Class Discussion (2/19) (Meagan Adler)

After today's analytically complex discussion, I was particularly intrigued by the terrifying idea of a “calculated" and “tabulated" (pg.17) society where everyone is almost robotically manufactured to believe the same answer to their existence.  This “extraordinarily rational" (pg.17) society, that many people evidently try to fight for when they consistently try to persuade others that their answer is the right answer, would ultimately end in “boredom" (pg.17) which “sets one sticking golden pins into people" (pg.17). The idea of having a homogeneous society, where everyone believes the same answer to an infinite universe is terrifying because if everyone is complacent no one is looking to progress.  A society that does not progress ultimately regresses.  I think that the narrator sees free choice, even though it acts against self interest, as the “most advantageous advantage" (pg.17) because it lets us start new and rebuild ourselves.  It gives us control in an infinite universe that ultimately controls us.