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Technology's Greatest Ruination: A Sound Of Thunder, By Ray Bradbury

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Gavin Rogers Mrs. Ruiz English 102 8 April 2024 Technology’s Greatest Ruination A Sound of Thunder is a short story by Ray Bradbury in 1952. The story tells of a man named Eckles who aspires to travel to the past and shoot a dinosaur. Eckles goes to a business that provides this service called Time Safari Inc. Here Eckles meets a man by the name of Travis who, despite being an expedition leader for the business, attempts to convince Eckles that going on a hunt like this is not a wise idea. Despite his warning, Eckles still wants to travel to the past to shoot a dinosaur and pays the sum of $10,000 for the service of Travis and Time Safari Inc. Once they are in the past Travis again warns Eckles of the dangers of the past telling him to stay …show more content…

Eckles asks what would happen if he accidentally killed a mouse when Travis says, “That means all the future families of this one particular mouse are destroyed.infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction” (Bradbury 140). With the technological advancement of time travel, the dangers of the butterfly effect become present. Eckles initially presumed that accidentally killing a mouse wouldn't have an effect on anything similar to how not much is affected by the death of a mouse in the present. Eckles was wrong, however, that the death of such a mouse would affect the past because this mouse would never have children for millions of years. This would then cause a ripple effect through time, leading to no prey for larger animals. Through this example, one can see how time travel technology is dangerous not only for the past, but for the present and future as well. The theme in A Sound of Thunder is one that calls forth the thought-provoking ideas associated with the dangers of technology. Through its ideas of out-of-control possibilities, unforeseen endings, and the butterfly effect, technological hazards are presented through the tale of Eckles and Travis on their journey to hunt an ancient creature: a

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