A Technopoly is basically, as Postmann describes it, totalitarian technocracy. In other words, a society that is concerned with efficiency more than it is concerned with traditional beliefs and morals. This is the best description of Huxley's Brave New World since one of the grand narratives of that novel is progress. As Bernard and Lenina are on their way to the Savage Reservation, Lenina states, "...progress is lovely..." (Huxley 100). And such is apparently so in reality. As we exponentially become innovative in our ways, we exponentially become detached from our traditional beliefs slowly becoming a Brave New World.
The lack of morals in Brave New World is also what contributes to its technopolostic nature. For example, the idea of "everybody belonging to everybody" is a grotesque ideology to live by and thus it describes what Postman fears about America becoming a technopoly: whether or not America can retain some morality in the process of becoming one if it already hasn't. In fact, the idea of everybody fulfilling everyone's desires seems almost Freudian, and the fact that Freud uses science to explain our behavior is also an example of a Technopoly. In Freud's mind, love is nothing but hormones and science and can therefore be manipulated. In fact, love in Brave New World is an means to an erotic end. This idea even extends to the so called "children" of Brave New World where they frolic in the playground and engage in erotic play. Huxley's portrayal of children engaging in erotic play may be an exaggeration to some, but it is a clear warning of the side effects of a technopoly.
Another component of a Technopoly is an obsession with efficiency. In the World State, people truly never die. They may decay physically but they will forever live in existence in the process of what is called "Phosphorous Recovery" (Huxley 73). But to be efficient would mean to be free of error, and therefore humans are not fit for the role of efficiency: the alternative would be to resort to the use of machines then. Then again, virtually everyone in Brave New World is a human machine, engineered and predestined to do what they were made to do without the having the ability to make the choice at all. Frederick Taylor wrote a book called The Principles of Scientific Management which stated that the "primary goal of human thought and labor is efficiency" (Postman 51). In essence, what Taylor is describing the human population of Brave New World, the people are made with efficiency in mind and thus will make minimal errors. Minimal, because ,even though they are created for a narrow purpose, there is still a "human" deep down inside causing these errors. The Director, Bernard, and Helmholtz all share this characteristic. The Director with his intimate reminiscence of Linda; Bernard with his yearning to have a meaningful relationship with Lenina; Helmholtz with his desire to create something of Shakespeare's work without having to have violated World State laws. But according to Frederick Taylor even human machines won't be enough to fully establish efficiency for there is still a human element and therefore "...technical calculation...is superior to human judgment...because it is plagued by laxity,ambiguity, and unnecessary complexity" (Postman 51).
Postman's view on technological advancement seems to contrast greatly with that of Kurzweil's. Postman views this progression as foreboding, and he basically describes the lost of humanity in From Technocracy to Technopoly. But Kurzweil, he on the other hand is obsessed with the future of the Singularity, the moment when man and machine will become one. Kurzweil knows that there is some risk involved with the Singularity such as dissent arising from the "Luddites" and other opponents and counterarguments which criticize the fusion of man and machine.
In the end, Neil Postman's book greatly, in fact almost exactly, describes Brave New World in terms of efficiency and the lost of human morals and other things. We can only predict what will happen in the future. Only time can tell whether or not earth will become a brave new world.
