Essay on Technology in Greg Bears Blood Music - 1491 Words

Technology in Greg Bears Blood Music Different genres of literature are particular responses to society; therefore, cyberpunk, as a genre, is a response to our contemporary society, known as the information age. One of the attributes given the genre is that it has an apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic tone, warning the reader of the perils of technology, while at the same time celebrating the possibilities of technology, usually through a strong character in the novel. In Greg Bears Blood Music, technology is seen as having a destructive and creative forces as it reshapes the world biologically, and incorporates every living thing, including a slow girl named Suzy, into the system. Blood Music demonstrates the perils and†¦show more content†¦Although the idea of having a world without sickness, age, and death seems appealing, Greg Bear approaches the idea from the what if perspective of something going wrong that could be detrimental to the whole of society. In Bears novel, Vergil, an ingenious scientis t, creates smart cells from his own body, going behind the experiments of his company which is trying desperately to develop the nanotechnology that we are trying to achieve in our own time, and creates natural cells that can think on their own to manipulate their environment and make it better. Only, when the cells realize the problems within the living system and begin to change things, it is more that Virgil bargained for. Each cell from every other living thing is incorporated and melted into an alternate society, making each cell sentient, but also part of a communal group, sharing DNA, and ultimately throughout the information transference, making each individual a part of the genetic whole. Because Virgils creation ended the world as we know it through the use of technology, it can be seen as the dark, forbidding text common to cyberpunk fiction. People are melting down into sheets of skin and cities are stopping like broken down cities, only to be enveloped by the floating masses of paper thin cells that think for themselves, and yet share information and thoughts indiscriminately. Each person is loosing a sense of themselves, breaking down into