Carolyn Bautista

CH202/Fenimore

2 December 2003

Science, Technology and Human Values: Technological advances occur all around, whizzing by, while human values change little and at a much slower pace.

           Commercially bottled water stands as just one of a sundry of items that human technology has conjured up over the years. It seems as though the average person can not go through a day without seeing a symbol of this phenomenon, whether it is a vending machine, an empty container lying in the gutter, or a person clutching a plastic bottle in their hand. Also an ever-present technological advance is the cellular phone, "can you here me now?" It is almost a guarantee that during the course of a class period, a ringtone or the buzzing of the vibrating mode will shake the air. Human nature exists right along side its technology. Kurt Vonnegut and Samuel Beckett use their writings to illustrate what needs to be a part of human existence besides human values and technology. For all of the newfangled contributions to the modernization of human civilization, the values that humans live by have not progressed quite as swiftly. Technological advances occur all around, whizzing by, while human values change little and at a much slower pace.

           Billy Pilgrim, Kurt Vonnegut’s main Slaughterhouse-Five character, rode through life on one of those moving sidewalk, conveyer belt contraptions. He did not make any special efforts to enhance his situation. If one were to cut and paste the novel so that the story of Billy Pilgrim’s life went in chronological order, it would become apparent that he merely lived his life. The world still moved around him, war, fire-bombing, the progression of the television set, but Billy took a passive role in his own existence. Billy Pilgrim stays the same humdrum being his entire life. Vonnegut used the repetition of Billy’s life and phrases such as "Somewhere a big dig barked" to exhibit how some things just do not change (168). He points out that the people in the novel "are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces" (164). Billy knows that he is going to die anyway, regardless of what he does or does not do, and he plainly wants to remain unscathed during his journey. Vonnegut used this publication as a vehicle to show that it is not enough to live a life to its end, the approach that Billy employed. Billy Pilgrim’s stance, as told by Kurt Vonnegut, tells people that they need to actively participate in their lives in order to legitimately embrace living.

           Samuel Beckett spent two acts divulging a couple of days in the lives of Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot. The setting, "A country road. A tree," is such that the events in the play could happen in any century, anywhere there is a country road and a tree (1). Vladimir and Estragon occupy space along a roadside talking about and waiting for life to happen. They discuss hanging themselves, "Let’s hang ourselves immediately!" but put it off and never get around to it (12). The most prominent display of their lack of action is at the end of each act when one of them asks, "Well? Shall we go?" and the other responds, "Yes, let’s go," and neither move (59, 109). Beckett created a couple of spectators who did things to pass the time. They anticipate the coming of a man who never shows up. Godot will never come today, but he will tomorrow. The two travelers who come across them on the road, Pozzo and Lucky, do not recognize Vladimir and Estragon the second time around. Vladimir and Estragon are nobodies who do not impact anyone else’s lives but their own. Beckett’s piece demonstrates what people’s lives would be like if they existed but did little of anything else. The main characters wait for their ship to come in when they should really be paving their own way. They, and everyone outside of that fictional setting, should construct their own meaning and apply it to their lives instead of waiting for live to happen.

           The world of today can be likened to The Beatles’ song "Revolution 9." In the midst of all of the verbal and musical sound clips coming forth in stereo, the one staple of the song is the spoken phrase, "Number nine." It recurs in the same voice every now and then throughout. All of those sound clips can be compared to the advancing technology that encompasses civilization, and the repeating phrase can be looked at as human values. The surrounding noise goes by and changes while that phrase does not. Civilization has witnessed the evolution of the phonograph to the iPod, the typewriter to the laptop, the polio vaccine to the mapping of the human genome, working hours in the kitchen to the introduction of t.v. dinners. With all of those developments, humans still have to confront discrimination of all kinds, and values hold strong. Take a look at today’s movies. There are only so many plots to attach a story to, and many movies look alike. Some of the teen movies and romantic comedies are interchangeable, seen one and you’ve seen them all. People like to think that society has come for from what it was in the past, and, yes, there are some changes with time, but there is still so much to overcome. On average, women do not recieve as much pay as their male counterparts in the same occupational fields. Human euthanasia pulls at the strings of human values as well. Recently, a case made national news about an incapacitated Florida woman and her husband’s fight to disconnect her feeding tube, because of a conversation she had with her husband, and her parents’ wish to keep her alive. A doctor sits in a Michigan jail because of his participation in assisted suicides when the situation can be viewed as a person with the means to help another person following through on their last desire. Humans bold enough to chose their own paths and not hang around or wait for something to be handed to them should be able to lead their lives to where they want to go. Present human values need an update because they are holding back those who recognize the need for change. Technology will keep progressing. Now, if only human values could catch up.