Eamon O’Brien Dimitri Haber Gerard SimChad Nevin Michael Hefner

Brave New World

A Brief Overview Aldous Huxley’s fifth novel (1932)

Huxley was fascinated with science and had a knack for satirical pieces

His partial blindness influenced his writing

Setting: English dystopian society controlled by a totalitarian government

by means of technologyOverall theme: the

negatives implications of technology

World StateThe World State is the form of

government that governs just about the entire earth10 World Controllers; Mustapha MondMotto: “Community, Identity, Stability” Its calendar starts at the year 1908 as it

was the first year that Henry Ford’s Model T was producedReligion has been wiped out and people replaced

Ford’s name with the Lord’s; ex. “Our Ford”

Castes and Reproduction

People in this society are not born sexually, but rather, asexually in the Central London Hatching Center; “Parents” = bad wordBokanovsky and Podsnap Processes

These processes can produce identical embryos

Each embryo is conditioned to belong to a certain caste in society

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, EpsilonAlpha is the highest, while Epsilon

is lowestRemedial jobs for Epsilons, higher

level jobs for Alphas, etc.

ConditioningConditioning Practices

Hypnopaedia: sleep teaching that gets adages engrained in citizens’ minds and morals

Sexual Play: meant to eliminate relationships and instead make sex out to be a mere activity

Pavlovian Conditioning: an electric shock is associated with books or flowers

Ideals of SocietyNo questioning; just doingHedonistic lifestyles; sex, feelies, etc. “Everyone belongs to everyone else”

Hedonistic Lifestyle Activities

Sex: citizens “have” others constantly, often for only a couple of weeks

Feelies: “4-D” movies that allow the viewer to feel

Savage Reservations: a coveted destination is the Savage Reservation, which houses “uncivilized” people

Soma: a drug that relieves citizens of pain,

worry, etc.; “a gram is better than a damn”

Solidarity Services: a cup of soma is passed around at a table and the drinkers claim that the “Greater Being” is coming; ends in an orgy

Plot SummaryLenina and Bernard Marx

Lenina accompanies Bernard Marx on a trip to the Savage Reservation in New Mexico

Everyone on the reservation is aged and ill, in contrast to the World State where chemicals have been developed to eliminate aging

John is a resident of the reservation and was raised by a woman named Linda, who was the woman that the director of the CLH took 20 years prior

Bernard gets permission to take John and Linda to the “New World”

Bernard is threatened by the director of CLH to be exiled to Iceland for his “odd” behavior

Plot Summary (Cont.) Bernarnd turns the tables on the director by

introducing him to his child and calling him a father

Lenina becomes fascinated by the Savage, John, and attempts to seduce him; John is disgusted

Linda, after returning from the Reservation, goes on a “soma” holiday and ends up dying because of an overdose of soma

John starts a riot after disrupting a soma distribution; results in his arrest along with Bernard, and Hemholtz

Bernarnd and Hemholtz are exiled, while John moves into a lighthouse

John is watched by citizens and later engages in an orgy; he hangs himself out of humility

Character List John: a savage from the Reservation who found

himself alienated there and in the New World Bernarnd Marx: an Alpha with the phenotype of a

lower caste; finds himself alienated because of this; enjoys popularity for bringing John to World State

Hemholtz Watson: an Alpha teacher who “thinks too much”; dislikes the World State like Bernard ; writer

Lenina Crowne: dates Foster, Marx, and is attracted to John; her morals reflect those of the typical citizen

Mustapha Mond: the World Controller of W. Europe; used to be interested in arts, books, etc. but gave it up for stability

Linda: John’s mother who used to live in the World State but was left on a Savage Reservation by The Director; ends up overdosing on soma

Warnings Dangers of Government

The government of BNW does not use force or torture to enforce its values, but instead resorts to technology

Government uses positive reinforcement and keeps its citizens in a state of “happiness”

A mix of capitalism and communism Dangers of TechnologyTechnology allows the

government to control nearly every aspect of society

Main Points to Leave With

Dystopian SocietyGovernment controls every faucet of lifeCitizens think they are in a Utopia, but they

are not Hedonistic Society

Citizens merely think about pleasing themselvesSex, feelies, etc.

