Social Science Talks Science Fiction » Podcasts

In this episode, we discuss Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. What would society look like if we considered order the highest value to strive for? Treading the line between utopia and dystopia, Huxley developed a world in which people were mass-produced to high tolerances, everyone was content with their life of synthetic drugs and casual sex, and social tensions were at a minimum. But, it turns out, for some people that just isn’t enough. Having been considered by commentators as both a demonstration of Huxley’s authoritarian tendencies and a scathing critique of modern industrial society, Brave New World contains a portrayal of society that for many sits a little bit too close for comfort. Join us as we consider whether the ordered world of Huxley’s imagination was a prescient vision, or the projection of out-of date values onto a grand historical scale.

Contributors:

Alex Hoseason
Matthew Campbell
Dr. Michael Keary