Healey, Melissa. "An idle brain may be the self's workshop." Editorial. LA Times [Los Angeles, CA] 30 Aug. 2010. Latimes.com. 30 Aug. 2010. 28 Sept. 2010 http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-brain-20100830,0,479095.story.
When the brain is idle and reminiscing or thinking about the future, numerous brain cells activate at specific intervals. This causes different ways of thinking, and pinpointing these could help to discover why a person has Alzheimer's disease, depression, or schizophrenia. These different ways of thinking may also aid in the discovery of where a person's image of self is created and maintained. This source went along really well with Brave New World, mainly the section talking about the location of the image of self. If the scientists in the book could find the location of that, they wouldn't have to do conditioning for their entire childhood, just go in and take out that part of the brain.
Parker-Pope, Tara. "Raising I.Q. in Toddlers With Autism." NY Times 22 Dec. 2009. 28 Sept. 2010 http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/iq-boost-for-toddlers-with-autism/?scp=1&sq+behavioral%20conditioning&st=cse.
A new program has been developed to help young children with autism to develop increased I.Q. and listening skills. Through behavioral conditioning, the children begin to learn how to interact with people better and to learn more in learning situations. Several of the children in the program had increased I.Q. and had noticeably better listening skills, when compared to children who underwent the normal autism program. This source shows how the world is able to use behavioral conditioning to affect someones intelligence and possibly their view on the world, much like the way the conditioners did in Brave New World. This is like the skeleton of the program that all of the created children had to endure in BNW, and the source also shows how a program similar to this could actually work.
Clark, Gregory, and Gary Gardner. "China, India, and Malthus." Latimes.com. 8 May 2008. 03 Oct. 2010 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-gardner-clark8may08,0,3833567.story.
With the economies of once struggling nations, such as China and India, now booming and entering into the global consumption market, the previously scoffed at Malthusian theory may turn out to be true. Resources may be low-priced and abundant now, but if the population increases at the current rate, the resources needed for modern life, including grain and petroleum, may begin to be over-imported by some countries, leaving poorer countries left to fend for themselves. The after-effects of a natural resource shortage could cause countries to go to war over resources or produce such a sharp rise in prices that countries can not keep up, possibly causing another depression. On the other hand, the shift in abundance may just result in countries cutting back on some resources. Unless alternate sources of resources are found, the world may become what Malthus first described. This source relates to BNW in how it describes both the utopia and dystopias for the situation. Similar to the World Controller's discussion with John, the article talks about how the world can get through the resource shortages in a civilized way, and by the complete-collapse-of-society way. The BNW society chose the secret third option, by brain-washing everyone and choosing how much of the resources each person was going to need.
Gardner, Amanda. "'Magic Mushroom' Hallucinogen Might Help Cancer Patients." Usnews.com. 7 Sept. 2010. 3 Oct. 2010 http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/cancer/articles/2010/09/07/magic-mushroom-hallucinogen-might-help-cancer-patients.html.
A new study has shown that one of the main ingredients in hallucogenic mushrooms, psilocybin, has been proven to reduce the anxiety and lift the spirits of people suffering from advanced cancer. A single dose of the drug given to a group of twelve participants helped the cancer-suffers to feel calmer, allowing them to face end of life issues and to feel a closer connection to their families. The study also showed that no one involved in the experiment experienced a bad trip or had any adverse side-effects to the drugs. The drugs may also help the participants to ease back into normal life and carry-on without worrying about the illness, and therefore making the process of acceptance much more easier. In BNW, soma was used by all of the people for all situations, such as a night on the town or just going to sleep. This study seems like the first step to the civilization outlined in the book, with drugs being used to cope with everyday life, instead of trying to get through on their own. When more people find that they can survive situations by using chemical help, they will rely less and less on emotions, until emotions are no longer prominent in society.
Begley, Sharon. "My Alleles Made Me Do It: The Folly of Blaming Bad Behavior on Wonky DNA." Editorial. Newsweek.com. 14 June 2010. 4 Oct. 2010 http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-human-condition/2010/06/13/my-alleles-made-me-do-it-bad-behavior-blamed-on-wonky-dna.html.
More and more people throughout the United States are beginning to blame their health problems on factors out of their control: their genes. While many diseases, including certain types of cancer and diabetes, have been linked to certain genes, often a poor diet and lack of exercise can help to cause these conditions to occur. DNA mapping technology has led to many people discovering that they carry the genes linked to these conditions, and, because of this, many people have pursued ways to live healthier. Some, however, have not, and most of the individuals who do not pursue healthy lifestyles are usually the ones who have the problems, causing a massive shift in opinions of healthy lifestyles. This article relates to BNW in the way that the fertilizers in the Fertilizing Centers have the main job of giving the embryos all of the immunizations to prevent many of the diseases people suffer from now. To prevent a shift of people developing health problems like we have now, the controllers of the society set up standards for embryos and for diets for all of the people. This was mainly done to prevent a large group of workers from being able to work by insuring that they would always have good health.
