A former machinist, Rudy Hertz is now an old man who lives in Homestead and spends his time drinking at the bar with his blind dog at his side. When Paul, Finnerty, and Shepherd were still young engineers, they were tasked with visiting a machine shop and recording the physical movements of the best machinist. These movements were then put on a tape and played through a machine that, in turn, recreated the laborer’s movements. To this day, Rudy Hertz is still proud that Paul, Finnerty, and Shepherd chose him to be the one they recorded. When Paul sees him for the first time in many years at a bar in Homestead, Rudy speaks admiringly of him in front of everyone else, making Paul extremely uncomfortable because it’s clear that the other customers despise him (since he’s part of the elite class that forced them out of work by designing so many machines).