Andy Vogel
Dr. Adam Johns
ENGCMP 0200
1/11/09
The Greek god Prometheus substantially advanced human technology and knowledge by giving humans fire and teaching them arts and sciences. However, he did this by recklessly disobeying Zeus, the most powerful god in Greek mythology. As punishment, Prometheus was chained to a rock and had his liver eaten by an eagle every day and regenerated every night (“World Mythology Dictionary: Prometheus”). The dire consequences of Prometheus’ risky actions make him a poor model for future attainment of scientific knowledge and technology.
Prometheus’ story parallels Bill Joy’s essay Why the future doesn’t need us, where Joy predicts what will happen in a future with too much reliance on technology. Prometheus gave human civilization a huge boost in technology and knowledge but never told them how to use it ethically and safely. Because of this, humans began using their new technology to cause harm. Fire was the basis for many later inventions such as guns and bombs that made civilization suffer. Humans today are also discovering better technology without considering the safety and ethical concerns that accompany it. They are attempting to create extremely complex robots when, as Joy says, they “obviously have so much trouble making relatively simple things work” (Joy). Without a full knowledge of how the robots operate, creating them would be a dangerous endeavor. In fact, the new technology is so dangerous to society that the philosopher John Leslie believes that the risk of human extinction is at least 30% (Joy). The potential for accidental destruction that fire brought humans is also imitated on a much larger scale by the potential of 21st -century technology. Fire can destroy a town or forest through a careless mistake. An accident with self-replicating technology in the near future could destroy the whole world in a “gray goo problem” (Joy). Joy’s predictions show another similarity to Prometheus with his belief that humans will lose their freedom. While Prometheus was physically imprisoned by a chain, humans could become so dependent on machines that they become powerless and lose all freedom. The many similarities between Prometheus and the pessimistic predictions from Joy show that Prometheus would not be a good model for future technological advancement.
Parallels between Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Prometheus also show the danger of having Prometheus as a model for the future. Victor Frankenstein’s monster discovers fire just as Prometheus gave it to humans. The monster enjoys the warmth and better food that it provides but then burns himself. This symbolizes the ability of technology to both provide benefits and be a danger. Just as humankind obtained a large body of knowledge from Prometheus, Frankenstein discovers a huge part of science: the secret of life. Frankenstein realizes, however, that this new knowledge is actually bad. He says to Walton, “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.” Thus, an important part of future technological progress is knowing when additional knowledge is actually going to be harmful. There will reach a point where this occurs because, as Frankenstein says, “In other studies you go as far as others have gone before you, and there is nothing more to know; but in scientific pursuit there is continual food for discovery and wonder.” Prometheus, however, is a symbol of the unrelenting effort to discover truth because of the torture he endured after giving humans technology. While this makes him seem admirable, he can also be interpreted as a stubborn figure bent on creating technological progress for humans at all costs. For him, this meant dealing with Zeus’ wrath. For humans today, technological progress at all costs means gaining knowledge and implementing robots and other technologies until the planet is destroyed or humans are extinct. This shows that a Prometheus-like attitude for the future cannot be tolerated.
The simple fact that Prometheus suffered greatly for his actions should be enough in itself for humans to avoid his influence. If humans try to emulate his way of creating progress, they would be on a course for suffering as well. Also, the similarities of Prometheus’ story with Frankenstein’s sufferings and Joy’s dire predictions show that a future modeled on Prometheus would be extremely dangerous.
Works Cited
Joy, Bill. "Why the future doesn't need us".
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html.
"World Mythology Dictionary: Prometheus".
http://www.answers.com/topic/prometheus.
3 comments:
The arguments in your article are very well thought out and insightful, however, certain things can be changed to improve your paper, and make your arguments more clear and grounded.
First, the syntax and structure of your paragraphs follow a certain template that weakens the foundation of your paper. Your second and third paragraphs are divided.
Rather than write one paragraph comparing Joy’s article to Prometheus, and another paragraph contrasting Frankenstein to Prometheus, and then trying to bring it all together in the last paragraph… you should use the two stories in conjunction with one another to support one or two arguments. Your paper would be better if you articulately point out one or two arguments that have substance and depth.
Your argument questioning the ethical and safety of technology is very well supported, although near the conclusion of the paragraph you introduce an entirely new argument and don’t provide any literature to strongly support it. You say, “...another similarity… humans could become so dependent on machines that they become powerless…” This argument is completely nude. Your paper would be stronger if you omitted or elaborated on the latter point.
The paragraph where you contrast Frankenstein with Prometheus has some filler words that can be omitted to make your paper more fluid: “Frankenstein realizes that this new knowledge…” and “Prometheus is a symbol…” are clearer. Also, this is a matter of personal taste, it seems like you kind of digressed from your original argument of how pursuing technology is dangerous. There’s a really long conjunction in the middle about how Prometheus “is a symbol of the unrelenting effort to discover truth,” and then you transition to your original point that technological progress will result in planetary destruction and end to life as we know it. Again, I just felt something funky when I read this part.
