Brave New World 4

BRAVE NEW WORLD BRAVE New World was published in 1932. It is a remarkable piece of science fiction for both its time and our own. It seems to withstand the intervening 65 years, primarily because of its depiction of a tightly controlled, rigidly stratified homogenous society. Issues of social control are as relevant today as in 1932, perhaps more so. Reproductive technology plays a key role in the social control of Brave New World. Reproduction takes place in …

…the technology to "sex select" or predetermine. The poor of all countries slip closer to Epsilon status, deprived not of oxygen, but of financial, educational, nutritional and political resources. Where we go from here depends on how much we educate ourselves as a society, and which of these technologies we allow to bear their bitter fruit. At least we don't have soma as a method of social control ... but then again, we do have Prozac!