No one thinks in the society, but merely “does”

AlienationThose who do question the World State are

alienated and eventually are exiled In short, you would NOT want to live

here

“Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.”-Jules Verne

The Future of Computer Technology

Computers in Workplace

Computers will become common in hospitalsTrained doctors would be hard to replace,

but computers will help with diagnosesComputers can access trillions of data

instantaneously, which would allow for easier diagnoses

20% of medical errors are diagnosis errors, computers would help eliminate those IBM’s Watson computer

premiered on Jeopardy showcasing its knowledge and is now experimenting with hospital situations

Computers in Workplace (Cont.)

Expert Testimonies“My medical students and residents leave,

but Watson would stay with me. All the knowledge will be preserved, and Watson will get smarter and smarter.”Marvin Minsky, an artificial intelligence pioneer http://kempton.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/ibms-watson-jeopardy-champ-planets-health-and-everything-expert-

consultant/

“Computers are more reliable than humans are--they do not get sick--and are more productive--they can do the work faster and more effectively.”

Eric Roberts, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~eroberts/cs201/projects/changing-nature-of-work/theory.html

Robots Will Fight Wars P.W. Singer contends in

his book, Wired for War, that the U.S. military will be half robots in a few yrs.“Rapid development of

military robots, already used as drones and bomb defusers, might mean that U.S. combat units would be half human, half machine by 2015” – Singer

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,489226,00.html#ixzz1NL4Oyvfb

Robots at Home British scientist and professor

of cybernetics at the University of Reading in the U.K., Kevin Warwick, predicts that cyborgs (robots with brains) will be on hand to assist with domestic duties “We’re not talking about

taking a human brain out of a body but we can grow a brain from human cells and put it in a robot body, making it a lot more … helpful around the house, I would say that’s seven or ten years down the line.”

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/844429-professor-believes-robots-will-occupy-every-home-in-10-years#ixzz1NL6FfDo3

Advanced Step in Innovative MObility

ASIMO is a humanoid robot developed by Honda Abilities

Moving objects, postures and gestures, facial recognition, etc.

Currently only about 100 ASIMOs exist

“Our dream is that one day everyone will have an ASIMO of their own to help around the home or office.” – Honda

Professor Kevin Warwick predicts that everyone will own some form of a robot within the next decade

Brain Machine Interface (BMI)

A BMI is essentially a way for the brain to communicate with a device Possible applications

range from turning on TVs by merely thinking to controlling devices entirely by thinking and no movement

Similar to movies like Avatar, humans will be able to have their own “avatar” or robot-self

Holograms Communication

CNN has already premiered its try at the technology

Holograms will be the main form of communication and graphic display

Companies like airports will also use them to inform passengersOne UK Airport has had

“digital illusions that are so convincing that passengers have been spotted trying to present passports to them”

http://www.newser.com/story/110839/holograms-will-greet-travellers-at-uk-airport.html

CNN Hologram: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thOxW19vsTg

Contact Lenses of the Future Mini-Computers

The University of Michigan has recently created the world's smallest computer: a millimeter (image to the right)

Such a computer will lead to, as Michio Kaku predicts, computers that are in contacts worn by human beings

Babak Parviz, an assistant professor of electrical engineering, has already combined soft contacts with electrical circuits

http://dailyuw.com/2008/1/31/contact-lenses-of-the-future/

Cars of the Future Driverless Cars

A driverless car is a car that has an autopilot computer system and thus, there is no need for a driver

General Motors has announced that it plans to release a driverless car by 2018

GM has successfully tested the vehicle to the right; however, it is quite bulky

In the future, driverless cars will be smaller; just as how cell phones have evolved over time

A Computerized Home Computers will be everywhere,

but nowhere at the same time “The future computer will be

a lot more embedded into the environment instead of something that you can identify. Whenever you are in your house you’ll be able to ask for something, and whatever wall or counter you’re near, that information will just be projected onto it.” –Bill Gates

Actual computers/desktops will be a thing of the past and instead be integrated into nearly every aspect of life

THE END