Although author Bill Joy declares himself not to be a Luddite, his article "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" raises interesting questions about humanity's use of technology and its continuing progression. Joy worries that humans are not concerned enough with the ever-increasing rise of human dependency on modern technology. Through examination of pop culture, specifically movies and books (The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, and Jurassic Park (1993), of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, I believe we have become more aware of the encroachment of technology in our everyday lives.
The advent of mainstream science fiction novels is the first indication of the awareness of the ever-increasing role of technology in our lives. Authors dared to imagine the what-ifs of science, imagining worlds far beyond ours, or our own, twisted and unrecognizable in the far distant future. H. G. Wells published The Time Machine in 1895; at the time it was the first novel about time travel and one of the forerunners of the sci-fi genre. One of the themes of this novel comes out in the Time Traveller's awareness "of blind faith in scientific progress"(PinkMonkey.com). Because of the ineptness of the Eloi and the wasteland that is the Earth, he wonders if such technological progress will eventually lead to our downfall.
A few decades later J. R. R. Tolkien wrote and published his Lord of the Rings epic. Set in a world resembling pre-Industrial England, the One Ring, in one interpretation, represents the potential dangers of technology. Gandalf, an unquestionably good and wise character even resists taking the Ring because "[i]n evil hands it might have done great evil . . . [a]nd over me the Ring would gain a power still greater and more deadly" (Tolkien 66-67). With the power of the One Ring, the evil warlord Sauron would be able to take over the world; paralleling the use of weapons of mass destructions in the hands of people like Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and Osama Bin Ladan.
In 1993, Spielberg's movie Jurassic Park rocketed into theaters, casting a spell on moviegoers all over the world with the dinosaurs that seemed so lifelike that it was hard to believe they were either robots or computer generated. Aside from entertainment, the movie also raises important questions about the ethics of scientific discovery. Drs. Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm soon get over their initial awe of actually seeing dinosaurs and start to wonder if their creation had been a right move. Malcolm, particularly, is not shy about presenting his views: "Don't you see the danger inherent? . . . Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet has ever seen but you [John Hammond] wield it like a kid who found his dad's gun." When Mr. Hammond, played by Richard Attenborough, replies testily, "How can we stand in the light of discovery and not act?" Malcolm is ready with a response: "What you call discovery, I call the rape of the natural world." One of the most important lines, again spoken by Malcolm, is the issue of whether or not the technology even should have been used: "[The] scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." In Malcolm's mind the so-called objective science cannot afford to ignore the ethics of using technology. As the movie progresses and all the viewers see that creating dinosaurs was definitely not a good thing, the viewers too are led to believe that not all scientific progress is good.
Despite Bill Joy's worries, modern movies and books show that humans are aware of the increasing role of technology in our lives but we would do well to pay better attention.
Works Cited
Jurassic Park. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Sam Neill and Richard Attenborough. MCA/Universal Home Video, 1993.
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. 1955. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993
Horn, Jessica. PinkMonkey.com. The Time Machine. 15 November 2003. |
