Technopoly

Neil Postman’s Technocracy to Technopoly, describes how technocracy evolved to become technopoly from the 19^th to the 20^th century. Postman stated that the United States has become a Technopoly, and in the paragraph before, he describes how Technopoly relates to Brave New World. That means that United States and the novel Brave New World are slightly similar because both are technopoly societies.

Postman explains that a Technocracy was, “a society only loosely controlled by social customs and religious tradition, and driven by the impulse to invent” (Postman 41). He also explains that a, “Technopoly, in other words, is totalitarian technocracy” (Postman 48). This is scary to think that the United States is considered a technopoly just like Brave New World. According to Postman, the United States does not really care if it was the first Technopoly, all that really matter is, “to remain the most highly developed” (Postman 48). Postman mentions, Fredrick W. Taylor, who was a part of the hearings for the Northeastern railroads. Although, the railroads were ruled against, Taylor created a system that could ultimately “solve everyone’s problem” (Postman 50). Taylor later published the book, The Principles of Scientific Management. The book included his belief that, “the primary, if not only, goal of human labor and thought is efficiency; human judgment cannot be trusted because it is plagued by laxity, ambiguity, and unnecessary complexity” (Taylor). This belief relates completely to the belief system in Brave New World, “Technopoly eliminates alternatives to itself; it does not make them illegal. It does not make them immortal. It does not even make them unpopular. It makes them invisible and irrelevant.” This relates to Brave New World because in the novel, the government has lead their people to believe in whatever they choose for them to believe in; everyone is predestined to be a part of a certain social class and there is no alternative.

Even though, the United States is considered to be a Technopoly, it is not as severe as the Technopoly in Brave New World (sigh of relief). The people in Brave New World can not think for themselves because the government controls what they should believe. In America, we have the right to believe in whatever we want to believe in, we have freedoms. Us Americans are always looking to improve technology to help better us as a nation, we are always striving for progress.

Technological Takeover?

“Kurzweil believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans. He believes that this moment is not only inevitable but imminent” (Grossman 1). In the article 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal, by Lev Grossman, explains Ray Kurzweil’s theory of Singularity and how one day computers will ultimately become smarter than human beings. Kurzweil believes that in 35 years, life as we know it will be destroyed.

Kurzweil, at the age of 17 in 1956, appeared on the game show, I’ve Got a Secret. Kurzweil’s secret was that he played song on the piano that a computer had composed for him. Afterwards, he showed off the computer he had built himself. Little did he know what the computer might become 50 years later. “Computers are getting faster. Everybody knows that. Also, computers are getting faster faster — that is, the rate at which they're getting faster is increasing. True? True” (Grossman 1). Grossman explains how computers are getting faster and faster, and he believes that eventually computers will surpass human intelligence, this concept is called Singularity. This seems crazy, right? But if you really stop to think about it, you might come to realize that this could become a possibility.

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is about technological take over by the government. The government is able to make human beings the way they want them and they are able to put them into different social classes; everyone in their society is predetermined. The main character, Bernard, believes that he is able to achieve more than what he was molded to become. He believes that human beings can be authentic and not just happy, working robots. Brave New World and the article are similar in the sense that technology is taking over. Bernard wants to feel and be an authentic human being, “It makes me feel as though I were more me. More on my own, not so completely a part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body” (Huxley 90).

I believe that in today's society, technology is evolving quickly and taking over our lives. In today’s society, we can hardly live without our precious technology. Smart phones allow us to be on the internet and to be in contact with our friends 24/7. This shows that technology is becoming a necessity. In the article, Kurzweil explains how technology one day, human beings will become immortal through computers. He explains that one day, we might be able to “scan our consciousnesses into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually” (Grossman 1). Singularity is definitely a strong possibility. We never know, “Maybe the computers will turn on humanity and annihilate us” (Grossman 1). We are in danger of technological take over. I do believe that technology will continue to grow faster and faster, but I believe that scientists should try to stop technology from becoming more intelligent than human beings. I believe once we reach the point where technology and computers become smarter than human beings, we will no longer be in control and we will just become a slave to technology. Just like Brave New Would, we will no longer have rights and we then become “just a cell in the social body” (Huxley 90).

