The influence and boundless possibilities of technology affect most aspects of life and society. Not only are these influences visible in every-day modern society, but their potential is foreshadowed in literature such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, written in 1932. In Brave New World, Huxley presents a dystopian society that introduces many parallels to modern society, but, as a whole, does not provide a perfectly accurate depiction of our current world due to the extremity in which technology controls each person’s life. Although the society in Brave New World does not fully reflect modern society, the overwhelming influence of technology in the novel strongly corresponds with the negative effects of technology evident in today’s society.
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In the novel, each major city has a Hatchery and Conditioning Center where both the birth and identity of the children are predetermined and controlled (Huxley 1). While showing a group of students the Conditioning Center, Mr. Foster says, “We predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or…future Directors of Hatcheries” (Huxley 11). In an effort to achieve what it believes to be “social stability”, the government selects the cast for each human being and requires that each child undergo the alarming and lengthy process of conditioning for their specific class (Huxley 11-15). For those who are destined to live in the tropics as low-class, Epsilon miners, lab workers put the embryos through “heat conditioning”, where “hot tunnels alternate with cool tunnels” to cause the embryos to “thrive on heat” (Huxley 13). This extensive process in Brave New World depicts the government’s complete willingness to predetermine each person’s identity and position in society without real consent, revealing the insurmountable control the government assumes over its people through technology. The government’s abuse of technology through social conditioning conveys not only its position of ultimate authority over its …show more content…
Just as the government in Brave New World uses technology to place people into different social classes, the modern media uses technology such as television and cell phones to condition society into believing excessive use of technology is harmless. “A 2010 Kaiser Foundation study [shows] that elementary aged children use on average 7.5 hours per day of entertainment technology, 75 percent of these children have TV 's in their bedrooms, and 50 percent of North American homes have the TV on all day” (Rowan). This study shows the apparent dependency children place in technology to provide entertainment as well as highlights the large amount of parents being “conditioned” into allowing their children to spend large amounts of time on technology. Parents who adhere to the media’s misguided suggestion that technology only provides children with harmless fun disregard the detrimental effects excessive use of technology has on their children’s “physical, psychological and behavioral health” (Rowan). This conditioning compares with the social conditioning in Brave New World in that the children in the novel have to be conditioned in one area “a hundred and twenty times three times a week for thirty months”, corresponding with the lengthy amount of time children spend
In the novel, each major city has a Hatchery and Conditioning Center where both the birth and identity of the children are predetermined and controlled (Huxley 1). While showing a group of students the Conditioning Center, Mr. Foster says, “We predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or…future Directors of Hatcheries” (Huxley 11). In an effort to achieve what it believes to be “social stability”, the government selects the cast for each human being and requires that each child undergo the alarming and lengthy process of conditioning for their specific class (Huxley 11-15). For those who are destined to live in the tropics as low-class, Epsilon miners, lab workers put the embryos through “heat conditioning”, where “hot tunnels alternate with cool tunnels” to cause the embryos to “thrive on heat” (Huxley 13). This extensive process in Brave New World depicts the government’s complete willingness to predetermine each person’s identity and position in society without real consent, revealing the insurmountable control the government assumes over its people through technology. The government’s abuse of technology through social conditioning conveys not only its position of ultimate authority over its …show more content…
Just as the government in Brave New World uses technology to place people into different social classes, the modern media uses technology such as television and cell phones to condition society into believing excessive use of technology is harmless. “A 2010 Kaiser Foundation study [shows] that elementary aged children use on average 7.5 hours per day of entertainment technology, 75 percent of these children have TV 's in their bedrooms, and 50 percent of North American homes have the TV on all day” (Rowan). This study shows the apparent dependency children place in technology to provide entertainment as well as highlights the large amount of parents being “conditioned” into allowing their children to spend large amounts of time on technology. Parents who adhere to the media’s misguided suggestion that technology only provides children with harmless fun disregard the detrimental effects excessive use of technology has on their children’s “physical, psychological and behavioral health” (Rowan). This conditioning compares with the social conditioning in Brave New World in that the children in the novel have to be conditioned in one area “a hundred and twenty times three times a week for thirty months”, corresponding with the lengthy amount of time children spend