Technoploy

In this chapter of Technopoly, Neil Postman describes how technocracies have evolved into existence and their transformations to technopolies. He describes a technocracy as a social structure in which technology is highly regarded and causes traditional values such as religion to be overlooked. A technology forms when society is driven by technology becomes dependent on it.

            This chapter gives us great insight into the world created by Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. In Brave New World the only thing that matters to government or society is consumption, which creates a perfect form of a technopoly. As Neil Postman wrote, “the engine of technological progress worked most efficiently when are conceived of not as children of God or even as citizens but as consumers.” In Brave New World people are bred and conditioned for the sole purpose of becoming a producer and consumer. The government’s sole mission is to try to make production more efficient and find ways to increase the amount that people consume to an absurd degree.

Neil Postman also relates to how Brave New World  is a utopian society when he says “dozens [of utopian societies]were tried in an attempt to reduce the human costs of a technocracy.” In Brave New World  people are conditioned to not feel true happiness, but instead resort to methods such as the consumption of the drug Soma. People are also not required to do much in the way of providing for themselves, so they do not have much to worry about.

Neil Postman’s Technopoly gives us insight to how and why a society such as one presented in Brave New World would occur. It also helps us understand why it is not such a good idea and the potential harms of it.

Singularity

Singularity is the idea that as technological ability increases exponentially, humans will have to one day merge with machine. This is brought primarily by the observation that as we develop new technology, that technology allows us to develop newer technology even more rapidly. It is predicted that the growth of technology will increase exponentially and eventually computers will have the ability to process more quickly than the human brain. These computers would then be able to create better technology themselves, things humans are incapable of. In 1965 I.J. Good wrote, “Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make. This is the point where man is forced to combine with this technology to be able to keep up with the more powerful computers. Lev Grossman of Time Magazine wrote, “Maybe we'll merge with them to become super-intelligent cyborgs, using computers to extend our intellectual abilities the same way that cars and planes extend our physical abilities. 

            What frightens many people is the idea of the effect of this merging on human behavior. Humans are the most unique race on Earth, as we have the ability to think and be creative instead of just reacting instinctively. What would the world be like today is nobody ever thought the impossible and had a creative idea?

            Computers as we currently perceive them do whatever they are commanded to do, and nothing else. They are much less complex than the human brain and cannot take in as many factors as the human brain. They are also not creative and not able to create new thoughts (or coding), they only have what they are programmed with. This would destroy the future of humanity as nothing new would ever be created. Scientists can attempt to incorporate all possible ways of thinking into the computer, but then ideas would again never be creative. Human thought may be able to be simulated, but I don’t think it will ever be able to be replicated.

            This idea of singularity ties in greatly with Brave New World. Society in the novel is driven by two things: consumption and production. In order to increase production and consumption the government breeds and brainwashed people into becoming machine like in order to be more efficient. The strive for efficiency led people to lose their sense of humanity and state of mind.