When speaking about World War I and World War II, it is often said that "technology benefited while mankind suffered". While stating that technology was the sole cause in the deaths of millions of men, women, and children in both World Wars would be oversimplifying the subject, it is safe to say that utilization of key techonlogical breakthroughs did contribute to the slaugter.  It is in this sense that technology is capable of becoming a double edge sword of sorts. Technology can be used to beneift mankind and serve the greater good; however, it is that very same technology that can also cause harm when placed in the wrong hands. With regards to technology, man has two options. One hand, man is fully capable of creating and utlizing technology that will benefit many. Technology has produced medical breakthorughs that allow mankind to live healthier, longer lives. Disease once thought incurable are now routine procedures. However, as both history and literature reveal, technology does not always show itself in such a positive light.  Advances in technology have also created weapons of mass destruction, capable of decimating all living things. It was once reported in Time Magazine that the United States alone possesses enough aresenal to destroy every living being on earth. Thankfully, the world has managed to avert nuclear war for the time being; however, both the historical and literary realms clearly demonstrate technology's immense potential for malicious purposes.  Both Aldous Huxley's timeless novel Brave New World and the aforementioned World Wars showcase the utlization of technology for negative purposes.
	Aldous Huxley's Brave New World appears, at first glance, to be a Utopian society. Every individual appears happy on the surface. People live in a society that is virtually free of crime, poverty, sickness, and even sadness. People no longer fear the dark grip of death; futhermore, modern science has even come up with a way to combat the effects of aging. Women no longer have to worry about unwanted pregancies; both women and men are free to choose from a plethora of sexual partners. To quote one of the novel's primary characters, Lenina Crowe, "Everyone's happy nowadays"(Huxley 34). The reader's initial perception of such a society is most likely in a positive light; however, the reader draws a different conclusion by the end of the novel. While at first it does appear that the society in Huxley's Brave New World utilizes technology for the greater good, closer analysis reveals the that those who maintain the "perfect society" do so through devious means. In Brave New World, "controllers" dicate virtually every move of any given member of society. The rapid proliferation of technology has allowed the controllers to create a seemingly perfect world; however, the reader soon learns that the ends fall far short of justifying the means. 
	In order to fully understand the world Huxley portrays, one must delve further into the novel. One key element in mainting order in Huxley's Brave New World is the establishment of certain "social classes". These classes draw their names from the first five letters of the Greek alphabet, ranging from "Alpha" to "Epsilon" in decending order. The "Alphas" are essentilaly the upper class or well educated members of society. They are both physically and mentally superior to all classes below them. Their jobs are most often in the preofessional or literary fields, such as psychiatry or writing. It is important to note that Huxley does not give any examples of female Alphas in the novel, so it is assumed that all Alphas in socieyt are male. One step below the Alphas are the "Betas", who have jobs such as nurse or factory worker. While they are not as smart as the Alphas, they still posess above average intelligence and physical characteristics. All classes below the Betas are cosidered sub classes. As one moves down from "Gamma" to "Epsilon", the individuals become mentally dull and physically strong. "Episons" generally perform the more menial tasks of society. The society in Brave New World is generally a pyramid strcuture, with Alphas residing on top and the more numerous Epsilon class residing at the very bottom of the pyramid. While the class structure in itself is not inherently evil, the way in which such classes are established is.

	In Brave New World, social classes are predetermined at birth. Several key breakthroughs in technology allow children to be "produced" in massive factories called "hatcheries". Workers harvest ovaries from viable females and fertilize the eggs within. Alpha eggs move on in separate "decanting" tubes and recieve the proper nurishment thorught their gestation period. The lower class eggs recieve different treatment. In a method known as "Bokanovsky's Prcess", multiple embryos spring forth from one egg, producing dozens of identical individuals. Next, the resulting eggs recieve little nourishment and drugs to stunt growth and intelligence. Such a method of "mass producing" children results in the destruction of the family unit. Indeed, members of society view the words "mother" and "father" as appalling. To them, vivparous reproduction is a disgusting process. THe complete and utter obliteration of any remainign vestiges of the family unit is a tool of the government. Without the family, citiazens have little to model ther interpersonal relationships on; thus, all relationships in Brave New World are nothing more than physical. THe memebrs of society instead become free from any emotional attatchment to anoyone or anything. 
	After the infants are "born", they move on to nursries where they recieve their first taste of what will be a lifetime of conditioning.  Utilizing a special techinique called hypnopaedia, the controllers are capable of trainign children while in their sleep. In the following passage, Beta children are subjected to a hypnopaedic statement while they sleep.
	