The Greek god Prometheus substantially advanced human technology and knowledge by giving humans fire and teaching them arts and sciences. However, he did this by recklessly disobeying Zeus, the most powerful god in Greek mythology. As punishment, Prometheus was chained to a rock and had his liver eaten by an eagle every day and regenerated every night (“World Mythology Dictionary: Prometheus”). The dire consequences of Prometheus’ risky actions make him a poor model for future attainment of scientific knowledge and technology.
Prometheus’ story parallels Bill Joy’s essay Why the future doesn’t need us, where Joy predicts what will happen in a future with too much reliance on technology. Prometheus gave human civilization a huge boost in technology and knowledge but never told them how to use it ethically and safely. Because of this, humans began using their new technology to cause harm. Fire was the basis for many later inventions such as guns and bombs that made civilization suffer. Humans today are also discovering better technology without considering the safety and ethical concerns that accompany it. They are attempting to create extremely complex robots when, as Joy says, they “obviously have so much trouble making relatively simple things work.” Without a full knowledge of how the robots operate, creating them would be a dangerous endeavor. In fact, the new technology is so dangerous to society that the philosopher John Leslie believes that the risk of human extinction is at least 30% (Joy). The potential for accidental destruction that fire brought humans is also imitated on a much larger scale by the potential of 21st -century technology. Fire can destroy a town or forest through a careless mistake. An accident with self-replicating technology in the near future could destroy the whole world in a “gray goo problem” (Joy). Joy’s predictions show another similarity to Prometheus with his belief that humans will lose their freedom. While Prometheus was physically imprisoned by a chain, humans could become so dependent on machines that they lose their ability to make decisions (Joy). The many similarities between Prometheus and Joy’s pessimistic predictions show that Prometheus would not be a good model for future technological advancement.
Parallels between Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Prometheus also show the danger of having Prometheus as a model for the future. Victor Frankenstein’s monster discovers fire just as Prometheus gave it to humans. The monster enjoys the warmth and better food that it provides but then burns himself. This symbolizes the ability of technology to both provide benefits and be a danger. Just as humankind obtained a large body of knowledge from Prometheus, Frankenstein discovers a huge part of science, the secret of life, but realizes that this knowledge is actually harmful. He says to Walton, “You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been.” Thus, an important part of future technological progress is knowing when additional knowledge is going to be detrimental. Prometheus, however, is a symbol of relentless pursuit of truth. While this makes him admirable in some circumstances, he can be thought of as a stubborn figure willing to give humans technology at all costs. This attitude today means gaining knowledge and implementing robots and other technologies until the planet is destroyed or humans are extinct. This shows that a Prometheus-like model for the future cannot be tolerated.
The simple fact that Prometheus suffered greatly for his actions should be enough in itself for humans to avoid his influence. If humans try to emulate his way of creating progress, they would be on a course for suffering as well. Also, the similarities of Prometheus’ story with Frankenstein’s sufferings and Joy’s dire predictions show that a future modeled on Prometheus would be extremely dangerous.
Works Cited
Joy, Bill. "Why the future doesn't need us". 11 Jan. 2009 http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html.
"World Mythology Dictionary: Prometheus". 11 Jan. 2009 http://www.answers.com/topic/prometheus.
Albert - there are some great details and touches here, although I felt like you could have done a little more with the main argument as well.
Andy - One minor point about the intro: Prometheus was the one who suffered the consequences, but he did it *for* humanity. That doesn't necessarily make you wrong, but in my mind it complicates things a little.
The one strange thing in your basically reasonable discussion of Prometheus and Joy was that you didn't do anything with the fact that fire was given as a *positive* technology - you seem to single-mindedly ignore everything good emerging from fire (which was the reason why Prometheus gave it in the first place), or from the technologies that Joy fears. This makes your argument seem simplistic, especially as it develops.
Here's an interesting moment: "Prometheus, however, is a symbol of the unrelenting effort to discover truth because of the torture he endured after giving humans technology." I think there is a subtler argument kind of underneath your main (rather simplistic) argument here: that we value truth, and especially sacrifices to discover it, too much.
Anyway, there are interesting moments here - that quote really caught my eye - but my biggest impression here is that, while your argument is perfectly clear, it's also remarkably one-sided. Isn't suffering occasionally worthwhile? Don't you need to wrestle, at least a little bit, with some of the positive impact of technology (say, cooking and metal-working in the case of Prometheus, or massive medical advancements in the case of Joy)? You want to make your argument compelling, but to do that you typically need to wrestle with the other side as well.
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