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Brave New World: The Advancement Of Science

Brave New World: The Advancement of Science

Christy Campbell Mrs. Doig Eng OAC 2 16 May, 1996

When thinking of progress, most people think of advances in the
scientific fields, believing that most discoveries and technologies are
beneficial to society.   Are these advances as beneficial as most people think?
In the novel Brave New World, the author Aldous Huxley, warns readers that
scientific advances can be a threat to society.   This is particularly evident in
the fields of biology, technology and psychology.   According to Huxley, "The
theme of Brave New World is not the advancement of science as such; it is the
advancement of science as it affects human individuals"(Huxley CLC 79 290).
One scientific advance of which Huxley warns readers of is that in
biology.   In the setting of Brave New World, henceforth referred to as the
reservation, the mass production of humans is accomplished with the Bokanovsky
process.   In this process, human beings are genetically engineered in
laboratories.   "... a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide.
From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed
embryo, and every embryo into a full sized adult"(Huxley Brave New World 4).
One of the threats of this genetic breeding is that no family structures exist
on the reservation.   Instead, humans are raised in conditioning centres.   R.T.
Oerton points out that "Present knowledge indicates, for instance, that a child
cannot be deprived of parents or parent figures, as were the children in Brave
New World, without suffering lasting pathological damage to his
personality."(Oerton CLC 7 308).   Another threat that the Bokanovsky process
poses to society is that life is not highly valued.   "Murder kills only the
individual and, after all what is an individual?   With a sweeping gesture he [Mr.
Foster, director of hatcheries and conditioning] indicated the rows of
microscopes, the test-tubes, the incubators.   We can make a new one with the...