Is Technology Out Growing Us?

A lot of times people do something to better themselves, wait, that is why people do the things they do. When thinking about doing something, most people say what’s in it for me, or how will this make me look? This is the exact attitude Dr. Felix Hoenikker has in Kurt Vonnegut’s book “Cat’s Cradle”. Also, many people in today society only look out for themselves and do tasks to give them honor and pride. This is a pattern that we recognize every day, many times in technology.

Dr. Hoenikker is a husband, father and inventor, even though you wouldn’t recognize all of his traits right away. He had been an absent father to his three children, Frank, Angela, and Newt. He showed this with Newt in the very beginning with Newt. “He must have surprised himself when he made a cat’s cradle out of the string, and maybe it reminded him of his own childhood. He all of a sudden came out of his study and did something he’d never done before. He tried to play with me. Not only had he never played with me before; he had hardly ever spoken to me.” (Vonnegut p.11-12). This tells me that Newt never thought of Felix as a “father figure”. Felix was someone who just existed with no responsibility. When his wife Emily died while giving birth to little Newt, Felix chose to pull his daughter, Angela, out of school to be in charge of the household. Could he not do it himself? Being an inventor of a Ice Nine, Felix was put into a position he loved, he had honor and no responsibility. While making this weapon he never took down notes, never told anyone anything about it and he even knew what kind of damage it could do to the world. Even knowing all these things, he still proceeded to make it for his own good and recognition. This brings up the question is technology becoming smarted than us?

Technology is a concept that sometimes we may take advantage of; when in reality it is a privilege. It has developed into one of the, if not the biggest issues of our world, it manages just about everything we do. Without technology most of us would be lost, but where does it end? It is almost like a comfort blanket that we all think we need. The Human Factor, A Threat to our Quality of Life: Technology Beyond our Control, states “We walk around with electronic leases – pagers, cell phones, personal digital assistants and pocket PC’s – that tie us to our work. We are constantly reaching for something, checking for a new text message, and looking up something on the Internet. When will the iPod or phone I have be enough? There is always going to be the next best thing that everyone “has to have”. But do we really need it? Everyday people go to work hoping to invent something new. For example, in “Cat’s Cradle” no one ever knew that Dr. Hoenikker would one day just whip up a weapon of mass destruction, so maybe there should be some limits, and maybe we should be aware of what goes on in research laboratories. However, it’s not so easy. Giving us knowledge of what goes on behind closed doors is almost impossible. That would mean the scientists would have to be watched and closely monitored 24/7, and that’s not likely to happen. One way this is monitored is by restricting what people are allowed, and not allowed to buy. This enables the average person to feel comforted. By knowing that a random person can’t go buy a certain dangerous chemical allows people to be relaxed.

As technology keeps growing we will learn new ideas and invent new things that may be to our benefit. However we have to keep in mind the other things that can happen with all this experimenting. We have learned through Dr. Hoenikker that dangerous weapons can be produced on an average day by an average person. Today technology is something we control, and someday it may be the thing that controls us.