Progress

Anglais Oral

Im going to talk about the idea of progress from the standpoint of science. The progress is the development of humankind, a forward movement. Scientists have made important breakthrough during the last century and they continue their researches to improve technologies and enable new possibilities in various fields. But progress is not necessarily harmless. I will rely on 3 documents : Odd man out, Brave new world by Aldous Huxley and Gattaca by Adrew Niccol. The first one Odd man out is a cartoon which represents a factory where clones are produced, we can see five of them on a conveyor belt. Four of them are the same : theyre like as two peas in a pod, they are tall, strong, dark-haired and tan. Theyre wearing manly black boxer shorts and have the same fixed smile, they look quite scary. On the contrary the man in the middle is smaller, skinny, disproportionate and effeminate. He has got flaws ; thats why hes going to be thrown away into a dumpster where a lot of rejects are already putted in. The cartoonist shows a dehumanizing picture of human beings who are produced like toys He denounces the abuses of eugenics (which are the study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding) and cloning. Trying to create a perfect world will only lead to discrimination. It can be very dangerous so genetics must respect ethics. Then, we are going to take example from the novel written by Aldous Huxley in 1932 called Brave new world. Its about a futurist society that is trying to create a perfect community where everyone is happy. They use science to mass produce people and to condition them to do and want only the things theyre supposed to, but in doing that they take away freedoms like the freedom to think for oneself. The few characters we see who do think for themselves are unhappy. This book asks a question : Is it better to be happy or free ? The book starts with the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning explaining to a group of students how they create people since women dont actually get pregnant anymore. Eggs are fertilized and then undergo a process that causes the eggs to divide. They can give up to 96 identical twins from a single egg. When they go to the conditioning rooms, they can see nurses lay out flowers and books and then bring in a group of babies, then nurses shock the babies through an electrifies strip on the floor. Overtime the babies will instinctively dislike books and nature ; these babies are Deltas, one of the societys lower castes which perform non-intellectual work like factory work. By conditioning babies to hate books, the society ensures that they wont ever have any desire for them and by conditioning them to hate nature, theyll want to stay near their work in the cities. They condition all the castes this way according to what their role will be in the community. We understand that the director is creating workers who will obey him and turn human being into slaves without any problem since they are conditioned to it. This is his scary definition of progress. The last document is a film by Andrew Niccol released in 1997. The scene takes place in a selective society where discrimination is pervasive and is the consequence of a scientific evolution. The main character is Vincent, he talks about his life from his conception. He was conceived by natural way and when he was born, scientists took him a blood sample and reveal that he will die at 30.2 years to heart disorder. Later his parents had another baby but by fertilization in laboratory. The geneticist eradicated many diseases like obesity, myopia, tendency to violence, addiction to alcohol, drugs and even boldness. The parents choose the gender and physical features. This designer baby will be part of the elite contrary to Vincent who will belong to the underclass because he isnt healthy. Becoming adult, Vincent dream of working in space but his parents shatter his dreams saying him he will never be able to do that because of his heart condition. In this society, you get a job according to your genes and not to your skills. So Vincent has a low-paid job, hes a cleaner. This film points the dangerous side-effects of progress and shows that it enhances discriminations. To conclude, we saw that progress can be dangerous and have a lot of consequences. Nowadays, science fiction has become a reality and the problem related to a possibility. However scientific progress can enable a giant leap for humankind as long as there is an ethical control.