Cat's Cradle

Taking the work of Dr. Hoenikker as a case in point, Vonnegut explores the sometimes-tenuous relationship between scientific progress and human welfare, including the risks and limitations that accompany scientific inquiry.

Vonnegut highlights the limitations associated with scientific inquiry during John’s interviews and tours in Ilium, New York, where Dr. Hoenikker lived. These limitations are not on the amount or type of revolutionary scientific progress that can be made; rather, the limitations apply to the potential for science to offer meaningful solutions to human problems and questions, including ethical and moral dilemmas. In fact, Dr. Hoenikker considers his work to be so far removed from such concerns that he asks, “What is God? What is love?” one on occasion (55), as well as “What is sin?” on another (17). Dr. Hoenikker’s outlook is essentially materialist; if something cannot be measured and tested, it might as well not exist. And his views are hardly unique; as a representative administrator, Dr. Breed also touts the pursuit of knowledge above all else. Those like Dr. Breed’s son, who develops ethical qualms, tend to quit.

On the other end of the spectrum are people like the bartender and Sandra, who have little knowledge of or interest in the latest scientific research.