Many modern day scientists argue that humans construct the concept of free will rather than free will actually existing. The dialogue on this matter will likely continue for more years. While these scientists devote time attempting to prove their theories on the issue, other scientists research the effect on people when they believe their decisions are pre-determined for them. These studies prove that, regardless of the validity of the idea, people who call free will an illusion have lower moral standards than those with a belief in free will.
The people in a society are often a product of the presiding government’s policy. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, many of the citizens are artificially made and act like robots. However, in a reservation next to the new world, there exists a boy named John who was born and raised like a human. John is excited to go the new world because he believes that life will be better there. When John enters the new world, he sees many abnormalities that go against his beliefs, and the citizens call him a savage because he is not one of them. By juxtaposing John, the so-called savage, against the “refined” society, Huxley demonstrates the extreme extent of humankind 's atypical actions under the subjugation of a totalitarian government.
“Community. Identity. Stability.” These three words constitute the planetary motto of the characters of Aldous Huxley’s dystopian fiction Brave New World. (7) Theirs is a carefully structured post-modern society which managed to overcome political and social unrest through genetic engineering, strict social conventions, exhaustive conditioning, hypnosis and dependency on a drug called soma. In order for the stability of this world to be achieved, inhabitants are stripped of independent thoughts and emotions. This work is an exploration of the disturbing effects of homogeneity, control of technology and loss of personal autonomy on the members of the Brave New World.
As Madeleine L’Engle aptly said, “because to take away a man's freedom of choice, even his freedom to make the wrong choice, is to manipulate him as though he were a puppet and not a person,” taking away freedom of choice is equivalent to stripping off humanity. Mankind has evolved to have the ability to use the mind for reason and understanding, which separates humans from beasts and machines. It is this ability that allows man to analyze and formulate different choices, and have the freedom over them. Despite the knowledge that freedom of choice is fundamental in making humans human, social control has always been one of the leading reasons to justify the removal of that freedom. Through showing the need for the loss of freedom for social stability and the resulting problems, both The Unincorporated Man and A Clockwork Orange highlight the conflict between control and freedom.
Social technology, the product of human counterfactual thinking, has pervasive into a global phenomenon. People consider robots as servers in human companions, rather text than talk, and feel like a death if they leave their phone. People having ability to think causally make those imagining possibilities real. Causal understanding is the basic process and element in achieving possibilities. It helps people understand what should do and how should do to make imaginations real. In Alison Gopnik’s essay: “Possible Worlds: Why Do Children Pretend?” she writes that people’s ability to make counterfactuals and make them real is commendable. It helps people change the world to what they want. Sherry Turkle, the author of “Alone Together”,
...take away the freedom of thought. It will stay with us until the end of time. Viktor E. Frankl illustrated this in his essay “An Inner Freedom” from the book Man’s Search for Meaning. He stated, “The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not the result of amp influences alone.”
That is exactly what Big Brother did, they took the people of Oceania and brainwashed them. Forced them to do things they did not want to do. Forced them to believe what Big Brother wanted them to believe. Punished them for thinking, reading, and writing. Big Brother turned the citizens into robots. The adults of this society they brainwashed, the children were completely manipulated to think exactly the way Big Brother wanted them to and needed them to think. Starving people, beating, people, and torturing people for doing normal everyday things that Big Brother was against was strictly and act of dehumanizing these citizens. When an individual is not able to think or act on his own he is not human he is only operating under the control of another. Therefore the citizens of Oceania were not human at all rather pons in a game that Big Brother was
For years, authors and philosophers have satirized the “perfect” society to incite change. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley describes a so-called utopian society in which everyone is happy. This society is a “controlled environment where technology has essentially [expunged] suffering” (“Brave New World”). A member of this society never needs to be inconvenienced by emotion, “And if anything should go wrong, there's soma” (Huxley 220). Citizens spend their lives sleeping with as many people as they please, taking soma to dull any unpleasant thoughts that arise, and happily working in the jobs they were conditioned to want. They are genetically altered and conditioned to be averse to socially destructive things, like nature and families. They are trained to enjoy things that are socially beneficial: “'That is the secret of happiness and virtue – liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny'” (Huxley 16). Citizens operate more like machinery, and less like humans. Humanity is defined as “the quality of being human” (“Humanity”). To some, humanity refers to the aspects that define a human: love, compassion and emotions. Huxley satirizes humanity by dehumanizing the citizens in the Brave New World society.
