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LITR 4368 Literature of the Future 
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Sample answers
for Essay 1:
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Christopher Carlson
May 9, 2019
Out with the Old and in with the
New: A Comparison between High-Tech and Low-Tech Societies
The future is often an ambiguous idea
for we as a species to define. Many feel that our technology will continue
advancing throughout time, while another branch feels that this advancement will
eventually lead to our downfall and the rebirth of a more primitive lifestyle.
In this work, I will elaborate on the differences between the high-tech and
low-tech future scenarios as well as utilizing some of the texts we have read to
back up my explanations and explain the appeals to both of these genres as I go
along.
High-tech futures imagine a society
where technology continues to advance, but this often occurs alongside the decay
of certain morals and values. The term page describes it as “slick, cool, and
cyberpunk-like in nature.” This can especially be seen within Gibson’s
Johnny Mnemonic. One such instance is
when the narrator says, “And then the
joke-shop thumbtip, heavy as lead, arcs out in a lightning, yo-yo trick, and the
invisible thread connecting it to the killer’s hand passes laterally through
Ralfi’s skull.” (2.7). Here we see a human cybernetic interface being utilized
as a means of killing one’s fellow man. Not only that, it is utilized by a
member of the Yakuza who have a prevalent role within the story as the villains.
While technology is also shown to be helpful, such as the recorders used to
expose the Yakuza secrets (6.7), many aspects of the world have fallen into
disrepair, such as a high number of gang violence and more individuals, and
dolphins, utilizing narcotics. This idea of corrupted technologically advanced
society is further depicted in Gibson’s
The Gernsback Continuum.
The society presented within this story is one that is reminiscent of a fascist
futuristic city. This can especially be seen when the narrator states, “Behind
me, the illuminated city: Searchlights swept the sky for the sheer joy of it. I
imagined them thronging the plazas of
white marble, orderly and alert, their bright eyes shining with
enthusiasm for their floodlit avenues and silver cars. It had all the sinister
fruitiness of Hitler Youth propaganda.” (51). Since this story is more of
an alternative future, we see a society that has embraced technology but lost
the care and feelings towards differences that exist in mankind contrasted next
to our society that has less developed machines but a better moral compass. The
technology, however, is what draws the attention of the reader. The narrator
states, “Roads of crystal soared
between the spires, crossed and recrossed
by smooth silver shapes like beads of running mercury…mile-long blimps,
hovering dragonfly things that were gyrocopters . . .” (45). When we think of
such a society, we imagine all this technology and wish we could inhabit such a
world. This is one of the primary appeals of this genre.
While the glossy
exterior of the high-tech world is glorious, since we have flying cities,
cybernetic humans, and futuristic flying machines, we as a species typically
lose a piece of our humanity along the way and form a darker more sinister
interior. Many gravitate towards this genre because we want these machines in
our current time, while others shirk from it because of these depraved morals
that often goes with the genre like peanut butter with jelly. The course page
further mentions how this genre is appealing because of the “human machine
interface as well as well as it revolving more around the hard sciences,” which
many people find enjoyable. Machines are
not intrinsically good or bad, but they are often depicted as items that act as
catalysts at removing people’s feelings of morality.
The Onion and I does an excellent job
of showing why we have to hold on to our humanity if we wish to continue to
progress with our technology.
This story is
exceedingly unique, because it examines aspects of a high-tech future in
addition to ideas where the human condition takes a forefront. This high-tech
society can be seen when the narrator states, “They moved into the Virtual town
of Bidwell, and embarked on the business of helping the government perfect a
cyberworld so seamless-or should I say so seemful? -that nobody would feel
dissatisfied with living there.” (12). The goal of the corporation is to
integrate the human experience into the digital world, so that resources are not
depleted and there can be less waste, but they also want to make the world of
the digital as real as the natural world. However, a complication with this new
system arises. This is shown when the father says, “‘You see,’ said my father.
‘If they cannot make a decent Cyberonion, and now you know they cannot, then
they cannot make a decent Cyberboy who could taste a real onion and know the
difference.’” (20). Here, the author is showing that even with the best advances
in technology, it cannot replace the natural and human world entirely and that
to enter the high-tech world exclusively is to lose one’s humanity entirely.
Therefore, one must either live between both of these worlds, like the family in
the book does (21), or sacrifice the world of technology for one of simplified
living with human decency. Enter the low-tech future.
Low-tech societies
are described in the course page as “worlds in which technology and corrupt
cyberpunk society has been abandoned or destroyed, and a return to a more
primitive lifestyle has occurred.” One text that does an apt job of illustrating
this genre’s trait is Chocco. The
idea of the primitive world emerging from the remains of a previous society is
shown when the narrator states, “Our memories of the Machine People are a key to
our culture. If these are not kept straight and true, we could become fearfully
lost, as the Machine People had.” (192). Not only do we see the advanced society
of the past being rejected, memory is shown to be a trait of much value within
the community. People from this kind of society are also shown to be a great
deal more humanistic than a high-tech future. This can be seen when Jon says,
“Even now, when we think about them, we sense the anger and the despair that
must have been the everyday lot of the Machine People.” (212). This ability to
empathize with the plight of the Machine People illustrates this societies
values on emotion and the human condition. Such an idea would be an exceedingly
alien one within the confines of a high-tech work.
House of Bones also does an
exceedingly good job of illustrating the traits of a low-tech
society.
While this work
does not take place in the past, the means the protagonist gets to this society
are futuristic, since he time travels. The main character returns to a time
where more humanistic qualities are valued, and technology has not been
developed enough to impact their lives very seriously. One intriguing idea in
this work is the main character comparing this world with the world he traveled
from. He comments on his future that, “there are times when I think the people
up there in 2013 simply shrugged and forgot about me when things went wrong.”
(100). Here, the main character is describing his advanced future as one that
seems to be rather ambivalent to the lives that exist within this world. While
we have not seen his world, this quote implies a lack of emotion from this
futuristic world. Conversely, the primitive humans are described as, “But
instead of spearing me on the spot they took me to their village, fed me,
clothed me, taught me their language…They made me one of them.” (101). Here, the
author is showing a world of compassion in the past where they are exceedingly
primitive with their tools, having to make their homes out of bone, but they
place more value on the lives of those in the community. There is quite a bit to
love about this genre.
This genre,
contrary to high-tech, advocates for a world that is primitive in machinery, but
more connected as a human race. The course site describes how the appeals of
this genre are “human over machine, relationships with others as only truths,
and a return to values.” While there are some flaws, such as the instance in
House of Bones where they pretend to
rape one of the women (89), the society that is portrayed here shows a world
where values are placed over machinery and the common good is shown over
individual gain. Both high and low-tech societies illustrate mankind’s struggle
to persevere in the world they are a part. In the high-tech, you have to stay
alive amidst the higher concentration of gangs and drugs and the loss of
decency. Lower-tech societies try mankind’s survival instincts, so if they
cannot find the means to stay alive, they perish. In other words, both genres
require mankind to adapt to the world they have helped shape.
Dr. White’s class
has enlightened me to the wide variety of paths are future can take. While each
of them is intriguing in their own way, I feel the level of tech duality best
defines where are future will go. Will we embrace technology, or will technology
be what thrust us back into a more primitive age? Both of these futures possess
strengths and weaknesses and I feel that we will have to learn the means to
survive in both these realities to be truly prepared for what is to come.