	"Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm awfully glad I'm a Beta, 	because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, 	and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. and Epsilons are still 	worse. They're too stupid to be 	able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I'm so glad I'm a Beta" (Huxley 27).

Technology allows world controllers to reinforce hate and prejudice from an early age. Children repeat hypnopaedic slogans until they become part of their everday use. The government essentially replaces actual "thought" with hynopaedic slogans. As the novel progresses, the reader observes that characters in the socieyt have a seemingly endless supply of these slogans for almost every concievable situation. With daily repitition, Beta children eventually "learn" to have an innate hatred and dislike for all classes below them. Another example of the utilization of technology in a negative manner for conditioning can be found in the same chapter. 

"The swiftest crawlers were already at their goal. Small hands reached out uncertainly, touched, grasped, unpetaling the transfigured roses, crumpling the illuminated pages of the books. The Director waited until all were happily busy. Then, 'Watch carefully,' he said. And, lifting his hand, he gave the signal. The Head Nurse, who was standing by a switchboard at the other end of the room, pressed down a little lever. There was a violent explosion. Shriller and ever shriller, a siren shrieked. Alarm bells maddeningly sounded. The children started, screamed; their faces were distorted with terror. 'And now,' the Director shouted (for the noise was deafening), 'now we proceed to rub in the lesson with a mild electric shock' (Huxley 32). 
Such "conditioning" teaches the "Gamma" children to loathe both books and nature. Conditioning serves as a negative force which subdivides the so called "perfect" society into several distinct classes. In this case, children are essentially tortured simply to reinforce behaviors that will benefit the economy. It is in this sense that the technology in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, serves not as a positive force, but rather as a sort of negative demoralizing force. As Mustafa Mond, the resident World Controller so aptly states, children are conditioned "Till at last the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too-all his life long. The mind that judges and desire and decides-made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions... Suggestions from the State" (Huxley 93). The government in Brave New World uses tecnology to manipulate every member in that society into fitting certain roles and patterns of behavior. Thus, the society becomes less of a utopia and more of a distopia. 
	As the narrative of the novel unfolds, the reader learns that even the games in the society are controlled by the government. "Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It's madness. Nowadays the Controllers won't approve of any new game unless it can be shown that it requires at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games" (Huxley 80). The true purposes of games in Brave New World is not to entertain people, but rather to force them to buy expensive and complciated equipment to bolster economic growth. 	
	Another prime example of the gross misspplication of technology in Aldous Huxley's novel is the use of a wonder drug named "soma". As one character states, "Christianity without tears— that's what soma is" (Huxley 92). Soma is essentially a drug that allows users to achieve a mind altering high with none of the negative side effets associated with other drugs such as marijuana and mehtamphetamine. The government distrubutes weekly soma rations to all classes. The implementation of hypnopaedia encourages members of society to take so called "soma holidays" by taking multiple doses of soma. Soma is essentially happiness in pill form; thus, the use of soma cheapens teh human set of emotions. "People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get...And if anything should go wrong, there's soma" (Huxley 220).  Through soma, users are able to experience euphoric happiness at any given moment, without any negative consequences. Users of such a drug become dependent on its effects. This leaves the society members of Brave New World on the emotional level of children, for they seldom or never experience the opposite side of emotions. With all happiness must come sadness, with joy must come sorrow, and with love there must be pain. Without experiencing these emotions firsthand, people on all class levels are emotionally stunted individuals. Soma, along with a virtually unlimited amount of sexual partners, provides the individuals with a sort of "instant gratification".  