As a result, the society of this scary inhumane, Brave New World is full with technology that is destroying humanity form us. Yes it is a perfect world and there no war, disease, crisis but also there is no emotions, feeling, love and especially any hope which are some of the necessary part of human nature. As a conclusion, technology controls the life of everyday people from the day they were born till the day they die in this Brave New World.
...en. The society is facing a challenge of whether or not the world should stop mental control or keep it going with the worry that it may take over the world one day. More realistically though, it could turn man into a community of people who is controlled by the government and does not have any emotions and can not figure out anything for themselves.. If the world misuses psychological conditioning enough, it will be a threat to humanity and that is not something that people of this world should think of as something good, because it could potentially ruin all of mankind together.
Imagine living in a society where there is no sense of independence, individual thought or freedom. A society where the government uses disturbing methods that dehumanize people in order to force conformity upon them. Taking away any sense of emotion, It would be very undesirable to live in a society with such oppression. Such society is portrayed in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World. The World State uses social restrictions to create permanent artificial personalities for people within the society. The World State also uses controlled groupings of people to brainwash them further to be thoughtless people with no sense of individualism. Lastly, the World State uses drugs to create artificial happiness for people, leaving no room for intense emotion which causes people to revolt against the World State. Within the novel Brave New World, it is seen that the World State eliminates individuality through social restrictions, government controlled groupings and the abuse of drugs to maintain control of the population.
In the science fiction novel “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick empathy in incorporated throughout the entire novel. Philip Kindred Dick is an award winning american novelist and short story writer who primarily wrote about science fiction. Philip K. Dick writing mostly focused on the psychological battles and altered state of being. The novel takes place in the near future earth after a nuclear war, World War Terminus has occurred, leaving the planet filled with radiation making it hard for the humans to live and their lives have become sacred. Rick Deckard is a police officer trying to terminate the androids in 2021, androids are human duplicates. Within the novel many complicated emotions are being addressed; love, loneliness, and empathy which are the basic human emotions. The picture that is being illustrated in the novel is dark, depressing, and disturbing. The humans and the androids try to portray themselves to be very distinct from each other but in reality
To begin with, there is an evident barrier that separates humans and androids. Humans seem to have more power than androids. In Mars, the androids were “body servants or tireless field hands, the custom-tailored humanoid robot–designed specifically for YOUR UNIQUE NEEDS, FOR YOU AND YOU ALONE…” (Dick, 17) Humans residing in Mars are the bourgeoisie and the androids are the proletariats. As technology advanced, humanoid robots became more human-like. Consequently, the androids realized that Mars is an “awful place” and is “lonely…much worse than this [abandoned apartment]” (Dick, 150), and eventually escaped to Earth. Although the androids thought Earth was their safe haven, Rick Deckard contradicts this. As a bounty hunter, he was instructed to retire the androids that emigrated from Mars. When he retired all six androids that absconded from Mars, he realized he got “six today; almost a record…and we’ll have enough money, for once.” (Dick, 224). Retiring the androids is Rick Deckard’s source of financial gain. Despite of power Rick Deckard had over the fugitives, they attempted to rise against him. They “install(ed) a two-way bug so you [Pris] can hear us and we [Irmgard and Roy] can hear you…” (Dick, 157). The androids tried to protect each other, in the hopes of surviving. The proletariats fled to Earth to escape the bourgeoisie, only to be hunted by another bourgeoisie on Earth who exterminates them for money. Even with the effort of the proletariats to revoult, the bourgeoisie still
In Philip Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, many animals have become extinct, which then lead to the creation of robotic animals; all a result of World War Terminus. As a result of the extinction of many species, it can be difficult and expensive to get a hold of a real animal so many chose to buy the robotic animals. The creation of robotic animals is beneficial to buyers as they are cheaper then real animals. In the novel, real animals and mechanical animals play a role in a way that allows them to benefit and assist characters in different ways. Also, animals play a significant role in understanding characters and actions taken by the characters throughout the novel. Furthermore, Mercer uses animals as a form of communication
Throughout the novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, protagonist Rick Deckard learns an important lesson - to empathize. He learns that life does not have to be as bad as he thinks it is. He can enjoy it whether the androids are living with them or not. The book tells the readers what Rick Deckard learns in the story, what he wants his readers to learn, and whether he is going to return to his bounty-hunting job.