Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

As for intelligence there have been three capacities and virtues that should be targeted for moral enhancement, which are the sensitivity to the features of situations, thoughtfulness about doing what is moral, and the proper capacity for people to make proper judgments. The continued progress in the modification of learning, cognition, memory, the capabilities of decision-making will help assist the moral enhancement with these tasks. There have also been many neurochemicals that have been used to enhance cognitive abilities, which include increased attention span and cognition span. Drugs like OxyContin have also been used to help with empathy, and to make people feel happier. It may be believed that a drug like soma was only possible in Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, but perhaps not. Utilitarian’s have been pushing for human enhancement that uses drugs, genetic engineering and nanotechnology to ensure the maximum amount of happiness possible while attempting to eliminate any pain. Proponents believe that this would reset the brain’s thinking patterns, and allow people to think more positively by keeping our minds engaged, rather than in a constant dull and depressing state. Many anti- depressant drugs are attempting to do just this. It is safe to say that moral enhancement is not just a potential innovation, but a technology that is already beginning.

In the novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Huxley includes allusion, ethos, and pathos to mock the wrongdoings of the people which causes physical and mental destruction in the society as a whole. The things that happened in the 1930’s plays a big contribution to the things that go on in the novel. The real world can never be looked at as a perfect place because that isn't possible. In this novel, Huxley informs us on how real life situations look in his eyes in a nonfictional world filled with immoral humans with infantile minds and a sexual based religion.

Huxley’s Brave New World could be considered almost prophetic by many people today. It is alarmingly obvious how modern society is eerily similar to Huxley’s novel with the constant demand for instant gratification encouraging laziness, greed, and entitlement. Neil Postman, a contemporary social critic, seems to have noticed this similarity, as he has made bold, valid statements regarding the text and its relevance to our world today. This response is strongly in support of those statements and will prove both their accuracy in clarifying Huxley’s intentions and how Postman’s assertions compare to society today.

From reproductive rights, morality, and drugs, Huxley develops a futuristic approach to mankind. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley serves as a cautionary tale about contemporary American culture by illustrating the technological and scientific advancements within a society to establish power and the affects it may have on mankind.

As analyzed by social critic Neil Postman, Huxley's vision of the future, portrayed in the novel Brave New World, holds far more relevance to present day society than that of Orwell's classic 1984.  Huxley's vision was simple:  it was a vision of a trivial society, drowned in a sea of pleasure and ignorant of knowledge and pain, slightly resembling the world of today.  In society today, knowledge is no longer appreciated as it has been in past cultures, in turn causing a deficiency in intelligence and will to learn.  Also, as envisioned by Huxley, mind altering substances are becoming of greater availability

Today, one 's perceptions of happiness are more often than not associated with material achievements, advancements, or perhaps, love. In Brave New World, however, happiness is based upon the pursuit of stability and emotional equilibrium Aldous Huxley 's dystopian novel, Brave New World serves as a warning of the ominous. Set in London, the totalitarian regime instills the motto of "stability, community, [and] identity"(Huxley.1.1) in its citizens. Huxley 's dystopia attempts to find the greatest amount of happiness for the largest sum of people. The simple, less complex characters of the novel seek to achieve happiness through means of scientific conditioning, thus, leaving one

Huxley’s Brave New World could be considered almost prophetic by many people today. It is alarmingly obvious how modern society is eerily similar to Huxley’s novel with the constant demand for instant gratification encouraging unnatural changes. Neil Postman, a contemporary social critic, seems to have noticed this similarity as he has made very bold, very valid statements regarding the text and its relevance to our world today. This statement is strongly in support of those statements and will provide both support and counterargument in an effort to thoroughly explain why.

