In 1973, Kurt Vonnegut was asked by an interviewer why he started writing science fiction. “I was working for General Electric at the time,” he replied, “right after World War II, and I saw a milling machine for cutting the rotors on jet engines, gas turbines.”
The machine was computer-operated, and it inspired Vonnegut to write a novel,
“There was no avoiding [writing science fiction],” he told his interviewer, “since the General Electric Company was science fiction.”
Click Here For Complete New Republic Article by Evan Kindley