June’s pick was Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano – his debut novel focusing on automation and alienation. As a software engineer in 2025, this felt pretty close to home. Vonnegut always manages to write something that feels very relevant, even decades after it has been written. Player Piano is a satirical critique of industrial capitalism, technological determinism, and the erosion of human dignity in the face of mechanization.
Set in a near-future America where almost all labor has been automated, the novel centers on Dr. Paul Proteus, a high-ranking engineer who becomes increasingly disillusioned with the society he helps uphold. Vonnegut uses Proteus’s internal conflict to explore a fundamental question: what happens to humanity when machines can do everything better, faster, and cheaper than we can?
Though the novel is clearly satirical, it avoids becoming didactic. Vonnegut doesn’t vilify technology outright; rather, he critiques the blind faith in progress and the unchecked power of those who control the systems. There’s an underlying humanism throughout the narrative—a belief that people need more than efficiency and material comfort. They need purpose, recognition, and connection.
Reading Player Piano today feels eerily timely. With ongoing debates about AI, labor displacement, and the social cost of automation, Vonnegut’s vision remains deeply relevant. It’s a sobering reminder that technological advancement without ethical reflection risks creating a world where efficiency replaces empathy.