| The stories �The Cold Equation� by Tom Godwin and �The Pedestrian� by Ray Bradbury are different and the same. They are different by the vision of the future the authors have and the same by technology limiting the peoples freedom. The story �The Cold Equation� is set in the future where technology controls or has influence on the events in people�s lives. Technology prohibits the saving of Marilyn�s life because of the computer calculated amount of gas leaving no room for error. Also technology prohibits the Stardust from stopping at Mimir to save the lives of the people of the diseased group or Group 1. The technology also made Marilyn sad when she found out she had to die because of the limited amount of fuel. The other story, �The Pedestrian� is also in the future. In �The Pedestrian� most people stay home and watch TV. No one walks, you know this because Leonard Mead describes the side walks as being uneven and that plants growing over the sidewalk. Also there is one police car, and the single police car is controlled by a computer that determines the law. Also in �The Pedestrian� technology believed that Leonard was having regressive tendencies because he was walking, was not married, and wrote instead of watching TV , so the took him in for treatment. Both the stories �The Cold Equation� and �The Pedestrian� are visions of the future that are totally different from each other with technology as an influence, which are hopefully wrong, on the lives of people. If these visions are correct the future will be very sad. |
