[ExI] Brave New World (was Re: "Toward a Type 1 civilization")

[Michael LaTorra]

On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 10:55 AM, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com>wrote:

> At 04:26 PM 8/8/2008 +0200, Stefano Vaj wrote:
>
> Certainly, Huxley does not approve of such world, even though he falls
>> short of offering any alternative, but the concern here is that some
>> well-intentioned, politically correct, "progressive" views may incline in
>> such direction, and this is why I think the novel has still something to
>> tell us, namely; "Is this really where we want to go?"
>>
>
> Huxley did offer an alternative, thirty later, in the utopian novel ISLAND.
> It's more a lightly-dramatized tract than a novel (like Skinner's
> WALDEN-TWO) but I can recall being enthusiastic about it when it came out; I
> doubt that I'd even be able to get through it today.
>
> Damien Broderick


Nor would I care to read Huxley's ISLAND again, even though, like you
Damien, I found it inspirational circa 1970.

The "island" of the title was an enlightened (philosophically and
spiritually) enclave under threat of contamination by influences from the
wider, misguided world. Inhabitants of the island were supposedly kept
focused on living in the moment by such contrivances as parrots that had
been trained to say "Attention!" over and over again. Needless to say, that
would not work more than once. So while Huxley did conceive the possibility
of a utopian counterpart to his dystopian BRAVE NEW WORLD, he really had no
clue how such a society could be organzied and operated.

Regards,
Mike LaTorra
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