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Brave New World and Current Technology
In his insightful book, “Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley presents an anticipation of the advancements in technology that will be used to control the world through dictatorship. Huxley describes a world that will be controlled by the dictatorial powers using new technologies as their tools of capturing, holding and maintaining power. Particularly, Huxley looks at the use of the public advertising media like television, radio and other means of public communication. Huxley anticipates that these media will be used to propagate dictatorship and will be applied to the non-beneficial ways (Aldous Huxley Interview 5). The In furtherance of Huxley’s anticipation, one current technology that is similar is the internet. Based on the fears that Huxley expresses in the book, the internet fits the anticipations of advancement in technology to be used for psychological manipulation of the society.
The internet has the potential to be used as a tool of psychological manipulation as a form of social influence that will shape opinion and orders of governance. The central theme of the use of technology for dictatorial rule in Huxley’s view is the control of the behavior and the perception of the people (Huxley 117). Huxley thinks that such technology will be used for deceptive tactics, abusive and underhanded advances. The internet forms a potential technology because of the fast communication and ability of spreading information worldwide. The use of the internet is a potential for use because of its ability to shape the behavior of the people and the opinion of the society.
Huxley looks at the use of the harmless technologies by the people who intend to pursue harm to the society. The internet is a harmless technology and has been used for the development of the world. However, the internet has the potential of being used in the same way Huxley anticipated in The Brave New World. One of the potentialities of the internet is its ability to conceal the aggressive intentions of the user in order to influence the behavior. This is because the internet can be used by the power-seeking individuals to control the information being passed to the world. The internet can be used to pass the desirable information while concealing the reality.
As a result of using the internet in such a manner, the people will tend to like and appreciate the dictators because their opinion has been shaped that way. The tragic result is that the dictatorial people will be idolized while the innocent leaders will be victimized and never recognized. According to Huxley, the use of such technology will be used to discourage critical thinking and encourage the uptake of what is communicated as the truth. This is exactly what is happening to the users of the internet who tend to trust what is communicated online without critically exploring its intentions, context and purpose of the source.
Huxley anticipates the increased need for telecommunication to pose challenges of upholding the moral value of human beings (Aldous Huxley Interview 20). The According to Huxley, it will be challenging to assert the integrity and value of human in an age of high population and too much authorization of the future (Aldous Huxley Interview 21). The internet experience perfectly fits the description of the challenges that Huxley anticipates of the developments of the new technology. While the internet has a potential to be used for good results, the control of the bad people will make it a potential tool for use as anticipated by Huxley in The Brave New World.
Works Cited
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1932, Print
Aldous Huxley, ABC News: Aldous Huxley 1958 Brave New World Interview. Web, Accessed, June 9,2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWKMwbuufLo>