AD-029-ENF · Book · 2005 · novel
Uglies
Scott Westerfeld
The machines
City systems that handle food, transport, housing and repair, plus the surgery every citizen receives at sixteen.
What people do all day
Turn sixteen, receive the operation, move to New Pretty Town, and do nothing at all — parties, pranks, more parties — comfortably and supervised, for the rest of a long life. The surgery includes lesions that make contentment easier.
Pattern
Enforced idleness — Everything is provided, so nothing is left to do — and that turns out to be unbearable.
Note
Written for teenagers and unusually direct about the bargain: the machines handle everything, so the only remaining question is whether you mind being altered until you stop asking what else you might have done.
Same answer, different work
- The Time Machine · Book, 1895
- The Machine Stops · Book, 1909
- Last and First Men · Book, 1930
- With Folded Hands · Book, 1947
- Childhood's End · Book, 1953
- Logan's Run · Book, 1967
- Idiocracy · Film, 2006
- WALL·E · Film, 2008