FREE ESSAY ON BRAVE NEW WORLD VS MATRIX

BRAVE NEW WORLD VS MATRIX

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' society 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.