The perception he paints of a technological, futuristic civilization is both formidable and captivating. In a dimension where people are disciplined down to one's very impulses, sentiments, and anticipations, technology has the dexterity both to Incarcerate (for example by conditioning) and to set free (the frontiers of scientific discovery often lead to change).It Is because of this that technology is somewhat bastardize by those who seek to control it: use what is valuable, but limit what is "dangerous. " The following essay will provide reasons as to why technology is such a ubiquitous theme in Huxley Brave New World. Brave New World cautions readers of the hazards of giving the state command over new and omnipotent technologies.
One representation of this theme is the adamant authority of reproduction through technological and medical Intervention, inclusive of the surgical extraction of ovaries, and the Bazookas Process.As a way o maintain the society motto of "Community, Identity and Stability," the number of inhabitants is managed through the artificiality of the Brave New World's use of technology. In the first chapter of the novel, the reader are acquainted with the process of making humans in this Dyspepsia. The advancement of technology made it attainable for the creation of an artificial arrangement with the reproductive glands and accessories needed for fertilizing and hatching the resulting eggs.
The fact that machines do what Is done by human reproductive systems demonstrates how genealogy is predominate over man in this world.Technology is so advanced that the people can make one highly intelligent or not highly intelligent while one is still an embryo. Mr..
Foster says, "The lower the caste the shorter the oxygen" (Huxley 11). This means that one does not even have control over one's own intelligence. One cannot try one's best, nor do more work because one's intelligence Is predetermined. Also, there Is no choice as to whether one will allow technology to think for oneself, since one's intelligence is chosen when one is an embryo.
Technology is also evident in sleep teaching (hypodermic conditioning). While one is sleeping, a recording is played over and over again. By the time one wakes up, it has been memorized without knowing it. This type of technology allows one to be conditioned without knowing it.
There is no opinion of right and wrong, instead, one learns what one is taught. Thus, technology overcomes the ability of one to think. The hypnotherapy phrase "the more stitches the less riches...
" (Huxley 54) Is repeatedly heard by every person at an early age.The phrase is embedded so deeply into the consciousness of each person that everybody takes its meaning to be the truth. In this case, the phrase sparks consumer behavior, since the more a person repairs one's consumer goods, the less a person will purchase, resulting in less money in the government because consumption keeps lower castes occupied with no time on hand for disruptive behavior. Soma is a third example of the kind of medical, biological, and psychological technologies that Brave New World scrutinizes most sharply.Soma is a hallucinogen used by those in power to subdue the citizens in Brave New World's futuristic, totalitarian setting. It is described as "the perfect drug," with all the benefits (calming, surrealistic, ten-hour long highs) with none of the drawbacks (no guilt, no hangovers).
As Lenin says "a grammar is better than a damn" (Huxley 54). The citizens of the "World State" have been conditioned to love the drug. The distribution of soma keeps citizens under control and helps the citizens forget about their problems.An obvious relation exists between soma and the use of illegal narcotics and other illegal drugs today; a closer look, however, reveals that soma relates even more closely to the abuse of pain killers and other legal prescription drugs. Many people can not live without technology.
It is a part of every day life. People use technology to drive cars, text friends, surf the web, and so much more. Technology is a wonderful experience and the world we live in today would not be the same without it. However, technology in the wrong hands could prove to be chaotic and dangerous.
