'…progress is Lovely, isn’t it?' Life and Death in the 'Brave New World' after '1984'

The two most outstanding dystopian novels of the mid-twentieth century observe and anticipate technological development in relation to questions of human reproduction, sexuality and private life. In "1984", George Orwell envisions the potentials of audio-visual media to control and destroy all kinds of social relations, individual freedom, and privacy under the sway of a communist-type totalitarian regime. In this context, intimate sexual relations and mother love are perceived as the last sanctuaries of resistance against the grip of an oppressive military dictatorship - to be defeated in the end. In "Brave New World, Aldous Huxley portrays a more liberal, benevolent and even caring society under a no less totalitarian government. Huxley anticipates the possibilities of chemicals (drugs) to 'liberate' sexuality from procreation, to reduce pain and to produce pleasure, while at the same time fulfilling the nightmare of totalitarian governance: artificially, industrially produced individuals are 'born' into their places and functions in a hierarchically classified society without escape. Today, the two paths of technological innovation, the chemical/material enhancement of human bodies and the digital/immaterial advancement of social communications have reached a level that surpasses both Orwell's and Huxley's expectations by far. This contribution to the Panel will try to outline the interrelations between the revolutions of ICT and reproductive technologies in their impact on the social structure and the symbolic order. While progress may still look "lovely", the hazards of totalitarianism do not lie behind the present in the dark ages of the 20th century but ahead of us.