The Everyday Machine Man, By Max Berry

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 the sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization. (“Technology”) In addition, technology has become a basic necessity for people all around the world. Not only does technology have positive effects on how people function in the world, but it also has many negative effects. On a similar topic, technology has improved the way we live tremendously, but people have become extremely dependent on it, almost to the point to where they could not live without it. The book “The Machine Stops” could be accurately compared to the way people around the world live their lives. For example, In “The Machine Stops” their society became so dependent on technology, that when technology died, the people died along with it. While the civilization society described in “The Machine Stops” and the civilization society today can be compared through a discussion of the technology to each-communication, entertainment, transportation, and daily life, both civilizations share the potential danger of technology controlled.

Bill Joy is a celebrated American technologist for sun Microsystems who composed a manuscript “Why the future need not bother with us”. In this manuscript, he chronicled the exact apprehensions as McDermott; that remarkable progression in technology may prompt annihilation of humanity. He explicitly concentrated on nanotechnology, pathology, and robotics and again utilized a similar thought to define the danger that innovation is constrained to sovereignties who can bear the cost of high cost contraptions and therefore the improvement is not fairly dispersed. He was concerned about the growing influence of personal computers and that in the long run, people will become reliant on these things and they will take decree over us. There are problems like simulation and computerized reasoning which can induce severe abuse if these are pushed past the breaking point (Joy 2012). Joy’s manuscript was intensely denounced by researchers, John S. Brown and Paul Duguid in their exposition "A Response to Bill Joy and the Doom-and-Gloom Techno-futurists". They say that as technology improves, the methods by which people control it are created. Joy has neglected to acknowledge that in certain social powers, technologies and social orders mold each other and it is false to say that a period will come when the general public fall behind technology (Brown and Duguid 79). Even though there would be definite imperatives and breaking

Technology plays a huge role in medical care, health procedures, and medical system today. Have you ever typed a paper and the computer turned off, and you automatically have a mini heart-attack when you think all your hard work was not saved? Well, if we have a blackout that is all our medical history going in jeopardy. The computer stores all our medical history. Even our blood pressure is taken with a machine, not many places take the blood pressure manually. Medical technology has advanced so much. For example, needle-free Diabetes care, the pain free monitor sensors the level of insulin through the skin. It is a major advancement from using needles. These new technologies are allowing health care doctors to offer cheaper, easier, and more efficient patient care. Everything from artificial hearts to electronic aspirin. As we look, medical technology is on a rise but all these things have something in common. If the electricity and “advanced” technology shuts down patients would be devastated. In Paul Walker’s 2013 film Hours, his baby is born and a few hours later, Hurricane Katrina hits, leaving the hospital in the dark. Walker stays because his baby is on a ventilator. The ventilator went out, the back-up generator went out so he is forced to use a hand-crank generator in order to keep the ventilator battery

Over the years, man has come up with countless inventions, each more resourceful than the last. However, as the computer age continues, mankind is threatened. Ridiculous, some may say, but I say look around! The computer has already begun to control so many of the vital functions that man has prided himself upon before. Our lives are now dependent on a computer and what it tells you. Even now, I type this essay on a computer, trusting that it will produce a result far superior to what I can do with my own to hands.

Technology and healthcare are two of the most developmental topics in the twenty-first century. Both will continue to change each other for the better to help make humans potentially live forever. Others believe that technology is inevitably changing how our healthcare is practiced, and that technology could be improving our lives to help us live forever. Nevertheless, there are others who feel that healthcare should stray from the newest technology, because it is not beneficial for our society.

Intelligence is something many crave yet is unable to possess, however, in “Flowers For Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, the protagonist - Charlie Gordon is the first human, ever to get his intelligence tripled. Charlie is a mentally impaired man, who was selected to be the first human participant in the newly invented I.Q. raising surgery, although the operation proved successful, this newfound intelligence Charlie might be what he wanted. Throughout the story, Charlie is shown to be a static character as he remains helpless and dependent upon others around him.

Machine Man by Max Barry demonstrates the perils of society’s compulsion to change the world with technological advancement despite the consequences and the disconnection it creates. Technology and biology are interconnected in today’s society. The world is obsessed and dependent on machines and devices to make one’s life more efficient and manageable. The science fiction genre often predicts what may happen in a world where technology is abused or becomes too formidable. Machine Man explores this world of technological evolution through Charles Neumann and the characters he interacts with through his employment at Better Future. Charles is unlikable, unsociable, and unsatisfied. The only true connection he feels to the outside world is through technology. The relationships involving Lola Shanks and the employees and managers at Better Future evolve as Neumann enhances his anatomy. His biology has failed him in life. His revisions have created a new one. Biology is replaced with adaptation.

