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Since the begging of humanity, mankind tries to predict the soon to be future. Many scientific books and movies thrilled readers and viewers with visions of the future world. The book "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley and the movie "Matrix" directed by The Wachowski Brothers tried to put forth-such views. The strongest theme in both the book and the movie was the idea that as humanity progresses through the centuries, the advancement of science leads to perfecting the world that man lives in, which in turn conflicts with human individuality. Although, the concept is similar in both the book and the movie the portrayal of the conflict is different. Both, the movie and the book, show the future worlds where technology became a very important aspect of human life.
Aldous Huxley carries out the concept of actual human evolution into practical program algorithms, with little or no emotions at all attached to the individual. Human society, like an ant's colony, evolved into a place where every individual knows his or her place in the collective. It's a place where "everybody belongs to everyone else. " (Huxley, 72) This applies to all. No one capitalizes on the efforts of others and no one performs excessive manual labor for minimum wage. Everyone is the same. Individualism was erased by total technological domination.
Reproduction is something that is done with no heart in mind; something that is just a day's work, a contribution to the anthill. Babies are stamped and shipped into nurseries where they grow up and are brainwashed into fitting with society and accepting their position in it. Death is yet another contribution to society where all the remains are recycled and reused. Henry Foster who says, "Fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we " re dead, " shows how death of an individual became a happy event in someone's life. (Huxley, 66) Aldous Huxley's world is a 'no waste's octet where everyone lives in complete harmony with each other, sacrificing the one thing that makes us human, our individuality.
In the movie Matrix the technological evolution brought about the appearance of artificial intelligence, AI, which viewed humanity as a virus and tried to eliminate it. The conclusion of the war was total enslavement of humans as batteries to feed the AI. A New World was created, a world of illusion, "a prison that you cannot smell or taste, or touch a prison for your mind. " (The Wachowski Brothers, Morphius) Children are not born anymore into the world; they are grown and raised on the "human farm" by specially designed machines. Again, as in the Brave New World there is no waste in the Matrix world because the death of a human means food for others.
It is a technological dominance on a higher level. There is no individuality in the Brave New World, but an illusion individuality that is instilled with the unreal world. Yet, in the both worlds the struggle of the individual against technology is evident. In Brave New World, John was 'abducted' from a world of individuality into the perfect world of Bernard's and Lenina's collectivity. John looks at both worlds through the lenses of the religion he got from the Reservation-a mixture of Christianity and American Indian beliefs - and the old-fashioned morality he learned from reading Shakespeare. He tries to adapt; he deludes himself into thinking that the world he entered is a better one.
He faces "civilized society" with a bright outlook, but eventually comes to hate it bitterly. His beliefs contradict those of the brave new world, as he shows it in his struggle over sex with Lenina and his fight with the system after his mother dies. In the Matrix, conflict between technology and individuality is more hidden in the intricate illusion of the world woven by the AI. Everything one can see, feel, hear, smell and taste is perfected to suit the need of the collective battery generator, the human species. The AI tried to create a perfect world, similar to the Brave New World, but it failed for an individual cannot share. Therefore, the world that does work is a world in which there is violence, poverty, and hunger.
Yet, the individual is a fake one. It is like being connected to the internet non-stop; there is no real individual but a fake one surfing the world wide web. Is there an escape from these worlds? For John there is no escape. He cannot go back to his Old World and he cannot stay in the new one. His individuality does not fit in with the collective hive of the mass.
He tries to live in seclusion; yet wherever he goes he cannot escape the constant reminder of the world around him. He cannot fight back; he cannot change something that was instilled from birth into the people around him. Yet, he cannot be brainwashed for he is an individual whose ideals were already developed and therefore cannot be easily changed. He resists, but realizes in the end that there is only one escape, death. Yet, in his death he still makes a statement. "Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west... " (Huxley, 201) This clockwise rotation of the hanging body states the progress of the society that John contradicted and hated. .".. then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left.
South-south-west, south, south-east, east... " (Huxley, 201) The counter-clockwise rotation of the body puts forth the notion that humanity was progressing until technology started to dominate; after that point, humanity started to devolve. In the matrix, an escape is more 'gracious' in a sense that there does exist an outside world, a real world. A world of cruel reality where any human not in the collective is hunted down and killed. In this world, there is a hidden human city, a world of salvation.
Moreover, group of heroes, people from that city, rescues select individuals from the collective and continues the war against AI. Although, the real fight is fought outside the matrix, the war can only be won inside. This is where the main character, Neo (Keanu Reeves), fits in. He is a select person saved from the unreal world. He accepts the reality (even though it's harsh) and unlike John he stands up and fights. His individuality rejects the illusion and he becomes the key to human salvation, for the total rejection of the unreal world by all of the humans in the collective would mean victory; and that is the only escape available.
Neo is able to break the illusion and eventually he will be able to bring real individuality back to the humans. It just might be a prediction that both these media try to set forth, but it is a quite possible future. The loss of individuality in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and in the Matrix is an ominous foreshadowing of the future. With the exponential advancement of technology, the evolution of the Internet (which can connect every person on the planet to one another) will change our world, but to what, is the ultimate question. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Brave New World Vs Matrix
