The accelerating progress of technological advancements have significantly affected the way in which humans function. Human beings are proactively creating and inventing machinery that is capable of matching human intelligence. While many individuals in the modern world envision a utopian future, Walter Tevis, author of Mockingbird, paints an entirely different future. Walter Tevis illustrates the dwindling effects of technological advancements and envisions a conformed dystopian society. With the exponential growth of technology, Tevis envisions a society that faces a monotonous, computerized fate in a declining human population. Tevis’s vision of the future suggests that technology is stopping the creative, intellectual human thinking that,…show more content… Based on Tevis’s vision of the future, humans are so transfixed by the power of artificial intelligence that society fell into a morass of robotic dominance. Because of this robotic dominance, humans conformed to the robotic world; living mechanically rather than humanly. The nature of human beings share general feelings, psychological characteristics, and behavioral traits that an automated robot cannot experience unless humanly programed. Moreover, Tevis envisions a society that has transformed into a world that is robotically operated due to the desirable aspects of human convenience. Tevis’s displays a dystopian vision; exposing the surrendering effects of a human identity that is caused by the desire for robotic convenience. One of the major concerns that is prevalent throughout Mockingbird is society’s inability or loss of desire to read. Tevis follows this notion of a declining human population, who are not only incapable of decoding terms and phrases, but also have no desire in doing so. Aside from Spofforth, a hyper-intelligent, self-aware, robot; Tevis incorporates two significant characters: Paul Bentley and Mary Lou. Unlike any of the other remaining human beings, Paul Bentley and Mary Lou act heroically and defy the odds of a conformed society by attempting to maintain their human identity. In doing so, Bentley introduces the idea of learning how to…show more content… In essence, mankind is creating the ultimate human death wish by letting technology perform basic human functions, such as the ability to read, write, and navigate. In Mockingbird, Tevis suggests that this began during an era known as the "Death of Oil” (132). According to Spofforth, the “Death of Oil” was a period of time that introduced the establishment of automobiles and oil companies. During this time, Spofforth asserts that, “Bribes were paid to city managers to tear up the streetcar tracks, and advertisements were bought in newspapers to convince the public that it should be done. So more cars could be sold, and more oil would be made into gasoline, to be burned in the cars (133).” Spofforth’s assertion demonstrates the desire for human convenience that the automobile would provide and declares that it “changed the life of mankind more radically than the printing press (133).” Spofforth’s proclamation reflects on Tevis’s vision for the future of mankind and demonstrates the effects of technological advancements. To further observe the effects of technology during the “Death of Oil”, Spofforth concludes that, “…the automobile prepared the way for the more profound—more inward— dependencies upon television and then robots and, finally, the ultimate and predictable conclusion to all of it: the perfection of the