Set in the 24th century, Fahrenheit 451 depicts a futuristic society complete with a vast technology. Although we have not reached the 24th century, which futuristic item (s) did you find most amazing and which did you find were now reality? Explain how these items made you feel as you encountered them and what effects did they have upon the storyline. (The deadline to post a response to this blog is midnight Friday, January 14, 2011).
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The Future Approaches
Set in the 24th century, Fahrenheit 451 depicts a futuristic society complete with a vast technology. Although we have not reached the 24th century, which futuristic item (s) did you find most amazing and which did you find were now reality? Explain how these items made you feel as you encountered them and what effects did they have upon the storyline. (The deadline to post a response to this blog is midnight Friday, January 14, 2011).
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While reading the book, I was slightly underwhelmed at their technology seeing as how it was apparently supposed to be set 300 years from our current time. Honestly, the Mechanical Hound awed me the most of the technology they had. It is, in essence, a one "man" army. It was able to track down men with only the slightest sniff of their clothing, and could follow their sweat patterns, while being able to move swiftly, and at the end of this hunt, it could inject them with its deadly poison. To me, that is the things nightmares are made of. The three paneled television walls seemed like we were pretty close to already having those. Flat screen TVs are becoming more and more prevalent in society, and some have an option to be 3D. It is also now possible to split up the channels you want to watch, so one can watch all of them at the same time. I do not think that a full sized wall television is too far off in the future, and three walls will follow soon after that. I felt this was a nice prediction on Bradbury's part on the future.
Fahrenheit 451 certainly had some interesting technology. Today, this society can easily relate to the interest in television. Many people follow the examples set by TV shows. Reality TV shows are a huge hit to teenagers and adults, and a great number of them spend hours each day watching these shows instead of being productive. I was very fascinated with the mechanical hound. A creation that powerful is simply genius, but it is also very destructive. The idea of the hound is very well put together, and the ability it has to kill is very precise. In the future, I believe that a similar weapon may be created, but I do not think that it will be in the form from the book. I do not mind the advanced technology, but I feel that it could destroy what modern day humans have become. With technology replacing nearly every human responsibility, the need for humans would diminish to nothing. I fear that humans may not be aware of how powerful the technology they are creating could become. Bradbury was surely a smart man, and his idea of the future is not at all far-fetched.
While reading the book Fahrenheit 451, I noticed a distinct lack of particularly 'futuristic technology'. This is probably due to the lack of creativity and thought present in the society. In fact, none of the technology present in the book was very far away from what we have today. Although the Mechanical hound was the most obviously futuristic item, we today have developed both mobile robots and complex scent machines (being developed to detect a disease using a person's scent). I was impressed by its speed of movement and judgment capabilities, though. The rest of the obvious technology, video walls, beetles, and Seashells, are all easily achievable within the next 20 years. In the end, though, what technology was there only served to depress me. The humans had become helpless, being reliant upon the machines to the point that certain people, such as Mildred, would soon die without her mechanical servants. What scares me most is how easily I can see humankind falling into this trap of sloth and entertainment, with machines being the dominant almost life-form on the planet.
When I read Fahrenheit 451 I found that there was a lot of familiar and futuristic technology. My favorite piece of technology was the mechanical hound. It was the nightmarish guardian of the city and I found it to be the epitome of future technology in the book. It was basically a walking gun that could hit it's target every time with the greatest of ease. Of course at the beginning of the book I laughed to my self about how Bradbury's predictions were now reality, yet after reading further on I quickly realized that this technology only hurt the society in the book. This was a huge eye opener for me. I began to reflect on our society and how dependent we are on technology. I believe we are slowly become slaves to that which we create.
The mechanical hound fascinates me. The physical characteristics are unique, I mean an eight-legged creature capable of memorizing up to 10,000 scents. The various poisons and effects they cause like paralyzing, stunning, or killing show that Ray Bradbury had a creative thought for technology. It makes me wonder how much we will come up with in the our future. In our society today, we have made many technological advances in society, but we haven’t actually used it for evil or even use robots are such that much yet. There are many ideas that are leading up to better advancements robots, although robots are not very common yet. I recognized the reality TV and seashells in our reality. This makes me feel like we cannot change what he expects to come from us in the future, although I believe we will be smarter than the people in the book. (Future will tell.) These futuristic items have a negative effect on society because they show violence and make people forget about reality and become lethargic with their thoughts and everything. I do believe these futuristic items that Bradbury predicted will be common by the 24th century though, which makes me wonder what society will come to.
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