Brave New World Technology Criticism

Shweta Jain Period 2 AP English 22 November 2008 “Brave New World” offers a view of the world as it might become if science is no longer ruled by man but man is ruled by science and thus puts at stake his freedom. Nowadays, probably everybody is familiar with the debates concerning the amazing breakthroughs in science, and especially in cloning. Brave New World shows the warnings of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies. One illustration of this theme is the control of reproduction through technological and medical intervention, including the surgical removal of ovaries, the Bokanovsky Process, and hypnopaedic conditioning. Another is the creation of complicated entertainment machines that generate both harmless leisure and the high levels of consumption and production that are the basis of the World State's stability. Soma is a third example of the kind of medical, biological, and psychological technologies that Brave New World criticizes the most. There is a difference between science and technology. Whereas the State talks about progress and science, what it really means is the bettering of technology, not increased scientific exploration and experimentation. The state uses science as a means to build technology that can create a seamless, happy, superficial world through things such as the “feelies.” The state censors and limits science, however, since it sees the fundamental basis behind science, the search for truth, as threatening to the State's control. The State's focus on happiness and stability means that it uses the results of scientific research, inasmuch as they contribute to technologies of control, but does not support science itself. This scene sets of the beginning of this book and what it is going to be about. The bokanovskys process is thoroughly explained and is solely used through this whole book. As the Director says social stability is the highest social goal, and through predestination and...