Rhetorical Analysis

        http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/247/vampires-the-ever-changing-face-of-fear
             "Vampires: The Ever Changing Face of Fear", written by Tori E. Gibbs, shows how vampires have evolved over the past 200 years and how their perception has changed. Gibbs explains, “Vampires have transformed from a sort of worst nightmare into the charming hero of our dreams” (Gibbs). A couple hundred years ago, vampires were considered evil blood-sucking creatures, and according to the Encarta English North American Dictionary, vampires are “Bloodsucking evil spirits: in European folklore, a dead person believed to rise each night from the grave and suck blood from the living for sustenance” (Encarta Dictionary).  Now a days, you see the Twilight Saga and vampires are perceived as beautifully handsome, extremely pale, and sparkly human beings. Gibbs gives examples of earlier books about vampires and how different they are from modern day vampires. She quotes Margaret Carter, “The focus on vampire subjectivity opens what was once a repulsive object of horrified speculation into a creature of extreme sensitivity and pathos. The narrative position ‘reflects a change in cultural attitudes towards the outsider’, an effect of Romanticism that, in various contemporary fictions, turns the threat of the vampire into an attractive quality” (Carter).

           I would say that Gibbs purpose in writing this article is to inform the reader about the evolution of the vampire; there is no particular audience she is writing to. Since she has no particular audience her writing is very fact based. It is a research paper in which there are no thoughts or opinions of her own. She gathers all of her facts about the evolution of vampires from different published books dated as far back as 1734 to the present day. She cites many important books, authors, TV shows, and movies to back up her thesis. This shows that factual evidence is very important to Gibbs in order for her to get her point across. All the factual evidence gave me a clearer understanding of how vampires have changed from frightening and evil to what we now know vampires to be today, handsome and romantic.

            Gibbs writes a very clear and informative essay which was easy for me to understand and follow along. She starts off with a strong introduction followed by detailed body paragraphs, but has a weak closing paragraph that sounds as if it should be another body paragraph.  Her introductory paragraph was basically introducing the idea of how vampires were perceived in the past and how they have changed, “This is quite the makeover, and these vampires have myriad horror and romance authors, as well as scriptwriters and directors, to thank for their drastic change in fortunes” (Gibbs). Her body paragraphs then went on to be full of evidence from many other books and TV shows in which she backed up with plenty of commentary in order to help prove her thesis.  Although the ending paragraph was weak, I did enjoy the last sentence that concluded her research paper. It was an interesting sentence that said, "The myth, it seems, lives on" (Gibbs). This sentence showed that the author had not really proven her thesis.  I believe it showed that people view vampires in different ways and some still would choose to believe in the myth of what vampires used to be instead of the beautiful creatures that are portrayedd in today's movies.
            The diction used in this article is not as powerful. Gibbs seems to be writting more of a thesis essay that is backed up with facts and commentary rather than a piece that has a strong point of view that needs to be proven. Her word choice is a little more simple in the fact that high school students wouldn't have any trouble understanding the point she is trying to make. She doesn't need to use powerful diction in this article because it doesn't seem to be something she is extremely passionate about, but more something that is just a topic of interest. It is more contributing to her interest rather than getting people to agree with her point of view. The author does not use similes or metaphors, but rather takes the time to compare and contrast. Throughout her article Gibbs is constantly showing how vampires were percieved 200 years ago and how they are percieved now because of famous movies and books. She shows how vampires used to be horrid creatures that destroyed towns, but are now beautiful creatures that are portrayed as humans. This enhances her article because it is the main point of her thesis, to show the different ways people percieve vampires and how they have changed. The author also doesn't use transitions, but her concluding sentences at the end of her paragraph makes it very easy for the reader to go to the next paragraph and understand what is going to be talked about or proven.  
          Gibbs appears to be a very credible source on this topic about the evolution of vampires because she used many examples from different sources and her tone was very informative. I was introduced to writing research papers my freshman year and I have to say, that this was a well written research paper and does not contradict any of the “rules” I have been told to follow since freshman year. The essay does not really surprise me in any way because it follows the guidelines for writing that I have been using for so long. This article however, could be seen as unconventional because others might not like vampires at all and may find them to be completley made up. Others may find the article very interesting because they want to see how the idea of vampires has evolved over time. In conclusion, I think this article was very interesting and easy to follow because the thesis, commentary, and evidence were very clear on the point they were trying to prove.