One common way to evoke unease about modern science and technology is to say that humanity is headed toward a "brave new world." Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, first published in 1932, depicts a World State in which biological technology and psychological conditioning were used to make everyone feel happy all the time, but this was achieved by creating a mechanized world in which people were reduced to soulless animals. Much of the debate over science and technology has centered on the question of how to avoid such a "brave new world."

Huxley (1894–1963) was a prominent English novelist and essayist. Of his many novels, Brave New World is the one that is best known in the early twenty-first century. It reflects his interest in biological science, which he shared with his grandfather Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895), his brother Julian Huxley (1887–1975), and his friend J. B...