	Through the use of technology, World Controllers have been able to create a world free of all forms of suffering and pain, but at what cost? Religion is sacrificed in favor of technology. Carnal knowledge serves a substitute for the true emotional bond of love. Art and poetry have been discarded in favor of literature that is nothing more than mindless dribble and government propaganda. The citizens of this "Brave New World" have little or no freedom, despite evidence to the contrary. It is true that their actions are uninhibited by any sort of direct policing force; however, thier actions are limited not only by other members of society, but by their conditioning as well. In this sense, most "individuals" in this novel are not really individuals at all, but rather mindless groups of drones whose main function is to ensure that the society continues to exist. The government regulates not only the actions of individuals, but also their very thoughts. Those who deviate from the well worn path are shipped off to a remote location and never heard from again. It is through these immense sacrifices that memebrs of the Brave New World society, regardless of whether they are aware of it or not, are able to maintain a so called "social stability".  However, the question arises, does the end result justify the horriffic means that were used to achieve it? The answer is a clear and concise "no". The result of a stable society does not justify the ultimate sacrifice of an individual's own freedom. 
	A similar question can be posed with regards to the first and second World Wars. Was the possiblility of peace enough to justify the deaths of nearly an entire generation of men in World War I, or the nearly 61 million deaths in World War II? Regardless of the justification of the wars themselves, the fact reamains that much like Brave New World, both World Wars displayed the negative impact of technology upon members of society. The vast majority of the technological advancements during both conflicts served not to help mankind, but rather to harm it. 
	World War I is a prime example of the use of technology to harm man. During World War I, the machine gun became a staple of modern warfare. For the first time in history, one man armed with a single machine gun was more powerful than an entire platoon of men. Ironically, the inventer of one of the worlds' first machien guns was a denitst. The "Gatling Gun" , named after inventor Richard Gatling, was produced during the American Civil War. Ironically. Gatling sincerely believed his invention would end war by making it unthinkable due to the horrific potential for carnage that his weaponry posed. As time passed, the doctor would realize that this was not at all the case. The machine gun escalated the death count to numbers that were previously unheard of. In the battle of the Somme, the British alone suffered nearly 420,000 deaths. In the battle of Verdun, the French army suffered nearly 550,000 casualties. The implementation of the machine gun completely transformed the rules of engagement. Trench warfare became standard practice and would continue to be the preffered method of battle throughtout the remainder of the war. The all powerful machine gun created a "no man's land" between the two opposing trenches; moreover, merely attempting to set foot in no man's land almost always meant certain death. 
	Among other deadly technological advancements during this war was the phosgene gas. This newly created chemical  acted by forming as hydrochloric acid once inhaled into the lungs. Such a gas provides the recipient with a rather painful and untimely death. Also important were the German named "Unterseeboots" or U-boat submarines. The German submarine fleet was capable of sinking millions of tons of Allied shipping and killing thousands of innocent civillians in the process. 
	Perhaps the most poignaint example of the use of technology for malicious purposes occurred during the second World War.  On August 6, 1945 the United States drops "Little Boy", an atomic bomb on the unsuspecting residents of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, a similar bomb falls upon the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Estimates reveal that one single bomb was capable of killing nearly 140,000 people. Countless more eventually suffer from the harmful effects of radiation. 

It is increasingly important to note that technology itself is not inherently evil. Through the use of the the power of the atom, doctors and scientists have devised new methods of treating cancer and providing clean, efficient power to millions of households across the globe. However, it is that very same atom that is capable of destroying countless multitudes of people in an instant. Technology has both the power to heal and the power to harm. As evidenced in both Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and World Wars One and Two, technology has the awful potential for harm and destruction. Overwhelmingly, the decision of whether or not technology can harm people is ultmately the choice of those who wield it.