The way that Huxley develops he's view of the new world and our is by showing how controlled the new world is compared to our. For example in page 18 "Community, Identity, Stability", which means that where they control the eggs, hatches the babies and educate them to do and what not to do. He's showing how this new environment has changed that we as human being cant have babies on our own, that now it's controlled by hatching them in a laboratory, which our work we don't do because that's something nature. Also, how they divide there people which is stated in page 23 " we decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilon...", which the Alphas and Epsilon are the upper class people, that are intelligent like knows how to read

In the past, many authors have predicted what future societies will be like. Many of these authors believe in a world where the government uses technology and emotion to control their population. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the author portrays a society that is controlled by making its citizens feel satisfied. Neil Postman, a contemporary social critic, explains how Brave New World has major implications in our society today. While Postman’s assertion about books is not relevant to today, his assertion that the truth will be drowned in irrelevance and the assertion that we will live in a trivial culture has implication to today’s society.

In this world, the family unit does not exist and the concept of having a mother and father is considered a primitive quality of humans. Technology has subverted the world so much that even God is replaced by Ford. Constant references throughout the novel are made to "Our Ford," referring to Henry Ford, the embodiment of industrial development. The real world in which we live is not much different from this that Huxley writes about in the 1930's. Technological developments have already allowed us to create embryos outside of the womb. The values that once existed in religion and family are slowly but surely disappearing. Even today\, the vast majority of America and the world have lessened their beliefs, their worshiping of God and practicing religion. Technology has become the new religion as it provides the materialistic progress that people desire. Women will soon have the ability to have children but not carry the children themselves for nine months. What is important anymore? Because of technology, a family unit merely represents a group of people that has dinner together every so often. Values in education and good citizenship are no longer taught to children in such intensity as distractions brought forth by the media and video games only encourage having fun as opposed to studying and working hard for a future. We are destroying our own world with the obsessive violence taught and practiced by elementary

From the beginning of time, humans have strived to be happy. During this time, thousands of different people have given their interpretation of happiness. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the simplified definition of happiness is feeling pleasure or joy because of a certain situation. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Controller, Mustapha Mond, conceals the truth in order to keep everyone happy. He gives his people drugs and brainwashes them into believing that their life is good. Satisfying. When John the Savage enters the novel, he questions all things concerning “civilization.” The civilized people are willing to do everything in their power to hide from the truth. These people were conditioned to stay away from the truth

It is no question that both Huxley and Orwell were displeased with our societal norms by their predictions in Brave New World and 1984. However, the two famous novels could not have differed more in their visions of tomorrow. Huxley portrays a nation of pleasure addicted, mindless beings merely existing. Orwell illustrated such a strict regime that the pursuit of knowledge would be banned and our voices would be silenced.

As defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a society includes “people in general thought of as living together in organized communities with shared laws, traditions, and values.” In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman’s assertion supports Aldous Huxley’s vision about the future state of society over that of George Orwell’s. According to Orwell’s 1984, 1984 was to be the year that “Big Brother” would lead a dictatorial government, however this never occurred. As Postman states throughout his essay, the present society is far more reflective of Huxley’s view of the future depicted in his novel Brave New World. Evidence supportive of Huxley’s vision is seen through an abundance of information available to most societies, a constant pursuit of pleasure and entertainment by societies, and a society’s media determining the way in which it defines truth. According to such evidence of the “contemporary society,” Postman’s assertion that Huxley’s vision is more relevant today than is Orwell’s is true.

In the following passage Neil Postman contrasts George Orwell's depiction of the future in his novel 1984 with that of Aldous Huxley's in Brave New World. Both of these novels were written around the same century during the times of war. Both of these novels address some of the same issues, but they both portray these issues in a different way. These authors are both predicting what would happen to the civilization that we live in if we continued with our way of life. Neil Postman asserts that "Huxley's prophecy is more relevant today than Orwell's". In my opinion Huxley's prophecy is in fact more accurate today than Orwell's and the civilization that we live in today is gradually moving towards the civilization that is depicted in Brave New

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley depicts a future that seems happy and stable on the surface, but when you dig deeper you realize that it is not so bright at all. People almost autonomously fall in line to do what they have been taught to do through constant conditioning and hypnopædia. Neil Postman’s argument that Huxley’s book is becoming more relevant than George Orwell’s 1984 is partly true. Huxley’s vision of the future is not only partly true, but it is only the beginning of what is to come.