From the Golden Age to Cyberpunk - Literature review Example

"Anything Goes" is a bad policy - technology and Society Outline: I: Introduction: A quick review of technology and science fiction, from the golden age to cyberpunk. II: What does technology mean Looking at technology through a lens. III: Resistentialism, or the hostility of inanimate objects. How a joke is the best way to understand why 'things' don't work. IV: Technology, society and need: adapting Do we adapt technology, or does it adapt us V: Animism, or putting human feelings into non-sentient beings. Giving things souls, the science fiction idea. VI: The Fear of Machines, and technophobia versus the technopoly. Are Science fiction writers afraid of technology. VII: What choices do we have when we use technology Ever expanding technology, and its usefulness to both the forces of good and of evil, are a frequent theme in twentieth century literature; from H. G. Wells and The War of the Worlds, to the post war tales of Isaac Asimov and C. M. Kornbluth. Science Fiction from this period studies the impact of technological change upon the individual, and also society at large. Social theorists have also paid a great deal of attention to advances in technology, and the fiction might be seen as a novelists attempt to answer the same questions that the theorists have posed. In examining these questions, it is first necessary to explain what is meant by the use of the word 'Technology': this is important if we are to understand how much of our lives is influenced by this subject. The problems of technology are then considered through use of 'Resistentialism'. Turning from that to the question of whether we adapt technology, or if it adapts our needs, the study will also consider if technology is truly neutral, and therefore the responsibility for good and evil outcomes lies within the human being using and developing this technology. After discussing all these factors, the essay will conclude by considering whether this subject is to be feared, utilized, or ignored in order to achieve the best for society. Science fiction has produced some of the most influential books of the last century, many of them written in the period between the end of the Victorian era and the beginning of the Cold War. These stories, such as Fahrenheit 451, or 1984 are often dystopian in setting and outcome, with technological advancements used by negative forces. C M Kornbluth's A Little Black Bag ends tragically, as the hero is destroyed by other's greed, and a technology that should have been beneficial to society at large is eliminated. In those stories, human evil is responsible for manipulating the essentially neutral technology (In Kornbluth's tale, it is used for good by the doctor who redeems himself, and it is his assistant's inability to see any use for the technology except as a money-spinner which causes the tragedy [Kornbluth A Little Black Bag]). However, overuse of technology, also increases in human ignorance. Asimov's The Feeling of Power depicts a future where people cannot do mathematics any more due to their reliance upon technology; even the most basic thought processes are troublesome to people dependant upon computers and machines. Later fictions, such as the Cyberpunk movement, have been more ambivalent about technology: Neuromancer depicts a future in which technology gets more and More amazing, without having any effect on the world's Problems. (Jones, 92) Certainly Neuromancer is not a utopian version of the future, but in the novel, society cannot function without technology, whether it is the official social structures, such as businesses or those in the underworld and black markets. This may be a reflection of the current state of western society, where we cannot imagine a future in which technology does not play a major part. Any discussion of the role of technology in society must consider what exactly is meant by the term 'technology'. Usually, when this word is used, in phrases such as 'IT' (information technology), it refers to the mechanical and electronic systems which have been developed over the last 200 hundred years or so, beginning at the time of the industrial revolution. However, as Postman has pointed out in Invisible Technologies, language and numerical systems are also technologies; although we do not often consider these elements when discussing the problems of technology. Postman has observed that devices such as polling and statistics are also dependant upon human manipulation for their origins: that language can be a tool for society is shown in 1984, where newspeak exists to misinform and manipulate the population. Here, language is not a neutral device which can be used without repercussions. As Orwell shows, newspeak prevents people from realizing that they are at war, starving, or being oppressed by the government of Oceania. 'Hate week' is a clear example of how the populace is misled through propaganda. Once we can accept that Language is a technology, then we can see that both Postman and Kranzberg's belief that technology is NOT neutral feeds back into an 'anything goes' ideal of society. Newspapers practice 'Power without responsibility', and at the same time, there is less and less significant information for the constant stream of language and symbolism which we face each day. 2001: A Space Odyssey shows this: The more wonderful the means of communication, the more Trivial, tawdry or depressing its contents seemed to be. (Clarke, 42) In fact, a constant stream of information which is essentially useless seems to be a feature of dystopian novels: the technology of knowledge is meaningless when featured on TV. This is language and society as a technology. Human beings and technology have an uneasy relationship, even in the smoothest of transactions. One way of considering the nature of these relationships is through 'resistentialism', which was originally invented by a humorist called Paul Jennings, and described the 'hostility of things'. Although a joke, it is a useful analogy for the way in which people regard the 'things' in their lives. Railing against a traffic light that seems to have deliberately turned red, or a cash machine that runs out of money just as you approach it; these events are not quite animism (which