Super Computer And Machines example essay topic

2,104 words
Utopia can be defined as a place immune from inhumane treatment and absent of the hardships of society, where the population is blindfolded from fear, anxiety, and general negative aspects of human nature. A utopia can be generalized as that perfect society. This is one type of a drastic society. There is another, more appalling type of society, that of a dystopia. A Dystopia is nor a fairyland or the promised-land like the utopia is, it looks at the chaos, anarchy, rebellion and disorder of a society.

As we compare these two opposite society types, there are two books that are the poster child of utopia and dystopia. Those two books are Kurt Vonnegut's 'Player Piano', and Anthony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange'. In Kurt Vonnegut's 'Player Piano' we follow the hero Paul Pro tues through his utopian society. Where in his society they have just recovered from a ten year war and now has been built up and ran completely by machines. Furthermore a super computer always controls the populations actions, it acts as a shepherd leading the sheep. However where there are sheep there is always a ever lurking black sheep, Paul is that of a black sheep.

Through his journey in this utopian society we follow his rebellion against the super computer and machines. As Paul progresses in his society it becomes less and less of a utopia on more and more of a force fed, totally governed society where there is little freewill. As we follow his expedition we can see the changing society from a utopia to what Paul perceives as a dystopia. In Anthony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange' we observe the antagonist Alex in his blatant dystopia society.

Where in his society they have high criminal activity and few police. We follow Alex and his 'droogs' as they acts like Vikings, raping, pillaging, and burning. Alex has no respect for law and order he rebels in part one of the novel. However Alex is eventually caught by the police and put in jail.

In jail he is tricked to being rehabilitated to becoming a productive member of society. After this forced rehabilitation Alex is then to perceive society as a utopian society and stop being so violent. He has lost his own freewill and his identity. When ever Alex thinks of violent images he then gets sick to his stomach.

When Alex is released back into society he is no longer the victimized but rather the victim of society. Alex becomes unhappy and has no choice in what he does. In further examination we can see in both novels that when there is a dystopia society there is freewill, no one to rule you, however the more you move towards a utopian society you become the ruled and freewill is compromised severely. In both novels you must ask yourself, Do you want to choice goodness or have goodness imposed on you? Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?

In both society types we can undeniably perceive that both the hero and the antagonist face a horror show of dilemmas, and trying times. The society has a direct association with the hero and antagonist emotions. As we can see the more the society leans towards utopia, they both become less satisfied and become hungry for freewill. However they more the society is a dystopia there craving for freewill is satisfied and they are happy-go-lucky. In Kurt Vonnegut's 'Player Piano' we can see that his world has just recovered from a long and grueling ten year war. Many men and women lost their lives in this horrible war.

His world was in ruins and was built back up by technology and was once again a 'normal's society. The government kept on introducing new machines to make their world easier to live in and try to make it a generally happier place. However the government did not stop there, they kept on introducing newer and newer equipment. The government deceived the population by creating the illusion that technology was the only way to restore order. This was not so, this was all a plot by the government to have a reason to introduce the super computer to control the economy. Before Paul knew it his world had production of goods without any man power.

His world was eventually totally governed by a super computer. Jobs where taken over by robots, many people would loose their source of income to these robots because the robots would work for free. The government made a a terrific amount of money of this new invention of the super computer and robots. In the beginning of this new 'super computer' it did seem to the general population that this is a amazing new idea, and they marveled at this fantastic piece of technology.

As time went on and on, the population started to realized that the super computer and machines, where not so glamorous as it once seemed. The only ones who had a purpose was the elite and the engineers who designed the super computer. The government would provide the people everything they needed but a propose in life. The super computer over time suffocated freewill the people did not have a choice of what they wanted to do. The super computer would create laws, and military to enforce those laws.

The punishment was so ludicrous to the law that had been broken. There was no longer a jury of their peers to pass judgment. There would just be a machine to give out ridicules punishments for the simplest of crimes. It would seem that with all the 'criminals' put away that it would be a much less worrisome this is not the case.

With these machines handing out horrible punishments it spawned fear to be a perfect citizen. Simply the government wanted to make people fear them, then out of that fear would blossom a beautiful rose of love and respect. However every rose has its thorn, Paul would be that thorn to the government. Paul sees the truth and the illusion that the government tried to create is cleared.

