“It is immediate, it has dimension. It tells you what to think and blasts it in.” (Pg. 109). It is from this distressing situation that the true power of technology in society becomes apparent. Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, a near-apocalyptic dystopia hidden from the public through technology, and Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner, a cyberpunk film, set in an Orwellian society in a dark, stormy post-industrial wasteland, demonstrate the power that technology has over society in a futuristic setting. In contemporary society, technology has evolved and advanced extensively, altering the modes in which individuals understand its ability and the customs in which they utilize it. These texts use stylistic and aesthetic features and characterization to demonstrate the key message of both pieces - the daunting power that technology has over humanity. Both texts forewarn present and future audiences of the power of technology by demonstrating its ability to eradicate human connection, the increasing potential to replace humanity, and its fast-paced advancements creating a precarious danger to humanity.
Fahrenheit 451 and Blade Runner communicate the influence technology has over humanity, piloting the eradication of human connection. The use of advanced technology in both texts manipulates individuals into believing that technology is more precious than human life. This is emphasized in Fahrenheit 451 through the characterization of Mildred, Guy Montag’s wife. Technology is utilized to control Mildred’s life and to influence her values within society. It is through the extensive amount of technology in her life that Mildred has, over time, lost all sense of human connection with individuals around her, specifically her husband, Guy Montag. “She’s nothing to me; she shouldn’t have had books.” (Page 67), Mildred has no form of emotion towards the woman who burned herself alongside her books when caught owning them. Montag explains throughout the text that he feels that his and Mildred’s relationship lacks something, blindly not knowing it is the human connection, “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing.” (Page 107). The eradication of human connection as a result of advanced technology is reinforced through Zhora’s death in Blade Runner, as Deckard is chasing Zhora through the spiritually dead streets of the predicted 2019 in LA. No individual stops to assist Zhora in any way or to question the actions of either character, demonstrating that individuals are anesthetized by the surroundings in which they live. Through the extensive practice of technology across society, individuals are completely sensationless to forms of human connection in its entirety, leading to the increasing potential of replacing humanity with technology.
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The custom of artificial intelligence in both texts addresses the increasing potential to replace humanity completely. Throughout Fahrenheit 451, the firemen utilize a machine to hunt people who don’t comply with the government’s censorship of knowledge. The Mechanical Hound is a device used to monitor, locate, instill fear, and destroy all who do not comply with the government-controlled censorship of all books of educational value. “…It follows through. It targets itself, homes itself, and cuts off.” (Page 38). The Mechanical Hound is utilized by the firemen and government to hunt, locate, and attack individuals with books, this machine has the power to overpower humanity as its role is to eliminate humans. Technology is used throughout Fahrenheit 451 to instill fear into individuals and to ensure that everyone has a fulfilling sense of happiness to protect the government from individual thoughts and questions about the purpose of life. Throughout the society outlined in Fahrenheit 451, technicians utilize machinery to ensure that everyone experiences happiness to promote hedonism. This is done through the use of a vacuum-like machine, utilized to suck the sadness out of a person and simply dispose of it, without any questioning of the purpose. “…you take out the old and put in the new and you’re OK.” (Page 24), two technicians arrive with machines one pumps out Mildred’s stomach, the other replaces her old blood with new, and the uses an Eye on the device to clean out the melancholy. Blade Runner demonstrates the potential to replace humanity through the implementation of artificial intelligence in both animals and replicants.
Replicants and artificial animals are used to demonstrate the ability of technology to replace humanity. Replicants were used off-world as slave labor, in the hazardous exploration and colonization of other planets. After a bloody mutiny by a Nexus 6 combat team in an off-world colony, replicants were declared illegal on Earth as a security stratagem to ensure Tyrell Corporation maintained all control over society. When Rachel and Deckard are introduced, Deckard questions the make-up of the owl found in Tyrell Corporation. “Of course, it is.” (17:10). Rachel specifies that the owl is unambiguously artificial, reassuring that this was a common phenomenon throughout society. Deckard performs the Voight-Kampff eye test on Rachel to determine if she is a replicant, however, what would commonly take twenty to thirty questions, took over one hundred questions to conclude. Rachel is an experimental replicant, more threatening to humanity than Nexus 6, as she can store and maintain memories and develop emotions.
The fast-paced development of technology in present and futuristic society increases the precarious danger that technology poses to humanity. The characters in Fahrenheit 451 had been surrounded by technology for so long and brainwashed to believe that technology was the purpose of life, it was used to inflict happiness, fulfilling hedonism. However, this constant surrounding of technology resulted in the fallout of Montag and Mildred’s relationship to the point that she turns in an alarm, warning the firemen about the books Montag possesses, resulting in the hunting him. Mildred’s obsession with technology resulted in the hunting of her husband, due to the lack of human and emotional connection among individuals. “It made a single last leap into the air, coming down at Montag from a good three feet over his head, its spidered legs reaching, the procaine needle snapping out its single angry tooth.” (Page 155). The lack of connection between individuals throughout society, due to the enforcement of the constant use of technology, resulted in the near-death of Montag by a machine which he had employed in his past to eliminate other people. Blade Runner demonstrates the precarious danger of technology through the death of Eldon Tyrell, the creator. This scene in the film demonstrates that technology can overpower humanity by the concept of the creation exterminating the creator. Bradbury and Scott both effectively communicate the desired warning to audiences about the precarious danger that technology poses to humanity in contemporary and future societies.
The incorporation of characterization, aesthetic and stylistic features in both Fahrenheit 451 and Blade Runner affirms Ray Bradbury and Ridley Scott’s illusion of the power of technology, demonstrating the extensive verisimilitude throughout both texts to their audiences.
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