All Day

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AD-021-ALL · Book · 1988 · novel

Cyteen

C. J. Cherryh

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The machines

None, in the usual sense. Azi are human beings grown in vats and educated by tape.

What people do all day

Azi work the job their psychset was designed around, and find it satisfying, because the satisfaction was part of the design. They are not stupid, not mistreated and not deceived about what they are. Their tapes tell them what to want, and Cherryh's interest is in the technicians who write the tapes.

Pattern

Allocated labour — A system decides what you will do, and people comply — sometimes willingly.

Note

The most technically detailed treatment of designed labour anywhere in the catalogue. The novel's central question is whether an azi's contentment is different in kind from a citizen's, and it declines to answer.


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