Analysis of Hannah Arendt's Essay The Conquest of Space and the Stature of Man

Hannah Arendt questions whether man’s stature has improved or declined in the pursuit of space technology and exploration of the universe. “The Conquest of Space and the Stature of Man”, is an essay written by Arendt which adresses this very complex question and it gives many points on both positive and negative connotations of human improvement throughout time and space. Many other peices read throughout class can be seen as answers to this question because in many cases, most art and writing sends a personal message or interpretation on physical and mental ideas.

For example, the peice that I feel answered this question the best throughout class was “Autofac”. I feel this peice perfectly portrays my argument that technology success and improvements can be extremely dehumanizing to the overall well being of the human race. It’s hard to comprehend that improvement of anything can be detremental. However, I feel the majority of the time for success to come in an area of this universe it must come at a cost of change for every other being interacting in the same place. Essentially, all life on earth is effected by the actions of each other no matter what evidence is suggested because many negatives are overlooked for improvement of others.

The question of whether man’s stature has increased or decreased with technology is an intricate statement because many people would argue for both sides based on personal experience, or personal research. How can human’s be worse off if technology is constantly improving? The complications that come along with industrialization and factories are clear indications that many people are unfairly treated for the owners of corporate businesses and corrupt militaries. I feel that many people who are even able to give an opinion on this topic do not realize that they themeselves are amongst the smalles population on earth. This group in our world population has access to clean water, disposable income, clean agriculture, and constant technological upgrades that only they are able to obtain. Believe it or not, these are the people who give the most opinions on subjects based around improvement because it effects them the least.

If someone that were in wealthy America were to be taken from there home randomly, only to be removed from there remote family to work as a slave in the local factory. This is a commonality for people working in the third world and billions of others. These people are keeping the world running and the constant suffering in certain areas all across the earth are examples of the chasing of success being horrific. Adolf Hitler is a significant example of somebody wanting technology to be improved so vastly that they were willing to take the lifes of millions for the success and improvement of a small group of people.

This is obviously an extreme example, but this scenario is very similar to the occurances in the peice Autofac, by Phillip K. Dick. In this story, the world is completly drained of natural resources because the setting takes place multiple years after the story is even written. The world that this story posesses is very similar to our present because it is completely ruled by corporate profit and elite-based wealth. Although, the autofacs are known to preserve and create life after war, it is still only driven by the idea of sales and creating new units to consume product.This is the opposite of what Hitler’s ideas, but in the end, it was all for personal wealtha and gain. It’s also an example of a small group searching only for themselves having a large effect on the lives of people below them.

“The planetwide network of automatic factories was smoothly performing the task imposed on it five years before, in the early days of the Total Global Conflict”(Dick 204).The story Autofac answers the question of whether technological advancement increases or decreases the stature of man in a negative way that I personally agree with. I’ve witnessed myself and millions of other people have there lives almost taken over already by these technologically advanced devices and agriculture. The majority of the earth works in a factory or large scale farm environment which produces mass ammounts of products for the profit of large corporate companies. This is just because these companies and people are willing to base there production outside of there country to decrease taxes and overall cost, as well as give millions jobs.

Seems like a very flawless idea on paper, but when you look into the shortcuts that many of these companies are willing to take, it shows that many of them have very little care for life other than their own. For example, many factories in China get away with not paying some workers on time or under wage. All for the main reason that they know if the workers quit or get frustrated, they will be unable to find work elswhere. It is an awful cycle that many wealthy parts of Earth and especially the United States are responsible for. I feel in a way we are almost witnessing the Autofac everyday because of these constant improvements and destruction of the natural world.

The story follows a group of men who are being completely controlled by the autofac technology. At this point humans are so weak compared to machines that they are at the mercy of the machines labor and humans must consume its resources to survive because the overgrowth of technology destroyed nature. “They were like wild animals. Eating roots and larvae. Sharpening rocks, tanning hydes. Savagery, bestiality”(Dick 221). These humans live in conditions they feel helpless in and this relates to the current poverty situation on our earth. So many people in poverty resort to drugs and insanity because they feel they will never find a way out.

This is the reality for the success of technology and overall man-kind in some places on earth. It is very scary to read something like this when you realize it was written over fifty years ago and seems to be slowly predicting our current future. Obviously we are not close to being enslaved by machines, but many of us cannot keep our eyes or minds off our devices everyday. Personally, I feel it is very hard to not use our devices everyday and to not consider them a part of us as humans would be improper because of the way we feel without them.

In conclusion the stature of man decreases with the conquest of space and the purisuit of technology. This is because the consequences of abusing power and technology for many people are to grand and can cause the loss millions of lives as it has in recent history. But this progression will probably not stop and whether lives will continue to be lost in pursuit of succes is unknown.