A Brave New Technocracy

Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman relates to A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley in many ways. The first of which is through the process of Technopoly. Technopoly as described by Postman is “as a society which believes “the primary, if not the only, goal of human labor and thought is efficiency, that technical calculation is in all respects superior to human judgment ... and that the affairs of citizens are best guided and conducted by experts” (Postman 51). Postman believes that the only place that has adopted this is the United states. The United states is not a place that is afraid of new technology, in fact it welcomes it. This is concerning because people want more technology and therefore more information.

Technocracy as defined by Wikipedia “is a form of government in which engineers, scientists, health professionals, and other technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields.” Therefore a Technopoly and Technocracy are different in a way that people use technology instead of being used by it. A t Technopoly is always longing for newer things not knowing when to stop, eventually becoming “used” by the technology in a way that further develops itself. Whereas a Technocracy is more away of “management”, knowing what they're making, why they're making it, and when they will upgrade it.

Frederick Winslow Taylor fits into this picture because he is regarded to as the father of scientific management. “His intention was to make a science of the industrial workplace, which would not only increase profits but also result in higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions for laborers” (Postman 51). The main point in Taylor's ideology was that the judgment of the idividual workers was replaced by laws, rules, and principles of the scientific management. This ties him into the picture because that ideology is a basic principle in Technopoly.

The reading here helps for the understanding in A Brave New World in way that there is now two different ways at looking at it. Is the world in A Brave New World a Technopoly or a Technocracy? In a way it is sort of both, but I would lean more on the side of Technocracy. It is similar to a Technopoly because of the new inventions and the methods of which increase the productivity and efficiency of the society. Although it is more like a Technocracy because they are not creating new technology faster and faster due to the growing demand for it. They have a very controlled system that is, as you could say, “scientifically managed.”