Is Knowledge a Burden? An Jurassic World and The Giver
Some people may think that having a vast amount of knowledge would be a good thing. Others, though, would argue that too much knowledge is not only a bad thing, but also a burden. There is an old phrase that says “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”, but does that apply to knowledge or skill? In the writer’s opinion this phrase is talking about knowledge and not skill since one must first know about a skill in order to acquire it. But, one must also have knowledge to not only better understand his skills but to make them better. In the world today, knowledge is a burden instead of a gift, most people who have the knowledge to create do not have the knowledge to realize how their creations will affect the world. In the movie series “Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic World” scientists decide to bring back dinosaurs by crossing bits and pieces of their DNA with bits of frog DNA.
They then put these new and improved dinosaurs on two deserted, private islands and make them into a park so people could come learn more about the once extinct species. But the scientists, with all of their knowledge, failed to foresee the future where the carnivorous dinosaurs would kill the guests. The scientists also failed to realize that the new dinosaurs would be able to change genders, thanks to the frog DNA they had in them, so they could reproduce more efficiently. This is an example of knowledge being used when the future outcome is relatively unknown.
The scientists did not foresee and plan on someone crashing the system, therefore, allowing the dinosaurs to run amuck of the visitors center, kill people, and them shut down both islands. They also did not look far enough to see that people would try to either enter an island or go near one, and because of this they did not take any precautions to keep people out. These events turn their knowledge in to a burden though since they ended up being the cause of numerous deaths and did more harm than good.
It is also true though that knowledge is not only a good thing, but a gift as welli Without knowledge doctors may not have found treatments or cures for certain diseases, people might not be able to carry a phone in their pockets, or drive across a state in a single day. With all of the advances in today’s society, why would knowledge be a burden or a bad thing? Without knowledge the world might still be stuck in the dark ages But, while this may be true, with phones that can go anywhere a person can go, people have become less social and their people skills are lacking as are their public speaking skills. With cars that drive fast and are almost as smart as humans, people have become less responsible, more reckless, and more dangerous on the road. Someone receiving a cure or treatment for a disease might just want to get that disease rather than live life with the crippling side effects of a drug or medicine.
This is because knowledge has enabled people to create medicine that saves lives, but does not necessarily make life easier. If knowledge cannot fix or at least prevent these issues, then how is it so great? It may be true that knowledge is a gift, but it seems that it is also harming society. There is also a book and movie called “The Giver” in which society believes in the philosophy of sameness. Sameness means that the climate never changes, nobody can see colors or hear music, there are never twins, only fifty children are born per year, everybody shares a birthday, and nobody gets to choose their own career. Basically, everyone is equal and not trusted to make choices for themselves since they might make the wrong one.
There is one exception to the rules though, and that is the Receiver of Memories. The Receiver is the person who has all of the memories from before sameness, but nobody else has or knows about these memories. This is an example of knowledge being a burden because there is only one person within several communities who holds thousands of memories, both good and bad, and cannot share them with anybody unless he is training a new Receiver. This is a burden because he holds knowledge that has built up over many years without being able to share with anyone. Because of this, he suffers from the pain held within the memories, depression, and loneliness. There is no medicine to help with those feelings though. Finally, the Receiver in training comes up with a plan to release his memories into the communities, so he just leaves.
This eliminates the burden of one person holding all the memories but adds the burden of having the community know all of the memories which they are not familiar with and can overwhelm them. In the world today, knowledge is a burden instead of a gift, most people who have the knowledge to create do not have the knowledge to realize how their creations will affect the world. If a person invents something that ends up negatively affecting society, then that person is burdened by the knowledge that they failed, but if they do not recreate their ideas then they are burdened by the “what ifs’. For these reasons the writer believes that knowledge is actually a burden on the complex human brain and can really only do more harm than good.
