Last Friday (February 28th), the GrepBeat Book Club reunited for a fourth in-person meeting. Once again we welcomed a mix of increasingly regular… regulars… as well as a few new members. We were particularly proud of everyone for catching on that we’d had to delay things a week due to the previous week’s industry-disrupting dusting of snow. We hope to see everyone back at HQ when next get together on April 4th to discuss our fifth book, “Nexus” by Yuval Noah Harari (more details below).
In the meantime, here’s a recap of the fourth book we’ve read together: “Player Piano” by Kurt Vonnegut.
The Book in 150 Words
Following a “great war,” America has evolved into a society run by advanced machinery and automations. A technocratic class of engineers keep the machines in order while most citizens are provided for, but largely lack purpose.
Near the top of this society (which Vonnegut imagined as a near future when he wrote the novel in 1952), Dr. Paul Proteus is the manager of Ilium Works—a machine hub in Ilium, New York. He is also the son of Dr. George Proteus, who was among the early leaders of the automation revolution, serving as the National Industrial, Commercial, Communications, Foodstuffs, and Resources Director*.
Paul is on track to be promoted to an even more prestigious position. However, through a combination of general disillusionment, the influence of old pal Ed Finnerty, and some experiences in the “Homestead” division of Ilium (where common citizens live), he ultimately drifts into a brewing rebellion.
*Basically Elon Musk
What Book Club Thought
“Eerily relevant” almost seems like too lazy a phrase for this selection, but it’s really the most appropriate description. And because the themes and concerns of “Player Piano” so closely mirror present-day apprehension (and curiosity) re: the rise of A.I., it seemed that most Book Club members thought it made for natural discussion.
What was most interesting in this particular meeting was that as much as a “Player Piano” synopsis reads like a straightforward warning about the possibility of dystopian tech takeover, members had different interpretations about some of the messages Vonnegut was conveying. All in all, the prevailing impression was that the book was prescient but unsettled—and, despite a few dry spots, largely entertaining.
4/5 stars.
Notable Quotes
- “Their superiority is what gets me, this damn hierarchy that measures men against machines. It’s a pretty unimpressive kind of man that comes out on top.”
- Editor’s take: Being near the forefront of something innovative does not necessarily make you impressive; act accordingly!
- “Hell, everybody used to have some personal skill or willingness to work or something he could trade for what he wanted. Now that the machines have taken over, it’s quite somebody who has anything to offer. All most people can do is hope to be given something.”
- Editor’s take: *curls up into fetal position, munches candy in despair*
- “Nobody’s so damn well educated that you can’t learn ninety per cent of what he knows in six weeks. The other ten per cent is decoration.”
- Editor’s take: This is largely nonsense, but for those who will use the “six weeks” maybe the mentality that no one’s beyond catching up to is motivating.
- “In order to be self-supporting, a book club has to have at least a half-million members….”
- We’re just a few shy, folks. Join us.
What’s Next For Book Club
Next Book: “Nexus: A Brief History Of Information Networks From The Stone Age To AI” by Yuval Noah Harari
Next Meeting: Friday, April 4th at the GrepBeat HQ in Durham. Let us know you’re coming!
Some Comments: At Book Club #4, members ranked their top choices from a list of books that we and others submitted. A clear top two emerged: one non-fiction, the other a novel. These will be our next two books, and because we’re coming off a run of fiction, we opted to cover the non-fiction winner first. Said non-fiction winner, “Nexus,” is by the same author who wrote the wildly popular “Sapiens,” and should—in a somewhat less grim way than “Player Piano”—offer interesting perspective on the times we’re living through. (Also, beware: This one is on the long side, so get reading.)
The synopsis, per Bookshop.org: For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite allour discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive?
Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.
Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.
