The Lost World And 1984 Essay, Research Paper
The use of advanced technology has become a second nature to many of us. We sit in front of computers and televisions, placing ourselves in the hands of the media all the time, not thinking of how these simple actions might steer the path of the future. Maybe a higher power is providing this technology because they know society will eat it up. It could be that a higher power is controlling the future by feeding us more and more technology. “Global uniformity” due to technology is the common idea between the passage from The Lost World, by Michael Crichton and 1984 by George Orwell. Technology plays a huge role in these two stories, arriving at a similar conclusion. The more it is used, the more we are watched and taken control of. In these two texts, the possibility that we will be totally controlled in the future is discussed. Eventually, the control will lead to human destruction. In The Lost World, the possible end of our species is blamed on cyberspace. The character, Malcom explains that “(Mass media) keeps anything from happening. Mass media swamps diversity. It makes every place the same.” He says, “In a mass-media world, there s less of everything expect the top ten books, record, movies, ideas. People worry about losing species diversity in the rain forest. But what about intellectual diversity our most necessary resource? That s disappearing faster than trees.” The issue of losing identities in cyberspace has already become a debatable issue. In 1984, losing independence and individuality is what the Party and Big Brother wants. They control society with telescreens and fictional media, such as Goldstein and the Brotherhood. A member of the Party, O Brian, explains how the new world will be after they have what they want. In this quotation, O Brian implies that everyone will live for only one thing, and that is to please Big Brother and the Party. No one will have a defining character. “We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty toward the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no employment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always do not forget this, Winston always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at ever moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever.” (p. 220)
This relates to The Lost World because individuality is predicted to history in a short time. “Global uniformity” is discussed by Malcom, who says that “We re planning to put five billion people together in cyberspace. And it ll freeze the entire species. Everything will stop dead in its tracks. Everyone will think the same thing at the same time.” That is exactly what the Party s plan is. They want everyone s thoughts restricted, and that is why they are integrating the language, Newspeak, and abolishing what we use, “Oldspeak.” If there are not words to say what you are envisioning, you cannot express it. The Party wants total control. The irony of this situation is that while controllers such as the Party are acting like puppeteers, the society is willingly taking everything that is thrown at them because they love it. If our futures are being manipulated right now with the Internet and other types of media, we would not know and would keep going online every day. E-commerce, chat rooms, online businesses, communities, huge databases and web site neighborhoods already exist. In 1984, O Brian tries to break down the only man who refuses to follow the Party; Winston. He tells Winston about what the world should be like by saying, “A world of victory after victory, triumph after triumph: an endless pressing, pressing, pressing upon the nerve of power. You are the beginning, I can see, to realize what that world will be like. But in the end you will do more than understand it. You will accept it, welcome it, become part of it.” O Brian wants Winston to love the ways of the Party and Big Brother just as everyone else does. Ignorance is what the Party wants, because that way it is easier to control them by feeding them technology. Once Winston loves Big Brother and follows the Party, he will be killed. In The Lost World, Malcom believes that technology will kill us all one day. He says, “This idea that the whole world is wired together is mass death.” Evolution will slow down and he thinks “cyberspace means the end of our species.” Humans are changing the planet rapidly, blinded of it s potential dangers. The possibility that technology will be the downfall of humans forms the relationship between The Lost World and 1984. In 1984, the disintegration of man is brought about by “the completely unlimited use of torture and brainwashing,” as the author of the afterward, Erich Fromm says. He says that authors like Michael Crichton and George Orwell “can be accused of the thought that the destruction of the humanity within man is easy. Yet all (three) arrive at the same conclusion: that it s possible, with means and techniques which are common knowledge today.” Global uniformity is a frightening future.