In the Shadows of Technology

Abstract

I aim to present how technology and its various forms, such as machines and science, influence human life with a negative touch, how human beings cope with the burdens that technology imposes upon them. In the first chapter I will apply Lewis Mumford’s theory of mega-machine to analyze Kurt Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan (1959), than I am going to explore the relationship between science and man with the help of Vonnegut’s two novels Cat’s Cradle (1963) and Player Piano (1952). In the last chapter I will extrapolate into the future and take into consideration contingent problems such as nuclear contamination and artificial intelligence offered by Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968). I chose to analyze works written by Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick, because I believe they both represent a distinct and critical voice about contemporary and future problems.