Both of Ray Bradbury’s stories, The Veldt and There Will Come Soft Rains are about smart houses and how they could go wrong. The Nursery in The Veldt, ends up killing the parents who bought it for their children (The Veldt 13). The House in There Will Come Soft Rains, continues its routine for no one, until a fire destroys it (There Will Come Soft Rains 5). However, while the two stories’ ultimate plots are different, the implications of the technology in them are similar. This implication is that Technological Malevolence is simply Human Malevolence acting through apathetic technology.
In The Veldt, the smart house is seemingly malevolent. Not only does it kill the parents, it also refused to change the setting when the father had asked earlier (The Veldt 6). But the house is not inherently malicious. The children, who resented their parents, turned it into a weapon with their thoughts (The Veldt 11). The implication is that a technology is not inherently malevolent, rather people display their malevolence through it.
This concept is carried over into There Will Come Soft Rains, where the house is apathetic to the existence of humans (There Will Come Soft Rains 1). It doesn’t feel any ill will or concern for the missing family (There Will Come Soft Rains 1). This apathy is demonstrated through its attitude towards the dog (There Will Come Soft Rains 2). It does not try to help the dog or hurt the dog (There Will Come Soft Rains 2). However, human malevolence through technology is shown in the story. This malevolence takes the form of whatever destroyed the family and the surrounding city. Because, the city is described as displaying “a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles”, this technology is implied to be a nuclear bomb (There Will Come Soft Rains 1).
Nuclear Energy, like the Nursery or the House, has no morality. An atom splitter doesn’t care whether it is destroying a city or powering a hospital, it just does what humans want it to do. Humans are the ones that use it for malevolence. In both of these stories, the technology featured is not inherently malevolent, but humans make into a force for destruction.
This idea is contrary to modern science fiction, where most of the time technology becomes malevolent even if the creators only had the best intentions. I think the concept of humanity corrupting apathetic technology applies to two recent inventions that work together and are changing the world, the Internet and Machine Learning. That is not to say, that the internet or Machine learning are now used entirely for malevolent purposes, but people with malevolent intentions will make use of them for these purposes. The ways these inventions are used for malevolent purposes differ. The Internet is used for malevolent intentions through giving any person with dangerous ideas, an instant and free megaphone. Machine Learning is used for malevolent intentions through giving any group the ability to target their message to specific people, with anyone else being left out of the loop. It used to be that when you wanted to communicate with a lot of people, you had to do it in full view.
The result of these two technologies working together is the ability for dangerous people to find many other people with similar ideas. This turns a scattering of people with like-minded ideas, into a community which has the power to inflict change on a massive scale. The worst part is all of this, happens in secret because of the ability of Machine Learning to target only the people you want to know about your ideas. Luckily, technology being apathetic applies the other way around. People with benevolent intentions will also use it for their purposes. For example, The Internet has been used spread democrat ideas across the globe and Machine Learning can be used to create new therapies for illnesses. Hopefully, the effects of these technology will balance out between malevolent and benevolent. But, an eye should be kept on the uses of these technologies.
Bradbury, Ray The Veldt Illustrated by Johnson, Geoff September 23, 2011 geoffjdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/TheVeldtGeoffJohnson1.pdf Accessed On January 26, 2021
Bradbury, Ray There Will Come Soft Rains Published January 25th 2013 https://www.btboces.org/Downloads/7_There%20Will%20Come%20Soft%20Rains%20by%20Ray%20Bradbury.pdf Accessed January 26th 2021
Science in HD “Nuclear Bomb Picture” Published November 11, 2019 https://unsplash.com/photos/MAoGpZ42NZM Accessed January 26th 2021
