Modern America is brimming with technology that serves us at our will. Phones, drones, microwaves, cars, planes, and trains are all examples. It is evident that these ‘advancements’ are deeply embedded in nearly all aspects of our culture. We truly have become the gods in a mechanical world. Technology exists to serve us. Ray Bradbury warns us to be wary of our technologies, and illustrates that they hold no value if we allow them to overcome us. While we are continually creating, it is important to realize the limits of our technologies, and to know when to stop—before we no longer have the option.
In his futuristic fable, “There Will Come Soft Rains,” Bradbury writes: “The gods had gone away and the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly.” Within the context of the story, this statement is in acknowledgement of the robotic, automated house that continues to function although its human keepers have been dead for some time. The ‘gods’ he refers to are human beings and the ‘ritual of the religion’ is technology’s continual service to humanity. Creating this analogy implies that technology worships us by loyally serving us. This is further evidenced when Bradbury says, “The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs,” as the attendants are the many mechanical devices throughout the house that were designed to pamper the humans that once lived there. His depiction of the house continuing to frantically serve the nonexistent humans greatly embodies that “the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly.” In this manner, the fable provides a clear picture of just how pointless technology is without humans for it to serve. The house outlived its ‘gods,’ and without them it served no purpose whatsoever.
When Bradbury wrote “There Will Come Soft Rains, in 1950, America was amidst a frantic rat race of manufacturing, and many new technologies were beginning to surface and enter peoples’ lives. It was at this time that technology was first beginning to largely have an influence on both America and Americans. Among these technologies were weapons, fueling the Cold War between America and the Soviet Union. Bradbury’s fable was clearly written as a warning to be cautious of the many developments that were rapidly being implemented. He makes it evident that the humans that once lived in the house were killed by a nuclear explosion—which is a form of technological advancement. This illustrates the dangers that come with technology. It is our servant, so it will do whatever we ask of it, even if that means that it may eventually destroy us or the world around us. This is the condition that America and the rest of the world are approaching, not because of weapons, but due to the uncontrolled expansion of our technologies into nearly every aspect of our culture.
More technological developments require more materials and more energy, which means more resources to be extracted from our planet for exploitation. Today, America and all of humanity face global climate change, which can largely be attributed to the advancement of our many technologies. However, climate change means more than just the melting of artic ice. The predicted climate shift will result in the deaths of livestock animals that cannot survive the warmer temperatures, rising sea levels that will flood many coastal and island regions, and the depletion of crop yields as areas become warmer and drier. These effects will then cause other effects, such as famine, riots, and war. All of these consequences, and many more, threaten the human race. Some researchers even predict large depletions in global population that may approach human extinction. While these facts are well known by many scientists, the public refuses to “go green” or change policies to better preserve the condition of our planet. Humans remain ignorant to the issue, continuing to amplify the climate change process.
Humanity has not been cautious with our technologies, and now we are approaching a critical point in the history of the world. Have we become so used to being the ‘gods’ of technology that we have forgotten that nature is the ‘god’ over us? We have almost allowed our technology to overcome us and the rains of change are just over the horizon. It is now important that we realize that we have reached our limit. We need to stop and gain control of our technologies—before they no longer have any ‘gods’ to serve.
“There Will Come Soft Rains” — Ray Bradbury, 1950
Where The Blacktop Ends 