Technology In The Pedestrian By Ray Bradbury

The Role of Technology

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will be a generation of idiots.” - Albert Einstein. This statement came true in the short story The Pedestrian, written by Ray Bradbury. In The Pedestrian Leonard Mead was different than everyone else; he didn’t let technology overcome his life, but everyone else did. The misuse of technology lead to a distinct society. As a result, the community became anti-social and judged Mr. Mead’s individualism and beliefs.

Technology affected the people in the future so badly that they wouldn’t even go for a walk, they always drove. Furthermore, no one went outside at night. The narrator describes, “And on his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard” (174). No one was outside interacting, they were all in their homes on their electronics. More specifically, it was always quiet and lonely on the streets at night. As the narrator mentions, “The street was silent and long and empty, with only his shadow…” (174). The thinking pattern in the future

For instance, they judged Mr. Mead when he was walking outside at night. The robotic voice asked “Walking, just walking, walking?” (176). The police car, run by technology alone, was stunned when Mr. Mead said that that was all he was doing outside while it was interrogating him. In the same way, it was thought to be unusual to just take a walk for no reason, so the voice told him get in the back seat of the car. The vehicle speaks to him saying that it is bringing him “...To the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.” (176). The way technology was used in the future made it seem that Mr.Mead was a lunatic, which is why the police car was taking him to a research center. In brief, technology made Mr. Mead look insane and far from the