism to out-right confusion and simmering dismay. There is a joke that automation engineers have the lowest tech homes, not because of a cobbler's children syndrome, but because they are all too aware of its faults and perils. 

Ghosts In The Machinery 

The author Kurt Vonnegut, channeling his experiences from WWII, envisioned continuing social disruptions presented as progress. In his oft-overlooked first novel, The Player Piano (published 1952), we are thrust into a world in the throes of a 'Second Industrial Revolution.' Rather than relying on inefficient human workers, engineers have learned to record the most talented artisans for their machines to imitate.  

The quest for eliminating human foibles does not stop with manufacturing or logistics. The schism between the ruling engineers and workers is so great that they live in vastly inequitable regions. While exploring this other world, two of the story's protagonists meet Rudy Hertz, a man on who they molded their algorithms. Rudy, proud he was chosen as the model, plays a song on the bar's player piano in honor of his special friends. As the music plays without human intervention, the keys move with the ghostly swing of a musician long lost to everyone. 

Waiting for the tune to finish and not embarrass Rudy, the main character looks out to nowhere, hoping he will not be alive when the Third Industrial Revolution, one that devalues all human thought, arrives.