Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - Essay Example

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley In the modern world, which is technology driven, human beings rely dangerously on technology for almost all aspects of their activities, including procreation. While people may be in a position to enjoy many comforts due to the technology being applied in different walks of life, on the flipside, heavy reliance on technology has its own pitfalls that they hardly recognize. Aldous Huxley’s novel, “Brave New World,” eloquently illustrates the dangers of heavy reliance on technology by humans and its devastating consequences. The story portrays a society in the future, set in the twenty sixth century, where people’s lives remain in government’s control and humans undergo operations “voluntarily for the good of Society” for an incentive amounting to “six months’ salary” and incubate fetus in test tubes to create preconditioned humans (Huxley 6). The novel further depicts the lack of spirituality in people and how the government controls them through technology and turns them into unnatural entities. Thus, through his work Huxley forewarns the society about the perils of over reliance on technology and how it deprives humans of a natural life. In Huxley’s story, the members of the society have bartered their freedom for happiness and the comforts in life, which translate to stability. The novel further demonstrates how the government uses technology to the human “mind and body” and to “convince” them (Barr 850). The preconditioned humans acquiesce to the sense of stability and security that the government offers them and they are ready to sacrifice everything, including their liberty and free thinking in exchange. The most pathetic condition humans can perhaps attain is the situation where they become artificial and live without passion, compassion and spirituality. The people in the so called AF 632 society have become ready to compromise even the very concept of their freedom just because of the technology that government uses to provide them happiness and security. Technology controls everything for the people and, finally those who long for a natural life get annihilated in the end, as can be deciphered from John’s suicide. Thus, through his work Huxley attempts to alert the modern society about the pitfalls of overreliance on technology. In the same vein as this novel, the movie “Jurassic Park” by Steven Spielberg also shows the dangers of reproductive technology that challenges nature. In this movie, a businessman clones dinosaurs in a park in an Island near Costa Rica with the intention of developing it into a highly profitable tourist attraction. The movie also portrays a lab, similar to the one in Brave New World, where dinosaur eggs are hatched in artificial environment. Thus, he attempts to challenge and defy nature with the help of technology and benefit from it financially. However, things take an ugly turn and the animals get released from their cages and go on a rampage in the park, destroying everything and attack the businessman’s children and other guests. Finally, the scientist who has come to endorse the park, while being rescued by the businessman retorts, “After careful consideration, I’ve decided not to endorse your park!” (Spielberg 1993). The movie, in essence, again illustrates how the lack of spirituality, greed and the overreliance on technology for attaining material comforts can spell the doom of humans by the devastation the products of the same technology wreaks on them and thus issues a warning to the society. Another work that embraces the concept of technology being harmful to the humans is “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. It is a science fiction told in somewhat similar setting to Huxley’s novel. However, the story happens in a post apocalyptic American society, where the rulers in Capitol, control the people through technology of a different kind by using Reality Show as their tool for subjugation. The government here uses the possibilities of audio-visual technology to attract people to a game show in which only one survivor lives. The story, on the one hand shows how realty shows are influencing people and misguiding them and on the other it illustrates how the rulers in Capitol are using media technology to make people bend according to their whims and fancies. In her novel also, Collins shows characters that are akin in their human nature to John in Brave New World, such as Peeta, who asserts that he is not a mere “piece in their Games” (Collins 142). It transpires that the government is using the appeal of the TV technology among masses and uses it to influence them so that it can exercise proper control over the citizens. In this novel also, the natural instincts of humans are absent in most of the characters and they all want to merely acquiesce to the government’s design that exploits their weakness for technology which breeds in them the yearning to watch realty shows that makes a human kill another for survival. Thus, through this work, Collins forewarns her audience about the dangers of technology and the ravages it can bring on humans. There is no doubt technology is a boon to human civilization and it fetches a wide range of benefits to them. However, on most of the occasions humans take things for granted without recognizing the pitfalls of technology and attempt to misuse its potential for attaining ulterior motives. Similarly, they also disregard the need for respecting the natural elements in humans and other animals and thus engage in unethical practices for making profits or for controlling people or misleading them as can be evidenced from all the works examined in the course of writing this essay. Humans often ignore the consequences of their actions and they only focus on temporary benefits that technology brings to them. This makes them disregard the negative impacts of technology and the serious ramifications it can have on human life. The novels and movie want to convey the message that humans need to appreciate the limitations of technology and use it with discretion in their lives to avert its devastating consequences. Works Cited Barr, Bob. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World – Still a Chilling Vision after all these Years. Michigan Law Review, Vol.108:847 2010. pp.847-858. Web. 15 April 2013. Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic Inc. 2008. Web. 17 February 2013. Huxley, Aldous Leonard. Brave New World. IDPH.net. 2002. Web. 15 April 2013. Spielberg, Steven (Dir). Jurassic Park. 1993. Perf. Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern. Universal Studios. Read More