What does Prey Say About the World?

Prey by Michael Crichton is a fast-paced sci-fi thriller about nanocams turned evil by some faulty software meant to mimic biological pretador-prey behavior patterns. On the surface, it is pure entertainment and fun, but by looking deeper is carries the same important social commentary as many of his novels. Deeply, Prey is a book about new technology and a new world clashing with traditional veiws and technology. The protagonist, Jack, represents traditional family values and good, old fashioned morality. Through the book, he battles more than sentient robot swarms. He also battles changing gender roles, government corruption and more.

In  Prey, one of the most unusual things was that Jack was a stay-at-home dad. This would've been a signal of positive commentary on changing gender roles, except for the fact that Jack is portrayed as unfulfilled, tired and emasculated. His wife, the breadwinner of the home, is in a similar situation. While beautiful and successful, she is shown to be disloyal, unfeminine and a bad mother. She is a workaholic, cheats on her husband and even abuses her children. This social commentary is evident that Crichton is against the evoluition of modern gender roles. As Julia gains power at work, she becomes hardened, corrupt and the opposite of maternal. 

When it comes to traditional family values, Prey is also fairly anti-divorce. It discuss how lawyers follow a "cliché du jour" and often lie and cheat in divorce cases. Jack often fears that Julia will file for divorce on the grounds of "alienation of affection," a court case that was all talk but could win over a jury with ease. The mother is vilified, and the father is portrayed as the homemaker, the protector, and an honest , loyal man. Lawyers and law are shown as a moneymaking business, saying that justice and law are two separate entities. Jack argues that they "side with the mother... are biased," and more. He also believes that Julia's lawsuit is intended to rob him of his possessions and his children, and that the more successful and independent she becomes, the less of a wife and mother she is. 

While Prey sticks to tradition in court and in the home, it is also very grim on the logic of the government and military. The nanocams that Julia's company manufactures were originally for medicine, and would make surgeries far easier and more successful. However, when the military offered to buy the new technology to utilize it as a weapon, things went sour quickly. The bacteria used to produce the raw materials for manufacturing the cameras grew too quickly and developed a symbiotic relationship with the near-sentient cameras. I believe that this is a commentary in the growing development of both artificial intelligence and biological warfare/genetic engineering. The combination of artificial intelligence and E. Coli bacteria as the pretadors in Prey combine the ideas of one of mankinds oldest enemies, disease, and one of its newest- technology and even deadlier warfare. Overall, Prey is a grim warning about creating more enimies to fight in the future while we're still vulnerable to the hardships that have hunted us since our primal pasts. 

To summarize, Preh covers a variety of ideas and topics, from divorce to biological warfare, nut one recurring theme run throughout- the constant struggle between tradition and modernization, and which values to keep and which to allow to change as our world changes with them. While many of Crichtons veiws on gender roles and law are more conservative then my own, I do understand the warning that he has for the future- as the world changes and grows, we have to hold on to what we know is right. While science pushes on, it's easy to abandon morals and responsibilities and humanity, but in order to preserve what really makes us human, we have to strive to preserve our lifestyles and morals.