In a near-future Ilium, New York, total automation has rendered human labor obsolete. The population is divided between a wealthy technocratic elite of engineers and a redundant lower class relegated to the Reconstruction and Reclamation Corps or the military. Dr. Paul Proteus, a high-ranking manager at the Ilium Works, becomes disillusioned with a system that measures human worth through aptitude tests and industrial efficiency. He eventually aligns with a secret revolutionary group, the Ghost Shirt Society, which seeks to sabotage the machines and restore dignity to manual work through a violent uprising against the automated status quo.
This novel serves readers interested in the sociological consequences of technological displacement and structural unemployment. Engineering professionals and students of organizational behavior read it to examine the tension between technical optimization and human purpose. The reader gains a stark perspective on how meritocracy can harden into a rigid caste system. Rather than providing an optimistic solution, the narrative leaves the reader with the realization that the human impulse to innovate often recreates the very mechanical dependencies that society intends to overthrow.
- Published
- 1952
- Language
- EN
