Technology in A Brave New World Technology is defined as using the entire body of science, methods, andmaterials to achieve an end.
Technology, or techne, is so preoccupied withweather it can, it never considers if it should. In “Of Techne and Episteme,” aarticle on technology and humanities, the author Eddy warns us that a societywithout epistemological thinking would lead to a society of “skilledbarbarians. ” This is the topic of the novel Brave New World in which AldousHuxley portrays a future world where babies are manufactured on an assembly lineand put into a social class while they are still embryos in a test tube. Aschildren they are engineered to be content with their rank in this world wherelove, viviparous reproduction, and knowledge of anything beyond your job servesno purpose. A look at Brave New World supports Eddy’s beliefs on the importanceof humanities in society because of unethical genetic experimentation and thecharacter’s lack of individuality. The society of Brave New World has gained the knowledge to producebabies much like their God, Henry Ford, produced the Model T.
They have takenthis technology and exploited it for their own benefit. They have created withtheir hands without using their head or heart. Scientists toy with the embryos,cutting off oxygen to those predestined to become lower caste members. Thosechosen to work as rocket plane engineers were in constant rotation during theembryonic phase of their life. “Doing repairs on the outside of a rocket inmid-air is a tickish job. We slacken off the circulation when they’re right wayup, so that they’re half starved, and double the flow of surrogate when they’reupside down.
They learn to associate topsy-turvydom with being well-being. “These procedures would be considered morally incorrect today, however, in thefuture the lack of ethics allows this to be a normal procedure. Eddy stressesthe importance of humanities, and teaching of moral ethics. Schweitzer saidthat “If any age lacks the minds to force it to think about the ethical, thelevel of its morality sinks, and with it, its capacity to answering thequestions that present themselves.
” This quote could not apply its-self more toBrave New World. Each of the characters in Brave New World lacks an important humancharacteristic, individuality. I feel individuality is one of the mostimportant things that defines us as humans, we were each created differently,and, like a snow flake, no two people are alike. In the future, due to theadvent of genetic engineering, up to 17 thousand babies can be made from asingle fertilized egg. Each person has their identity programmed in the”decanting room.
” Each life has a predestined path that has been determined forthem, robot slaves working for society and gain, no different than the “skilledbarbarians” of Eddy’s warning. I feel that Eddy’s beliefs are supported by Huxley’s novel Brave NewWorld. Without humanities, Huxley’s future thought only of the end and not ofthe means, there was no concern for life and each life lacked individuality. Ithink the most unnerving part of this is I see many similarities between Brave New World and the present and today’s social tendencies.
