Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Technology and the Brave New World :: 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. â€Å"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 â€Å"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.
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