Previous
The Four Youths
The envoys visit the Institute for Prognosis and Prevention of Earth Disturbance, where they encounter a group of “highly skilled” geological technicians who study earthquakes. These technicians live and work close to the fault line in the city, the most dangerous place to be if there’s an earthquake. Their equipment enables them to diagnose tremors and convulsions, and it is their duty to warn the public before earthquakes, which they do with great accuracy. Despite their advanced knowledge and awareness that the city will not survive a major earthquake, they seem content to live in this dangerous area, and they are more emotional about the city’s economic concerns than about potential disasters.
The Technicians Quotes in Report on the Threatened City
The Report on the Threatened City quotes below are all either spoken by The Technicians or refer to The Technicians . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Report on the Threatened City Quotes
For it is as if the mechanism fear has been misplaced from where it would be useful—preventing or softening calamity—to an area of their minds that makes them suspicious of anything but the familiar.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
As the envoys continue to analyze humans’ inability to assess the truth, they perceive that humans fear unfamiliar ideas more than they fear the real dangers that surround them. The willingness to accept an authority figure’s word allows for the conspiratorial thinking that the envoys believe characterizes human society. Furthermore, the report will later reveal that the endless subdivision of society renders the authority of trustworthy individuals nearly pointless. For example, the geological technicians at the Institute can warn about earthquakes and about how dangerous it is to live in San Francisco, and most people accept these warnings. But since Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. A
But, very shortly, a strong emotion was raised by phrases and words of which we list a few here: profit motive, conflicting commercial interests, vested interests, capitalism, socialism, democracy—there are many such emotive words. We were not able to determine, or not in a way that our economic experts would recongise as satisfactory, the significance of these phrases, since the emotions became too violent to allow the conference to continue.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The envoys engage the technicians in roundabout discussions in their attempts to understand why the humans evidently refuse to take steps like evacuating the city. The technicians are less emotionally invested in their personal well-being than they are in the city’s economic growth. Once again, the envoys provide an outside perspective of human preoccupations, critiquing the ease with which economic words such as “profit motive” are able to rouse humans from their general indifference into a state of violent agitation. An indifference toward life is combined with a vested interest in the city’s economic value. As the envoys quickly discover, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimu
Get the entire Report on the Threatened City LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
The Technicians Character Timeline in Report on the Threatened City
The timeline below shows where the character The Technicians appears in Report on the Threatened City. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Report on the Threatened City
...and Prevention of Earth Disturbance as observers. It is a place where 50 “highly skilled technicians’ work equipment that is just as advanced as the technology on the envoys’ planet. The...
(full context)
...discussion and debate—“one of their mechanisms for maintaining themselves in impotence and indecision.” Thus, the technicians at the Institute issue warnings one after the other, all of which come true. Yet...
(full context)
...Herbert Bond (age 35) and John Hunter (age 40). They did not directly ask the technicians why they weren’t trying to avoid calamity. They had learned to engage in a roundabout...
(full context)
