Brave New World: Warnings Pertaining to Technological Growth

Technology today is more relied upon than ever before. If one needs to call someone half way around the world, simply take out a cell phone and dial their number. Within thirty seconds, one can be speaking to that person just as if two people were conversing face-to-face. In the same manner, one has access to endless knowledge and resources by the pushing of a few buttons or the click of a mouse. The usage of social media today is becoming more prevalent than ever before because of the convenience it offers. This convenience includes being able to instantly know where a person is, what they are doing, and how they are feeling. All of these instances have one main commonality : technology. The interminable technological advances one has experienced in the past twenty years have been astonishing. As one continues down the road of technological advancements, they should be mindful of what could happen if they become too dependent on the technology that surrounds them. Brave New World conveys a warning that demonstrates what happens to a society when it experiences an overreliance on technology. The book warns readers by portraying what that over-reliant society would be like.

The first instance taken from Brave New World can be found in the beginning when it talks about how “standard men and women” are made “in uniform batches” (Huxley 7). The society depicted in the book has discovered technology that enables them to artificially produce the people they desire. These artificial people are manipulated from the earliest stages of their lives. When they are only an embryo, their traits are predetermined by certain controllers that work at the “Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre” (Huxley 1). In Derek D. Miller’s words, “ev...

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...ng the novel, one can conclude that Huxley’s Brave New World is a prediction of the future that seems increasingly accurate as time goes on. According to Miller, the real question is, “When do our advances in technology begin to do more harm than help?” How long does one have before the tightening grip of technology seizes their society in its daunting clutches? Should one be afraid of this eminent threat? Or accept what it has to offer? (Miller 4). “Progress is lovely, isn’t it?” (Huxley 100).

Works Cited

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Classics, 1998.

Kessler, Martin. "Power and the Perfect State." Political Science Quarterly (1957): 565-577.

Miller, Derek D. Brave New World and the Threat of Technological Growth. 2011. 7 November 2013 .