raisindot said:
=Tamar said:
Would it be reasonable, I wonder, to consider the machines of industrialization to be taking the place of complex villains in Discworld? They are not presented as unalloyed good things, they appear to be at least semi-conscious, even a bit sly, they must be treated with caution. [snips by =Tamar] To be fair, not all machinery is conscious.[...] The basement machine in MM wasn't conscious, though its maker, Igor, could be considered a kind of dangerous machine in that he builds what is asked for, without concern for the eventual potential mayhem - something that could be said of most if not all Igors.
Vetinari is pretty much the bellwhether of "acceptance" of technological change. He was opposed to moving pictures and music with rocks, but by the time of The Fifth Elephant he certainly was in favor of the clacks, which one would have thought represented one of the biggest threats to the control of information. His change in attitude toward the clacks paved the way for him to approve the press in The Truth, and from that point forward (especially after benefiting first hand from the press), he has been in favor of technological advancements that he perceives primarily benefits Ankh Morpork.
The other "supporting" machines--the sorting machine in GP, the Glooper in MM, even the Devices in Snuff--aren't essential to the plots and really are there mainly to "eldritch up" momentary plot points.
Perhaps "villain" wasn't the word I was looking for. Possibly "major character"? The press in TT is described as apparently conscous, and it begins and ends the story, and that is often an indication of a major character in Discworld, even at times a protagonist.
The sorting machine in GP wasn't conscious; I think it probably existed mainly to get rid of the monster, though it added more strain to the post office, the initial issue of overwork was and is still real without any extra machinery. The Glooper in MM wasn't conscious either, but Igor was, and all the Igors are problematic; they aren't villains, but they are conscious beings who choose not to judge their employers - they just follow orders... yet they judge anyone who doesn't go along with their medical recycling. The Glooper wasn't destroyed either, though if I recall correctly it was sealed, so that it could no longer make adjustments to the A-M economy, but only reflect it.
However, the press in TT is definitely described in a manner that causes uneasiness in the character observing it.
So is Iron Girder, the railway engine in RS. The Press doesn't kill anyone, but Iron Girder does, and it even is perceived as issuing a kind of threat. I think the railway in general may have been brought in to replace the Devices, which were limited, possibly alien, and definitely would have been a source of trouble, being as unlimited as the golems and apparently nonsentient (though who knows whether they were related to the Device the Nomes had?). It would have unbalanced A-M badly to have a guilt-free source of free energy. (If nothing else, that would have been something 'worth' having a war over.)
I still kind of wish Sir Terry had gone with the Undertaking; I wanted to see Moist in a golden hard hat.