Free «Effects of Science and Technology to the Society» Essay Sample

Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre is one of the settings in the Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley. In the beginning of this novel, the director of Hatchery and Conditioning Centre leads a tour of young students around the lab. He explains to the students how human beings are fertilized and custom-made. In addition, they passed through Social Predestination rooms where the custom made human beings interacted with each other. Some of the major themes in this book include using science as a means of control, threats that are involved in the genetic engineering, and pursue of happiness using drug abuse. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Major themes in this novel include dangerous knowledge, sublime nature, secrecy and monstrosity.

One of the major themes of Brave New World is how human beings use the knowledge of science and technology in their society. According to Aldous Haxley, scientific advances can become threats to the society. He warns that if people misuse the fields of psychology, biology and technology, the human race might be in danger. In this book, scientists conduct experiments to produce genetically engineered human beings (Huxley 17). Scientists use a process known as Bakanovski process to mass produce human beings. One major disadvantage associated with production of human beings using this process is that family structures do not exist. Human beings produced in this process are raised in conditioning centers. As a result, they do not receive parental care or social development. It makes them lack emotional development. Bakanovski process faced criticism because it did not value human life. Foster, the director of hatcheries and conditioning that produce human beings argue that it is easy to make new embryos. In addition, he states that murder only kills an individual and individual human beings are not important to the human race.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley also shows how human beings misuse science and technology in their society. Victor Frankenstein always had the desire to use science and technology to improve the society. Victor always had a dream of combining old and new science to bring change to the society. He conducted many experiments on the dead people because he always had the dream of animating the dead people (Shelley 29). His deep involvement in science led to his death. According to Shelley, advances in science and technology after the Industrial Revolution in Europe would cause people to seek personal and spiritual growth. She argues that technology developments would rob the soul of men because they would be too dependent on technology. It would cause men to be slaves of machines since they will rely on machines for the performance of major tasks. This claim can be observed in the current world. Corporations are relying on computers for major decisions. Doctors are using surgical machines to conduct surgical operations. In addition, companies are relying on computer simulations to conduct financial analysis. Although information produced by computers is accurate and trustworthy, there is a high risk that man will become over dependent on technology. Creativity of students has been hindered because they over rely on computers for accessing research material. It shows that advancements in technology will make the man to become a slave of machines.

To conclude, both Frankenstein and Brave New World showed how use of science and technology could bring harm to the society. In Brave New World, Aldous Haxley argues that scientific advances could bring harmful effects to the public. In this book, scientists genetically produce human beings. However, these human beings lack family structures. Therefore, they fail to receive parental care and love. In addition, the mass production of human beings in this novel encourages murder. In Frankenstein, Victor died after attempt to combine old science and new science to create life.