Through Gregor’s transformation into a worm in Kafka’s work, we explore the problem of how the development of science and technology in the modern world dehumanizes us and makes us incommunicable. It reflects on the dehumanization of modern people in the pursuit of efficiency and economy.
Gregor wakes up to find that he has become a bug. Transformed into a bug, Gregor is unwelcome in any place where humans are present, and is eventually rejected by his family, making him a surplus human being. If we take the story lightly by focusing on the ugly ‘bug’, it is nothing more than a bizarre novel, but if we consider who Gregor is in the society we live in, and whether we are Gregor or those who deny him, Kafka’s work becomes profound and heavy.
What does it mean to be a worm like Gregor in a society of advanced science and technology, where it has been shown that it is impossible for a human being to become a worm overnight? What does it mean to be different from others, to be unable to communicate anywhere? To find the answer, we need to look beyond the worm’s ugly exterior and observe the inner workings of a cold society that pursues efficiency and money.
Science and technology, developed in the name of efficiency and economics, have asked us to give up our humanity in exchange for the ability to work faster, and we have given it up too easily. Communication technologies have allowed us to reach more people more quickly, but at the expense of genuine human interaction, and efficient technologies have allowed us to do the same amount of work faster, but at the expense of doing more complex and voluminous work. Advances in lighting and computer technology have allowed us to work later and later, and “thanks to” them, office workers can be “efficient” by staying in the office past 11 p.m. instead of spending time with their families. The unimaginable advances in cell phone technology have also allowed us to connect with hundreds of people on a tiny screen instead of focusing on the one person in front of us. Needless to say, many young people now spend precious time in libraries to learn about the vast and great science and technology that has evolved from the past. Our embrace of science and technology has brought us efficiency and economy, but it has also brought us a new bridle on our humanity.
Reclaiming our humanity from the chilling side effects of science and technology means giving up some of the conveniences they provide. In a modern world that communicates in the language of science and technology, which seeks efficiency and economy in everything, it means speaking the language of humanity alone. In other words, it means transforming ourselves into something different from the image of humanity that is tailored to modern society. However, as soon as we take a step back from science and technology and efficiency and economy in order to regain our humanity, we become bugs like Gregor in society.
When we refuse to be the most efficient part of a company that pursues scientific efficiency and technological economics like a giant machine, when we refuse to work overtime to find our humanity, we are seen by our employers as a bug that cannot communicate, and when we lose our jobs and sit in our rooms, we become a bug to our families. And when we take a few hours away from our phones to escape the oppression of communication technology, our acquaintances will criticize us for being late in replying to messages, and when this is repeated, we become like Gregor, unable to communicate anymore.
That’s why we can’t transform. We are afraid of becoming bugs, so we still believe in the convenience of technology. “Technology to enhance human life” Underneath, our humanity is not being expressed, and we are not taking care of our individual lives in favor of “science to ensure a better tomorrow”. We are failing to talk about humanity in a language other than science and technology.
Gregor felt that his life was wrong, that he needed to change his life of “functioning” as a part of a company, as a member of a formal family. He would have tried to reclaim his humanity, to find the humanity that had been buried in a society of science and technology. Instead, Gregor awoke one morning from a disturbing dream to find that people treated him as a hideous bug.
In Kafka’s novel, 100 years after Gregor’s transformation into a bug, the meaning of individual humanity is being eroded by the complexity of science and technology. To regain our humanity, we will have to transform. But will we not wake up the morning after our transformation and find ourselves as bugs? For those of us who can’t go a day without speaking to a human being or a day without looking at a cell phone screen, a transformation that doesn’t turn us into a bug seems like a stretch.