Technology is continuously advancing in the 21st century, where medical research is being put into practice, cars being modified to help reduce carbon emissions, and so on, all due to the constant upgrades in technology. With it constantly advancing as time goes on, so has society and the people that has lived in it, their lifestyles constantly changing in relation to how technology is changing, with many benefits that are yielded from it, alongside with the negatives that can bring the society down. Modern technology has made complex tasks possible with the use of robots and large machines and tools is used to operate complex tasks, tasks that cannot be done by human skills. People create and develop new inventions to overcome their physical limitations in what they can do, and that is what technology does for us- letting us do things that are not normally possible through human actions such as contacting a person from across the world or providing an abundance of light. Technology is the fruit of human ingenuity and tentative labor, whose progression in the 21st century should still continue for the betterment of the people, while keeping certain dangerous factors in check such as hacks and accentuating violence.

Machine Man by Max Barry demonstrates the perils of society’s compulsion to change the world with technological advancement despite the consequences and the disconnection it creates. Technology and biology are interconnected in today’s society. The world is obsessed and dependent on machines and devices to make one’s life more efficient and manageable. The science fiction genre often predicts what may happen in a world where technology is abused or becomes too formidable. Machine Man explores this world of technological evolution through Charles Neumann and the characters he interacts with through his employment at Better Future. Charles is unlikable, unsociable, and unsatisfied. The only true connection he feels to the outside world is through technology. The relationships involving Lola Shanks and the employees and managers at Better Future evolve as Neumann enhances his anatomy. His biology has failed him in life. His revisions have created a new one. Biology is replaced with adaptation.

Technology has long become a part of our everyday lives from small gadgets like our phones to huge scientific breakthroughs like rockets. Even discovering how humans evolved from apes into the organisms that they are today, revealed how humans are still undergoing evolution. Curiosity is a trait that has inspired humans to innovate and be where they are today, and has given them the capability to be able to make tools that can make their lives easier. Unfortunately, these tools have inclined humans to become increasingly dependent on them, giving the tools more control as technology innovates. In Space Odyssey: 2001 by Stanley Kubrick, as humans invent more and more technology, they invest their own power in it, becoming dependent on it and relying on the tools to live their own lives.

Technology is an ever advancing science. Throughout time and history, it has progressed from the most primitive mechanisms to the most computerized mechanics. It has been stomping on an ever-progressing march, from which an end to it would require special instruments to see even the tiniest glimpse of. However, as the species behind such advancing technology, we must be careful with it or dire consequences lie in store. It is not exactly certain what kind of consequences would actually occur should we grow reckless with its power, but many scenarios have been imagined. However, if something were to go wrong and technology would be free from our reign, what would it do next? Without technology, where would man go? And without mankind, what would technology do? Mankind and technology are dependent on each other, in a relationship where one would be lost without the other. This necessary relationship is explored in Brian Aldiss’ “Who Could Replace Man?” c. 1958.

Technology is an ever advancing science. Throughout time and history, it has progressed from the most primitive mechanisms to the most computerized mechanics. It has been stomping on an ever-progressing march, from which an end to it would require special instruments to see even the tiniest glimpse of. However, as the species behind such advancing technology, we must be careful with it or dire consequences lie in store. It is not exactly certain what kind of consequences would actually occur should we grow reckless with its power, but many scenarios have been imagined. However, if something were to go wrong and technology would be free from our reign, what would it do next? Without technology, where would man go? And without mankind, what would technology do? Mankind and technology are dependent on each other, in a relationship where one would be lost without the other. This necessary relationship is explored in Brian Aldiss’ “Who Could Replace Man?” c. 1958.

            Take a look around the world we live in today.  It is filled with millions of different technologically intricate devices.  We have cell phones that allow us to talk to anyone anywhere. We can listen to music on the go with CD and MP3 players.  We can learn, interact, communicate and work using personal computers. Cars, public transit and airplanes can efficiently transport us to our far off destinations.  It seems every aspect of our daily lives is affected by some sort of technological/scientific device.  Advertisements from the makers of the new technologies tell us that all of these new innovations are good and must be bought to ensure the best life possible.

As humans, we contain this eagerness in us that wants us to be the best we can possibly be. To try and satisfy this zeal, we will do whatever it takes. Individuals are beginning to destroy themselves with uncontrolled technology. When they feel a sense of disarray in their lives, they turn to technology and depend on it to help them. In this essay, I will prove how exponential technological advances mentioned in Science Fiction stories give off an anticipation that they will be helpful and successful, but in reality, they serve as a hindrance. The significance for proving this is to aid us in understanding that the world we live in is entering a period of true transformative change, which means that the pace and scale of developments will reach levels that have never before been foreseen. However, we must learn that with such improvements comes a massive amount of responsibilities that must be obeyed to keep it all under control and from destroying lives. If not controlled, the revolution of technological modifications will result in upheaval and will reshape the very essence of humanity and all aspects of life. I will substantiate my point through the analysis of technology in the following three short stories; “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin, “The Soft Rain Will Come” by Ray Bradbury, and “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes.