The Use of Technology in Elysium and Fahrenheit 451 (Essay Sample)

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The Use of Technology in Elysium by Neil Blomkamp and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Literature and art are popularly viewed as a mirror for reflecting the way society functions. It portrays the nature and behavior of people and institutions, and how they interact with each other. One common theme in artistic and literary works is the use of official power by the ruling class to suppress dissent and condition people to behave in a certain way. This is a common practice in society whereby governments use instruments such as the police force of power to punish criminal offenders and maintain social order. With advancements in technology, however, governments are increasingly using advanced surveillance systems, such as phone tapping, electronic eavesdropping and other forms of computerized tracking, to spy on people, predict crimes and prevent them before they occur. At the same time, technology has become an important tool for the ruling class not only to improve their living standards, but also to create an utopian upper-class-only society by restricting the movement of the poor into the rich man’s world, as well as by developing high-tech services and solutions for the rich. This is exemplified in the use of CCTV cameras to keep high-end neighborhoods safe, and establishment of advanced health centers that only the rich can afford. The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and the film Elysium by Neil Blomkamp examines the use of technology to create a utopian society by suppressing dissent and free thought as a means of promoting happiness in society, and providing solutions for all diseases and aging. However, technology is more central in the novel Fahrenheit 451 in establishing a totalitarian rather than a perfect utopian society because it is used to suppress dissent and free thought, rather than find solutions to social problems.
The use of technology in the film Elysium is primarily focused on creating a utopian society where the rich are not only able to access the best medical services, but are also isolated from the rest of society. While majority of the poor live on earth and languish in abject poverty, the rich have created their own habitat in space, where they are safe from the problems that affect the common citizenry. For instance, Elysium’s top scientist, John Carlyne, has developed an advanced medical technology known as Med-Bays, capable of curing all types of illness and reversing the aging process. The main character Max DeCosta laments about the condition on earth while the rich are having a good time in the space habitat Elysium. He says, "There's nothing left down here. They have it all on Elysium, food, water, medicine, and they'll do anything to keep us out. It's time to change everything" (Blomkamp 2013). This use of technology is a stark contrast to the use of technology in Fahrenheit 451. In the novel, technology is used to dampen people’s minds and prevent them from having a free will or challenging the status quo. The government promotes modern entertainments such as televisions, fast cars, loud music and advertisements to prevent people from reading. Technology, in this regard, makes people intellectually lazy by providing them with easy entertainment forms. At the same time, the government runs a book-burning program because books can make people to think independently. The knowledge of books can make people not only to express themselves, but also to challenge popular beliefs, such as the nature of true happiness. It is for this reason that the government burns books to prevent people from learning that what they are experiencing is not happiness, but blissful ignorance. Captain Beatty, the chief of the book-burning squad, says that "We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind" (Bradbury 58). This quote demonstrates the way the government replaces the reading culture with popular entertainment as a means of keeping people lazy and ignoran