In this blog, I will be exploring the theme of the story "the Veldt". The theme, "technology has the potential to undermine traditional authority/morality", will be connected to examples of human acts.
The Veldt is a short story about a family who live in the distant future, where technology does everything for them. The children considered the actual house as their parent because it nursed to their every need. After learning that their actual parents want to shut the house down, the children murder their parents by trapping them in a room called “the nursery” where they were eaten by a couple of lions.
I will connect the theme with several media posts including how technology can be more affective than humans, and how technology is able to change our view on things. Please, read on!
The above picture shows a machine cutting logs through the “clear cut logging” method. This method involves cutting down every tree. The machine illustrated above is much more productive than a few lumberjacks. It has the ability to turn a dense forest into a field of stumps.
This picture shows that technology has the ability to undermine traditional morality by tempting humans with greed. Humans might choose what technology is able to offer, other than what they believe is right. Technology can make humans not think about the future, by what it has the ability to do. This is evident in “the Veldt” because the children were so amazed at what the nursery could do, that they did not realize the psychological affect it had on them when they watched animals aggressively feeding on humans. The picture shows that humans toke advantage of the abilities of the technology, instead of thinking about the long term environmental damage that it is causing. Technology also has the ability to make humans disregard their moral for what they are able to receive from technology. In "the Veldt", the children disregarded their respect for their parents when they wished that the nursery would kill the parents, in return, technology was able to simulate their wildest imaginations. In this picture, the owner of this technology is able to receive a large amount of profit by cutting down all this wood. Therefore, he sacrificed his morals for what he thinks is right for the environment, for money. This shows that technology can lure humans into undermining their traditional morality by offering them something they want.
The video above shows how technology - in this case, a camera - can undermine traditional authority. The referee who is considered the traditional authority, made a wrong call. He stated that the ball touched the ground, but slow motion replay technology shows that the ball in fact, did not touch the ground. This technology has the potential of undermining the rulings of referees because referees can make mistakes when forced to make a decision quickly based on what happened in a split second.
The above video proves that technology can be programmed to be better than humans at certain jobs; therefore it has an advantage over traditional authority, which could mean that it has the potential to undermine traditional authority. Technology has the ability to provide a better look at things. The slow motion replay was able to give a better look at the motion path of the ball, and if it touched the ground or not. This is also evident in “the Veldt” because the children were able to have a better look at different animals up close, which is not safe in real life because the animals are dangerous. Technology also has the ability to be productive for longer hours than humans, because humans need rest. The nursery is able to stimulate the children for countless hours, but their parents could not. They had to sleep, eat, and rest. The camera can also be productive for longer hours than referees, because they are immune to human mistakes or tiredness. Because of the fact that technology can be more affective than humans, they have a potential to undermine traditional authority.
The news article above for CNN shows that technology has the potential to undermine traditional morality. Scientists are trying to develop technology that would embed certain genes in maturing embryos that are preferable and weed out the genes that are not. Some genes might even be manufactured in a lab. A common moral belief is that we, as humans should not tamper with what God or “fate” has decided. Technology might undermine this however, allowing parents "design" their babies.
Having the ability to choose ones child has the potential to undermine traditional morality. If someone has the ability to choose the characteristics of a family member, this ability can be seen as immoral and “doomed for disaster”. This is evident in “the Veldt” because the children were able to choose the characteristics of nursery/house, which was figuratively their parent. The same is true for the ability to choose the characteristics of someone’s child. Parents might be expecting too much, and have less feelings toward the child as a human, but more as a robot, programmed to have a certain personality. Choosing someone’s characteristics might also be tampering with fate. Some people strongly believe that everything happens for a reason, and that we should not change it. This is evident in babies that are designed to be disease immune. It might be believed that the child should have gotten the disease, but because of tampering with fait, the child’s destiny has changed. This is less evident, but still viable in "the Veldt". It seemed that it was fate that the parents were killed by the nursery, because of the ironic ending. If the parents were able to change the characteristics of the nursery so that the children were not able to experience the African savannah, but rather a more peaceful place, an alternative ending could have taken place and the parent’s fate could have been escaped.
I am making this blog for an English assignment. This is an opinionated blog that shows the connection between the theme of the short story, “The Veldt” and the world we live in today. My goal is to prove that technology has the potential to undermine traditional authority/ morality.
I am currently a student attending R.H. King Academy. I am deeply interested in psychology and the human mind and hope to pursue this field of study. I am currently taking mathematics, English, introduction to business, and history this semester. My interests include playing rugby and soccer, skiing, running, and mixed martial arts.
