Technopoly

            In Neil Postman’s Technopoly, Postman describes the concept of technopoly by the submission of all forms of cultural life to the sovereignty of technique and technology. Technocracy is different from technopoly because technocracy is the tool that are key to the worldview of the culture, tools that are the most important item in the culture, and all other aspects of culture are secondary in importance. Frederick Winslow Taylor fits into this conversation because of his argument about science being more fundamental to the society than faith, example, religion; he believes that “human judgment can’t be trusted, because it is plagued by laxity, ambiguity, and unnecessary complexity.” Taylor believes that science will be able to do our “thinking” and we are to do the “doing” in the industrial industries. The machinery knew better than the did, and therefore, it was to be trusted and refined more than the humans.

            Neil Postman’s Technopoly lets us understand Brave New World a little more because of the similarities that the two novels have in common. In Postman’s chapter, technology will soon be in control of society and tell the society what to do and how to perform the basics that we should already know. In the novel, Huxley writes about technology and how technology is controlling the society with Henry Ford being their “god” and using AF (after Ford) and BF (before Ford) mostly because of his idea of the assembly line. Huxley writes about how to control the society through the use of sleep teaching techniques or controlling them while they are babies like growing up with “an ‘instinctive’ hatred of books and flowers” and saying that “They’ll be safe from books and botany all their lives”.

            Postman’s article has many of the main points that are written in Huxley’s novel. Huxley’s “New world” that is mostly involving the ideas of Postman’s technopoly, and Postman’s “Old World” than relates to Huxley’s description of the Reservation, their use of old tools and having faith.

the brave new singularity

          The many concepts spoken in this article are very interesting because of the technology that are presented in the concept have many different features that defines itself. The idea of aging backwards like the movie, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” give me many new thoughts of what the future will be like if everyone stays young like in Brave New World and no one dies of any disease or fatal injury. Immortality will be gained through these ideas.

             

          “Maybe we'll merge with them to become super-intelligent cyborgs, using computers to extend our intellectual abilities the same way that cars and planes extend our physical abilities.” If we were to become one with the intellect of a computer, many problems may occur (even though is does sound cool). This is a good thing because the blind will now be able to see, crippled individuals will now be able to walk, and many more. This is also a bad thing because these computers will be able to be hacked from a hacker or our reality will become like the movie “Gamer”, where anyone can be controlled because of the Nano machines in their body. To be combined with computers makes us less authentically human because they will no longer have the human traits but will just have the human thoughts. To be authentically human is to have the power to do things yourself, like sweat, grow hair, or any other bodily actions.

             

          Bernard in, Brave New World, is onto something because if the reproduction of humans is altered, then everything else will be altered. If the progress of technology continues to grow then I believe that we humans will be in danger of technology controlling us or even putting us into extinction. We will then move down on the chain of commands and technology will soon upgrade itself.

rhetorical analysis

What the writer's purpose is in the article, "Brave New World and the Threat of Technological Growth", is to show that technology may someday dominate society. The author attempts to tell us the theme which is that God is to be forgotten and that “technology” will takes His place as God. The author uses logical appeals even strengthen his theme and he directs the theme to individuals looking for a better future in decades or centuries later.

The subject of this article describes how the world and everyone can be like if it became a technopoly. People will be living their lives as consumerist because they would be buying new products every day because of technology advancing every day. All of our junk will be thrown away and new junk will replace the old ones, a never ending cycle.

The main point that the author tries to show is that society could be controlled by technopoly and consumerism that is forced onto the people even if the people want to fix what is broken. The author uses many resources from articles and uses quote from others to prove his point. The facts and statistics given in this article are important to the reader because it will give the audience some proof about technology becoming closer to dominating society. The evidence that is the most persuasive is the fact that children with ADHD will be given Ritalin or Adderall so that they can be more focused in school. This is the same as Brave New World because if someone was not happy, they would take Soma, a pill, and suddenly they are happy.

The author begins the introduction with having the novel talking about how “dangerously accurate prophesy of technology’s capacity to dominate society, and how this domination is silently changing the goals, moralities, and values of our culture.”  The structuring of the article is mostly quotes and other article going back and forth with the novel and giving facts. His transitioning to article and novel is mostly about comparing the two. The language used is simple so that young readers may understand this well and so that it can be read without a problem to others.

This article is mostly logical appeals because of the facts from what he has used. I am amazed the article is true even in today. Consumerism is taking effect because of new technology that is being created every day, week, month, year, etc. I have seen people follow this like my brothers and the new iphone or a new whatever that peaks their interest. This is also a major must for people who shop because they want the latest outfits or accessory. Because technology is advancing at such a fast past, people will always buy the next BIG thing that others talk about. Although I have been told to wait until the next BIG thing, there will always be another BIG thing that will appear to surpass the product before it. Even though I don’t follow this “rule” now, I will follow it sooner or later without notice.

Brave New World and the Threat of Technological Growth

http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/509/brave-new-world-and-the-threat-of-technological-growth

HI

its gonna be a good life