Sunday, March 10, 2013

What Was the Author Attempting to Teach His Audience?

Some of the themes we noticed after reading the Andromeda Strain were:

  • The danger of technology.  The Project Scoop (designed by the army) was designed to find new biological agents that could be beneficial in designing sophisticated new technology.  But if we can't control the foreign agents, how can they be utilized as weaponry? In the end, the hope of designing high-level weaponry only endangered its own people.
  • Man vs. Nature.  The arrival of the Andromeda Strain was a true look at the disadvantage man has against a foreign substance.  The Scoop scientists had to race the andromeda strain to figure out what was happening before it attacked them.  The quick mutation rate of andromeda was a potentially fatal factor for the team.
  • Human Error.  The first example of human error is displayed when the townspeople in Piedmont, Arizona bring the Scoop capsule to the doctor, and he makes the unadvised decision to open it.  If he had contacted the army, the deaths of almost all the townspeople could have been avoided.  Another nearly fatal error was that a substation was not placed in every corridor of the lab, creating a huge problem for Hall when he has to find a way to disengage the bomb.  

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