Paul's rebellion against his industrialized world starts quietly enough, with the acquisition of a farm and the conscious sabotage of a promotion he deserved. However, he eventually crosses paths with radicals who saw fit to not only stem the tides of mass-production, but to destroy all of the machines in the process. Paul travels in the country telling people what is really going on, and they join Paul's cause. Paul's cause was to give back the world what is theirs. He wanted to liberate the people from the control of the machines and the super computer. Threw this liberation of the world, he must rebel.

Him and his extremists launch attacks on the super computer, machines, and the government. Paul wants to destroy the 'utopia' that the government tried to create. The more and more the society becomes controlled by the super computer and ran by machines the less and less freewill the people have. They no longer have the choice to chose what they want to do. They no longer have jobs to go to, they are all taken over. With Paul and his henchmen fighting from the impressment of the super computer they start taking up arms and doing any means necessary to take down the super computer.

Paul's cause is essentially freewill is better than that of a utopia. It is better to choose to be who you are than having that choice forced on you. As both the protagonist and narrator of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, the character of Alex is an intriguing study from start to finish. Specifically, in comparing part one and part three of the novel, Alex's world, internally and externally, his characterization and travails are shown to be mirror images of each other, both identical and reversed.

Where Alex was the soulless victimizer in part one, he finds himself repeatedly a victim in part three. Where he was once welcome at the story's start, he is cast out at the close. What gives him pleasure at the beginning, in part three gives him pain. This neat symmetrical structure clearly and symbolically portrays how much Alex has changed and what Ludovico's Technique has done to him. In Part I, Alex, as the extremely vicious leader of a gang, is a 15-year-old arrogant hooligan without a grain of sympathy for his victims.

He doesn't appear to rape, rob, beat or murder for money, valuables, sexual satisfaction or other tangible things. He seems to gain some measure of aesthetic satisfaction out of involving himself in evil for evil's sake. He even sees his violence as a kind of art, which we see through his description of a favorite weapon. Overall, there is nothing in his background that can explain why he is so cruel and nasty, why his penchant for violence is so high. As his state-appointed guidance councilor, P.R. Deltoid, says to him, 'you " ve got a good home here, good loving parents, you " ve got not too bad of a brain.

Is it some devil that crawls inside you. Along with his violent tendencies in part one, Alex is also portrayed as immature and irresponsible. He holds down no job and seems to have no responsibilities of any kind. He stays out all night, without letting his parents know, sleeps all day and still expects to be fed, clothed and taken care of. Furthermore, in part one Alex is described as very arrogant, self-absorbed, autocratic and too firmly convinced of his superiority over everyone he encounters.

His haughty attitude toward his fellow gang members ultimately causes them to betray him. After losing some measure of standing in his group, Alex vainly assumes that taking on a robbery job alone will prove once and for all his dominance over them. This characteristic is also evident in how he acts toward the old woman he attempts to rob. When she calls the police, he relates that all he hears is a batty old woman, who is no match for him, talking to her many cats. His consistent underestimation of those around him, of his droogs and of the old lady, leads his gang to mutiny and leads to his imprisonment and ultimate transformation at the book's end.

As a mirror image of the first part, part three in A Clockwork Orange shows Alex as almost exactly opposite of his old self. He is humbled where he once was arrogant, victimized where he once was the perpetrator of violence and where he once acted childish there is evidence of a newfound maturity. Ludovicio's Technique has also taken away, for the most part, Alex's proclivity for random acts of violence. Even as leader of a new gang, he rarely engages himself in any untoward activity, instead sending his underlings to carry out the tasks.

He encounters many of the same characters he faced and consorted with at the beginning of the novel, but is now bullied and beaten by the same people he once roughed up himself. Instead of the teenage hangout Kosova, he wanders into a little caf'e, filled with very harmless, boring people, and drinks tea instead of drug-laced milk. He is shocked and envious to find an old friend, Pete, settled down, married and speaking without the childish slang Alex had always employed. Alex later has a strange vision of himself as an old man, in a comfortable armchair, drinking a nice cup of tea. He also pictures himself with a wife, even holding a newspaper picture of a baby in his pocket as an outward sign of his hopes for a family. Overall, Alex ends the book as the complete opposite of the character portrayed in part one.

He is mature, calm, law-abiding and eager to begin living a normal life, all of his own freewill.