I fondly remember being a child and going on the Disney World ride 'Carousel of Progress' which demonstrates through a singing audio-animatronic American family how technology has benefited and improved the lives of each successive generation. We can get so caught up in the belief that “progress” will be nothing but an asset for us as individuals and as a species. Certainly people in the past had poorer living standards and worse medical treatment – but how does progress impact the planet? In what ways does it bind us to capitalism? And how does it change our sense of being unique individuals? These are questions at the heart of J.O. Morgan's novel “Appliance”. Through a series of vignettes we follow the development of a device which can instantly transport objects (and eventually people) from one place to another. Think Wonka Vision but without the shrinkage. We follow the reactions and the impact it has upon a series of characters who are like bystanders to this march of progress which demands they integrate this device into their lives whether they like it or not. Though this may sound like a book with a Luddite agenda, it's more an emotional and philosophical examination about how we can get caught up driving forward our society more for the sake of it rather than to benefit the people who inhabit it.
Since each chapter moves to an entirely new set of characters the novel demands patience as it's necessary to reorientate to a new situation. But there is a pleasure in discovering how the technology has moved on and the way it is affecting the lives of these different individuals. From the outside one naturally wants to marvel at a rapidly-improving device which begins by transporting a simple plastic spoon and progresses to the point where it can zap whole cities to the moon. However, what's so clever about this novel is how it focuses on the dangers, frustrations and bewilderment it causes to those who live with it. As the device advances the infrastructure around everyone deteriorates to the point where they become wholly reliant upon this technology. Every resource must be mined to feed it even as most people increasingly don't understand it.
The story also teases out questions of authenticity. It addresses how we are biological beings which continuously regenerate: “The person we were yesterday is not composed of exactly the same stuff as the person we are today. Just as we can't be sure we are the same person who wakes up each morning, unless we stay awake all through the night.” If we can be wholly mapped and recreated elsewhere what aspect of our being is really individual? In each successive story the characters come to feel less authentically themselves and less intelligent. Those who protest against the system which demands they use this device find that their objections are met with indifference. Those who infiltrate the system find themselves being drawn into becoming a part of it. Everyone else blithely goes along with it though the quality of their lives doesn't necessarily improve. Though the premise of this story is like something you'd find in science fiction it feels eerily relatable and relevant to the world today. I got the creepy sense from reading this novel that technology would never need to become self-aware in order to enslave us as we're unwittingly allowing it to control us already.
