Neuromancer By William Gibson, The Technology And Violence

The increased development of artificial intelligence and the everyday use of technology can lead to a future full of robots, claims Eastlyn Koons in Robots are Better than Humans. Koons lives in the modern day where advancements are being made every day in the field of technology and artificial intelligence machines have started to replace the jobs of some people. People fear the uprising of robot rebellion and an inevitable Doomsday because of it. Through appeals to fear and pride, Koons asks the world to consider the use of technology in their lives and the role it may play in the future.

Technology is defined as machinery and equipment developed from the application of scientific knowledge. Its original use was meant solely for the service of humans, however overtime it has evolved into something much different. What was originally meant to be an assisting piece of machinery has changed almost every aspect of our culture. The way we think, communicate, lie, and even love has been impacted by the use of technology, and all of this is has made for interesting pieces of literature. In pieces such as Her and I, Robot, we see the evolution of robots and artificial intelligence into a more empathetic and humanlike creatures. This gradual change in our views of robots overtime speaks volumes to the evolution of technology. Technology in literature has become a reflection of human beings themselves, mirroring the very qualities of ourselves that make us human. By looking at the personality that technology takes on in literature, we can greater understand the aspects of ourselves that truly make us human.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron and Ray Bradbury’s Marionettes, inc. both show that although advances in technology can be used for good, it always ends up doing more harm than good. Marionettes, inc. is about a guy who keeps a clone of himself in his toolbox, only to have his clone retaliate by locking him in the toolbox at the end of the story. Harrison Bergeron talks about a future where everyone is equal in every possible which way. Although both stories showcase that technology ultimately does more harm than good; one talks about everyone being equal, and the other shows what happens when advanced technology is mistreated.

Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master. This quote by Christian Lous Lange, summarizes the story of the veldt, its morals, and most importantly, society’s views on technology itself. The line where this blurs is one we fear, and usually do not recognize at first. Whether you agree with this quote or not, it is a disturbing perspective on the advance of knowledge. Imagining a world where technology engulfs the mind of the children, poisons them with thoughts of rage and revenge is a world where the next generation is corrupt. When an innocent pure mind becomes so damaged to where a child wishes their caregivers dead, that is the death of an empathetic, working, society.

Vonnegut's antiwar fiction illustrates war machines and time machines that produce thoughtless machine-like humans. He considers the paranoid fear of cybernetic system that is responsible for distopia in which humanity is devalued. (Babaee, 2014, pg. 6)

Science Fiction and Dystopian literature reveals to us that the advancement of technology and moving towards an almost perfect society can harm mankind just like tampering with mother nature.

            As the gap between present and future grows smaller and becomes difficult to discern, people and machines overlap and, in some cases, are indistinct or interchangeable.  "If we move even 'twenty minutes into the future (a la Max Headroom [1985])," as Larry McCaffrey states, "we will encounter a world...unimaginably transformed..." (9). In this environment, where "whole bodies of technique" are "supplanted monthly", the soft flesh of the human body becomes "a deliberately unsupervised playground for technology itself" (Neuromancer 4,11).  Some cybernetic implants, Molly's mirrorshaded eyes, her retractable razor claws, the brain sockets built to accept microsofts, software allowing instant access to and mastery of entire worlds of knowledge and skills, offer the promise of heightened, seemingly superhuman, physical and/or mental abilities. Such prosthetics seek to exploit or enhance a

Kurt Vonnegut gives a new turn to his innovative fiction and tries to create awareness to people about the things that harm human life and peace. He tries to present how human beings are made as slaves by the introduction of machines. Men become addicted to technology and they do not have the capacity to discriminate between what is real happiness and what is fantasy. They are filled with the fallacy that they have conquered many things and plan for what is yet to be conquered. But in reality the human race is conquered by technology and men are poorly defeated. Their defeat is yet to be noted or realized by them.

Finally, technology can be used as a great tool for many things, but the over-reliance of technology can be deadly to society. Examples, such as Vashti, can truly show the negative effect technology will have on humans who rely too heavily on technology. Such reliance could lead to the demise of civilization. The modern world may be heading to a future like The Machine Stops if humans do not wake up and see how technology is taking

An all-knowing, self-correcting machine may be beneficial, but the perils of such a powerful piece of technology are also exposed in Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question”. Though vastly more advanced, the AC in “The Last Question” can still be paralleled with our current technology. Technology may have informational benefits, but reliance on technology can cause a negative impact on thinking. Technology can allow us to connect with each other, but unification can be detrimental to individuality. Efficiency is increased with technology, yet being too effective can become catastrophic. As technology becomes more and more advanced, especially to the point of AC, it could achieve sentience and pose a threat to humanity.

Andy Clark, in Natural-Born Cyborgs, offers an extended argument that technology’s impact on and intertwining with ordinary biological human life is not to be feared, either psychologically or morally. Clark offers several key concepts towards his line of reasoning. Clark argues that a human being thinks and reasons based on the biological brain and body dynamically linked with the culture and technological tools transparently accessible to the human. This form of thinking and reasoning develops new "thinking systems" that which over time become second nature thoughts and reasons and are the basis of even newer "thinking systems." It is a repetitive cycle that continues forever being built upon previous systems.

Many people have many different views of technology and how it is effecting our lives. Some completely love it, others despise it and the rest are just kind of in the middle. Within the many debates on whether we should be for or against these three authors, Wortham, Gladwell, and Carr, seem to argue over the fact of how technology is affecting our brains that causes chaos within us and our outside world.

The world today has modern technology that makes life easier and dependable on it. Technology claims a huge influence on many aspects of life: economic, social and political among others. There are both aesthetic and scientific dimensions towards technology in that those scientists and artists have worked single-handedly or together in the future and present-day like in making dimensional inventions. Although the technology has its positive on the human life, it also has its negative effects on humans. Over years now so many evils against humanity have cropped up socially, politically and even economically (Agre & Rotenberg 1998).

A timid scientist becomes a military-grade machine in the novel “Machine Man” by Max Barry. Max Barry is an Australian Author who started his career selling computers for Hewlett-Packard but released his first novel “Syrup” in 1999, though his novel “Machine Man” is darker than his other books, it truly shows how we as humans have an endless obsession in technological fixes. This novel raises the questions that as humans, people are losing their humanity because of the advances in technology. The human race has their eyes glued to their phones and their hands stuck in a permanent texting position, and people are so oblivious to the outside world around them, we’ve become more active in the virtual world then in the real world. When people started living with technology it has become clear that people often live in a more comfortable way than they used to. Even though, the more people get comfortable with what they have, the more they ignore how they are being stripped of their humanity. We need to see the connection between humanity and technology, the positive side to Technology and Humanity, the dark side of it and also how advances in different areas are affecting human life.

Over the years, America has made many new technological advances, which can be attributed to various societal downfalls. These advances have affected this nation socially, cognitively, and economically, and will only continue to have these effects as the years proceed. Although technology is capable of being a great tool, it is simultaneously capable of being a dangerous tool. America’s unwavering and growing reliance on technology is ultimately setting this nation and its people up for destruction and doom.