Player Piano (1952)

Kurt Vonnegut's first novel is the most useful dystopia for anyone thinking about automation now. In Ilium, New York, machines have replaced most human labor, and a class of engineers and managers runs everything efficiently, while everyone else is left comfortable, useless and resentful. Paul Proteus, manager of the Ilium Works and the most powerful man in town, starts to doubt the system he serves. The warning is not about cruelty but about purpose: what a society owes people once it no longer needs their work. Early Vonnegut is less playful than his later books, yet the satire of corporate team-building is already sharp.