Technopoly

In his chapter Technopoly, Postman describes two distinct ages. The first, technocracy describes a time when technology was dominate, but traditional principles and rules still had a place in the minds of the people. In the era of technopoly however, technology takes over every aspect of mind and replaces free-will with conditioned responses. This is the age that “A Brave New World” takes place in. Postman describes technopoly as a “totalitarian technocracy” (Postman 48). This is exactly how to describe civilization in the “new world.” This type of society is an extreme version of a technocracy, where only one side (technology) is important. Every aspect of a person’s life is revolved around technology starting before they are decanted, being conditioned to think and respond to certain environments in a specific way. This relates directly to when Postman declares that technopolies make alternatives to themselves “invisible and therefore irrelevant” (Postman 48). Because of the way the people are conditioned, there is no other way to think or for that matter nothing else to think about. Fredrick Winslow Taylor was the anchor of the technopoly movement who believed as machinery intelligence advanced, independent thoughts were going to become a thing of the past. Taylor’s ideas present the thought that “technical calculation is in all respects superior to human judgment” (Postman 50). This is illustrated in “A Brave New World” with the way humans are regarded in a way that their existence is solely to serve technology. This is the idea that Postman reflects with his theory of technopolies and Kurzweil with his idea of singularity (the thought that man and technology will one day merge). Although Postman and Kurzweil’s ideas are similar they approach the topic in a very different manner. Postman is warning mankind not to get too closely linked with technology because we could lose a big piece of our humanity, whereas Kurzweil looks forward to the day man and machine will merge.

Singularity

            Lev Grossman explores the idea of singularity in his article in Times Magazine, “2045:The Year Man Becomes Immortal.” With the mergence of technology and humans, mankind as we know it would no longer exist. Advancements in technology, as both Grossman and Huxley in “Brave New World” explain, might soon grow so large that technology might soon take over and reign supreme.

Grossman  explores how technology can change the face of mankind when he discusses the young Kurzweil’s technological achievement. Kurzweil invented a computer that could compose music such as a human could. This invention brought attention to the fact that in the future computers might be able to take over tasks we consider to be the jobs of “humans.” Now, decades after his invention was first aired on the television program “I’ve Got A Secret,” Kurzweil believes that the moment humans and computers merge “is not only inevitable, but immenient” and believes that an immortal being can come into existence as early as 2035 (Grossman).

            I find the idea of technology surpassing human intelligence to be a scary, science fiction notion. However, at the rapid rate technology is advancing, this theory seems plausible. As Grossman explains “Computers are getting faster, faster.” Therefore, with computers constantly becoming more knowledgeable, they are catching up to the intelligence of humans. However, if technology was to exceed human intelligence in the future and humans and computers were to merge into one being, we would lose what makes us human. We would no longer be unique, each person would be the same as the next. As Bernard in “Brave New World” feels, we would no longer be different from each other, we would all just be replicates. In the novel, Bernard has the fear that humans and technology have become too closely linked and longs for a more “authentic” existence. When Bernard and Lenina are talking about the sea and Bernard explains that he likes it [the sea], because the makes it him feel like he’s “Not just a cell in a social body” (Huxley 90). When Bernard longs for an “authenitic” existence I believe he is referring to the ability to be different from everyone else. The way technology is used in the novel de-emphasizes the individual. Instead, each person is manufactured to their own specific niche and is just part of a greater system. The ability to be unique is a big part of what makes each person an individual and if we lose that, we lose part of our humanity.

         “Brave New World” shows an idea of what might be life if man were to merge with machine as Grossman discusses in his article. With this in mind, I do not think technology merging with humans would be beneficial to human existence.

Response to "In What Sense are Short Poetic Texts a Narative?"

In the article “In What Sense are Short Poetic Texts a Narrative?” the author, Jeremy Page, presents his point through the use of a few effective techniques.  Page sets up his style for this article on the role of narratives in poetic text, in the introduction paragraph. First, he gives a brief recap of all of the different types of poetic texts. He goes on from there to tell about his main point of the article and how he is going to organize it for the rest of the article. I found this to be a particularly efficient method, because it gave me a little background knowledge on the subject, helped me understand what Page’s focus was going to be on and how he was going to go about discussing it.

            After the introduction, Page gives a definition to what “narrative” means. This guides the rest of the paper, which I think is smart of him to do. It makes what he is trying to prove clearer, by giving a definition to what his point is, and then explaining how it relates to what the view of the article is. By doing this, he backs up what his thoughts are and makes it more effective.

Next, he explains how the main idea relates to one particular writer’s words. He talks about how that is a narrative and how the person who wrote it included that in his poem for that very reason. The way he uses a specific example from the writer’s work gives this paragraph a better direction and makes it more apparent what he is talking about. He explains why this example makes the poem a narrative and what the text is actually saying to support his point.  I think that the way he chooses to show his position here is successful, in that it refers back to what he previously said he was going to talk about and relates it to the actual text.

            In the next paragraph, Page continues to tell how another poem is a form of a narrative. He uses examples from the text once again to demonstrate how it solidifies his point. I think it is good how Page not only discusses what the author says on the matter, but then goes back, once again to his main topic.  

            Lastly, Page describes how the final author uses a narrative in his work. He uses a different method this time as he does not use direct text; he just explains the general concept of it. I like the way he explains this, and how he uses a different approach other than just explaining text; however, it went away from the previous structure of his last two paragraphs. I think that it might have been more beneficial for him to have had either make all of the paragraphs have a different way of proving his point or keep them all with the same general structure.  It was effective in making his point, but I think he could have done with a smoother transition.

            Although I do believe overall the way Page wrote this article was a good representation of his argument, I think that he could have done more to wrap up his argument more at the end. Instead of feeling polished at the end, it seems like it does not relate directly to what his main focus was with backing up what makes a narrative. He could have done more to go back to his point as he does in the paragraphs prior.

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