will be discussed later) as it does not see the 'things' as having souls. They are merely being inconvenient or resistant, and this is the natural order of things. Asimov's I, Robot, shows inanimate objects behaving in difficult ways, but entirely consistently with their programming. This feeling that machine or computer technology is always against us may be a subtle way of recognizing our own opposition to these devices, one way in which humans attempt to face their increasing dependence upon technology. The nature of the conflicts between human beings and their technological creations mean that it is not always possible to decide where the line between adapting technology and being adapted by it can be drawn. An obvious example of this is the Black Stone in 2001, which firstly adapts prehistoric mankind on earth, and then adapts the earthlings again once they reach the moon. The technology which is produced through the stone adapts the humanoids further, and then they eventually adapt it; a constant cycle which culminates in men orbiting around the earth, reading increasingly banal newsreel. Although Postman may seem a bit idealistic in his ideas, he demonstrates a desire to undo some parts of technology, without undoing others. Considering how we have adapted since the development of TV (different social groups, different eating patterns and traditions, different levels of activity), is it possible to abandon it That doesn't seem likely, and so developing more and more technology seems very risky.. The difficulty with being unable to reverse creation begins when we consider whether technologies are neutral. Both Postman and Kranzberg have acknowledged that it is not, and neither is it wholly good, or wholly bad. Of course, as in A Little Black Bag, a device intended for good may fall into the hands of greedy and manipulative people. Nuclear Power, which has been used both to make bombs and as an energy supply, is something which has positive and negative features. In science fiction, however, these aspects are rarely shown as belonging to the same technology. Newspeak, for example, cannot be considered 'good'; the Martian invaders are also not 'good' in any sense. However, placing all the responsibility for harm with the human being tends to ignore the role that technology has in shaping the human. In the near future, children may 'need' computers in order to progress in education - 50 years ago, this would not have been the case. Technology produces needs, as much as it fulfils them. Kornbluth's story does not say what happens to the people that the Dr 'Full' cures, or whether they are left dependant upon the healing technology which has been destroyed, but the fact that the Dr does not live very long after his cure suggests that, in fact, the long term futures of his patients are also unlikely. This kind of need, as shown in Asimov's The Feeling of Power, produces dependence and an inability to function on their own. Once human beings are dependant upon technology for their existence, either through livelihood (computer programming, or data input, for example), or for their very existence (as in 2001, or I, Robot), then the question of animism becomes very important. Animism is a device which grants normally inanimate objects with a soul, or sentience, so that it has something like 'free will'. In 2001, for example, mankind is the technological product of the Black Stone; humans adapt and develop self-realization, which in turn leads to us landing on the moon: though this may also be part of our 'program'. In I, Robot, although these machines seem sentient, they are in fact programmed though the Laws, and are unable to disobey them. The question of whether they have souls is a difficult one for human beings to answer, dependant upon how one sees the nature of DNA 'programs', or our design features as written by God. Of course, animism is the root of dystopian fears about sentient machines: if robots and computers have feelings, as we do, would they rebel against their masters, as we would Some part of this is guilt at our own complacency, part of it is recognition on how dependant we are upon computers, and at least another part is simply our fear of the unknown dissenter in the ranks. Asimov's story of a future where human beings have lost control of their own thoughts, and where everything has to rely upon computers, also has an ending where mathematics is turned into another trick and device of warfare. Human nature, the story seems to say, means that everything we utilize develops negative features. The Question of whether technology can be used for all walks of life, no matter how severe our dependence becomes upon them, is something that science fiction has attempted to answer, by taking us to the very end of our fears. If science fiction has a very ambivalent relationship with technology, both needing it to develop the story, and being aware of the huge risks we take by being dependant upon it. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is now even more unlikely than ever that we can put aside our newest technologies, and go back to paper and printing; or go back to community gatherings; or go back to earning a living from the land; or even just go back to the beginning of the last century, though even then H G Wells could see the trouble in store. Technology has vastly improved the life of the average human being in the west, but it has also made it less meaningful, and maybe less fulfilling too. For the next century, human beings need to learn how to use technology without falling into the traps of needing it so much that we cannot even do simple sums without it. Bibliography Asimov, I The Feeling of Power (online) Asimov, I. I Robot in Great Science Fiction Stories (Octopus books, London 1982) Bradbury, R. Fahrenheit 451 (Corgi, 1963) Clarke, A C 2001: A Space Odyssey in Great Science Fiction Stories (octopus, 1982) Jones, G. Deconstructing the Starships: Science, Fiction and Reality Liverpool University Press (1999) Kornbluth, C M A Little Black Bag (Online) Kranzberg, M. Science-Technology-Society: It's easy as XYZ Orwell, G. 1984 (Penguin, London, 1964) Postman, N. Invisible Technologies and Amusing ourselves to Death online Wells, H G. The War of the Worlds (Penguin, London. 1966) Read More