Swift’s use of satire and science fiction to ask: Why invent that?

As someone who enjoys reading both satire and science fiction, I absolutely love Jonathan Swift’s novel, Gulliver’s Travels. Published in 1726, it soon became a famous—if not infamous—satire on modern European nations. What’s more, Gulliver’s Travels also became notable as what’s arguably the first science fiction novel ever written (at least in the West).

The sci-fi elements of the story—together with its satirical bite—stand out distinctly in Part Three of the book. Here, the protagonist of the story, Lemuel Gulliver, travels to a flying island (Laputa), tours the kingdom it rules over (Balnibari), and visits is Grand Academy (Lagado). It’s in the Grand Academy where Gulliver meets some of the world’s most elite, ivory-tower inventors.

And yet, during this visit, Gulliver finds all their technological innovations to be absurdly impractical, if not ridiculous. In this way, Swift combines satire and science fiction to ask a simple question: Why would someone invent that?

Swift’s satirical science fiction and the Grand Academy of innovation

For instance, when Gulliver enters the Grand Academy, he meets an inventor trying to extract sunbeams from cucumbers. Why invent a technology that can extract sunlight from vegetables? By doing so, the inventor hoped, after years of hard work, to store a large supply of sunlight … which he could sell to gardeners around the world … who could then use it to grow vegetables. Huh?

Here’s how this scene plays out in the novel (from Chapter V, Part Three):

The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places. His clothes, shirt, and skin, were all of the same colour. He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sun-beams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. He told me he did not doubt in eight years more he should be able to supply the Governor’s gardens with sunshine at a reasonable rate; but he complained that his stock was low, and entreated me to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for cucumbers.

From this point on in the story, the inventions just get more useless—and bogus. For example, Gulliver meets an inventor who’s trying to transform ice into gunpowder. He meets another inventor who’s contemplating how to soften marble into pillows. And he meets yet another inventor who’s working hard to turn human excrement back into its original food form.

OK, that last one is pretty gross! But Swift’s use of satirical science fiction is more than gratuitous potty humor. It’s about getting us to question how useful (or useless) our technological innovations will be for other human beings.

Swift’s use of satire and science fiction to question technological innovation

For instance, I often imagine how Swift would react to some of the latest technological innovations, such as cryptocurrency. Initially, I was wondering (á la Neil Postman): For what problem is this new blockchain-based technology a solution? Well, the promise of cryptocurrency is to allow people to make financial transactions without an intermediary, such as a bank.

Except there’s a problem. If you want to buy or sell cryptocurrencies, you’ll need access to something known as a crypto exchange. What’s a crypto exchange? It is, in effect, an intermediary. Specifically, it’s an intermediary that lets you exchange one currency (say, the U.S. dollar) for another (like bitcoin).

However, if you need an intermediary to exchange cryptocurrency—which is supposed to let you make financial transactions without having to access an intermediary—then what’s the point of inventing a cryptocurrency? (By the way, that’s just one of several unresolved questions about cryptocurrency.)

A final note on questioning technological innovation

In conclusion, I think Swift was onto something in his use of satire and science fiction to ask: Why would someone invent that? Nevertheless, let me offer a final point of clarification about this question.

Questioning why we would invent something in particular is NOT to discourage technological innovation in general. Innovation will happen whether we want it or not, because creativity is an intrinsic part of our humanity. Moreover, we will always have to innovate, because times change, and we often need novel solutions for new problems. Innovation is how we adapt to changing times.

Still, it’s crucial to ask the why question to ensure innovation solves real-world problems. Simply put, we should create technologies that truly improve people’s lives. The reason we ought to frequently ask questions about technological innovation is not to kill it. It’s to make sure we innovate and design new technologies in ways that serve human—and humane—ends.