Technology, what is it? It’s usually something new, and better than the old idea. Technology started with cars, stoves, TV, radios, etc. Cars takes somebody from one place to another, faster than walking, running, or biking and one could go places without getting tired. Stoves allowed one to conveniently be able to turn on and off heat to a cooking utensil with less clean up. The biggest contributor to making our lives easier would be computers, which has come a long way since its introduction to the world. Also, computers have the ability to be improved more, and more in time. In general, technology started off by comforting our lives. Now, the rapid growth of technology has replaced the need for one’s own intellect.
To begin with, technology makes us lazy. One no longer writes with pen and paper, or a typewriter, but with a computer program. The use of a computer program eliminates many things such as a rough draft. Because one can make mistakes, fix it without a mess, and then print a final copy, a rough copy is not made. It is also not needed according to these people, yet as many people know, spur of the moment thinking is not nearly as good as a well thought out plan. Therefore, a rough copy is much better to have, even though most people don’t make a rough copy because they’re too lazy. This lethargy is due to the advanced technology of computers. Also, almost all programs are equipped with a spell-check. Spell-check is, in other words, a dictionary without the definition. So, because of spell-check, one wouldn’t need to use the dictionary, or is it one would be too lazy to use the dictionary? The use of the internet is also used to cheat. People can look for something to plagiarize across the whole world in less than five minutes. These lazy people just cannot resist this temptation.
This leads me to my next point, with the use of technology, one no longer exercises their mind. Take the spell check for instance, since one has spell check, they don’t look up words in the dictionary. Spell check, though, doesn’t have definitions, and their might be some replacement words that don’t have the same meaning as the word in your sentence.
Technology and the Brave New World
Technology and the Brave New World
Although the book Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, was written long ago, its subject has become more popular since most of the technologies described in the book have, at least, partially, become a reality. Huxley’s community of Utopia is a futuristic society designed by genetic engineering, and controlled by neural conditioning with mind-altering drugs and a manipulative media system. Yet, despite the similarities, the reader also finds many contrasts between the two societies.
Perhaps the most salient contrast between Huxley’s Utopia and our modern society, deals with the issue of procreation. The majority of babies born in our society today, are still the result of intercourse between a man and a woman. In many cases the birth of a child is a memorable and joyous event for the woman. In Utopia, however, if a woman is caught bearing offspring, she will be punished by exile. Offspring not produced the society’s way is a threat to the society’s existence, in the eyes of the leaders.
As today, pregnancy, in Utopia, could be prevented using a variety of methods. Where our society uses male and female birth control methods, Utopia has pregnancy substitute (a procedure in which Utopian woman are given all the psychological benefits of childbirth without undergoing it) and malthusian drill (similar to today’s birth control pills). However, modern society and Huxley’s Utopia both explore the advantages of artificial reproduction, although Utopia has taken it to the extreme: The Bokanovsky Process, is a method whereby a human egg’s normal development is arrested, then buds, producing many identical eggs. “My good boy!”…”Bokanovsky’s Process is one of the major instruments of social stability!” (Huxley, 7). Not only did this method create millions of “robot like” citizens for Utopia, but the leaders have supreme control over any threat of overpopulation. Utopian predestinators decide the future function of each embryo, essentially assigning class status. In this way, the leaders of Utopia are also able to keep the social classes balanced in the way they felt benefited everyone.
Although the reader sees some dissipation of social classes in modern society, in Utopia, the class distinctions were palpable. A five-tiered caste system is maintained which ranks Alphas and Betas on top followed by Gammas, Deltas, and the semi-moronic, ubiquitous Epsilons. The motto “Community, Identity, Stability” frames the Utopian social structure.