From life’s annoying pinpricks

Like indifference

The dark room slyly stealing

My night’s blissful rest

© Jack Pope 2010

© Jack Pope 2010

©Jack Pope 2010

copyright 2010 Jack Pope

Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and the Morality of Science

In his novel “Cat’s Cradle” Kurt Vonnegut examines the moral responsibilities of scientists who devise dangerous technologies without regard to the ultimate use (or misuse) of their work.   The novel revolves around the work of Felix Hoenikker, a scientist working on the first atom bomb who, in his spare time, develops a substance that proves an equal menace.

Hoenikker represents the “pure” scientist, the kind of person who is intrigued by finding the “why” behind even the most commonplace objects and events.  His employer, a large defense contractor, values his work but is annoyed at his inability to stay focused. He repeatedly ignores his atom bomb research to investigate whatever happens to catch his fancy at the moment.  The firm even tries to isolate him during lunch so that a co-worker’s causal remark doesn’t send him off on yet another irrelevant research project.

One day, despite the company’s precautions, a Marine general manages to catch Hoenikker at lunch and begins complaining to him about mud.  Mud, he explains, has always bedeviled the Marines since it hinders their ability to fight, stay mobile and stay comfortable.  He demands that Hoenikker find a scientific solution to the problem.

The scientist says little, but he begins wandering around the firm’s laboratory contemplating the problem and putting together the necessary elements.  Soon, he develops “ice-nine,” a substance which instantly freezes any body of water it touches and leaves it with a melting point of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The scientist does not turn the invention over to his employer, but instead inexplicably gives a sliver of it to each of his three children.   He dies shortly thereafter.  Inevitably, of course, the ice-nine falls into the wrong hands (as well as the wrong place) and causes a world apocalypse.

The portrait Vonnegut draws of the three children tempts one to dismiss them as pathetic losers.  All the Hoenikker children have foibles that make them vulnerable to exploitation.  Still, despite their rather comical caricatures, the three children represent mankind in general.  They simply want to be loved, needed and respected.   All of the children fall prey to people who exploit this inherent vulnerability in order to obtain ice-nine.

The theme explored by Vonnegut is not new.  Perhaps the best known novel on the subject is “A Canticle for Leibowitz” by Walter M. Miller, Jr.  The story takes place in a post-apocalypse world where scientists are blamed for bringing about nuclear devastation.  As a result, society prohibits scientific research because it is deemed a public hazard.

The novel’s primary characters inhabit a Catholic monastery whose monks work to preserve texts containing the “old science.”  This harks back to the monastic preservation of classical learning during Europe’s dark ages.

One young monk succeeds in refurbishing an old generator and uses it to create an electric light.  This brings him into conflict with the monastery’s leadership who fear the outside world will react negatively to monks engaging in “science.”

The book ends with the monks discussing the morality of scientific inquiry and inventions.  One monk argues that new inventions should be prohibited until man is prepared to use them wisely.  But another monk retorts that if science has to wait for man to become responsible and moral, then science would never make any progress.  Science may advance, but man never does.  He stays eternally chained by the qualities that make us human.

Miller makes a much more convincing argument.  It’s tempting to condemn scientists who work on projects designed to wreak havoc.  But in the end science is inherently amoral.  Once a scientific discovery is made public it enters the overall body of knowledge and can be used by anyone for any purpose.  Indeed, in “Cat’s Cradle” Hoenikker develops ice nine by simply wandering around the company’s lab and borrowing items and knowledge from other departments.  One scientist’s work may create a cure for cancer, while another scientist can use the same research to devise a devastating biological warfare agent.

In the end man must accept the paradoxical fact that while science provides great benefits, it is just as likely to lead to his complete annihilation or enslavement.