Ray Bradbury's short story, "The Pedestrian", shows the not too distant future in a very unfavorable light. The world of thought has been consumed by the convenience of high technology. This decline is represented by the fate reserved for Leonard Mead. Although only an isolated incident, it foreshadows the end of the thinking and educated society. In 2053, the world is populated by people who are more dead than alive. Their technology has made them very lazy. The march has become obsolete, as the title of the story indicates. Leonard Mead is not a pedestrian; he is, in a city of three million inhabitants (105), the pedestrian. Walking had become so rare that the sidewalk “disappeared under the flowers and grass” (104-105). Bradbury further illustrates the lack of foot traffic by stating that Mead had walked for ten years without encountering anyone on the street (105). If the evolutionary process is confirmed, the inhabitants of Bradbury's future world will soon be without legs. Bradbury vividly describes the way these people hold their automobiles with godly reverence, describing them as "beetles" (105). The scarab was revered in ancient Egypt as a sacred symbol of the soul. Their lazy minds complement people's lazy bodies. State-of-the-art display screens have reduced the population to couch potatoes. The ease with which they live their lives has transformed them from dynamic, thoughtful people into boring, lifeless zombies. Bradbury describes them in front of their television as “[sitting] like dead people, the gray or multi-colored lights touching their faces, but never really touching them” (105). Bradbury's description of the "faintest firefly glows [appearing] in flickers behind... middle of paper...... is more evident than in the description of the police searchlight, which "kept [Mead] fixed, like a museum specimen, a needle stuck in the chest" (105). The achievements of Leonard Mead and his ilk will soon be nothing more than exhibitions in televised museums. A more subtle allusion to the fate of Leonard Mead is the street where he lives. , South Saint James (105) Bradbury's story is a bizarre twist on the Peter Principle Man's technological advances have eliminated the need for the car. police car, carrying Leonard Mead, drives past his well-lit house. The bright lights represent the illumination of knowledge. Although the house is Mead's, the police car passes it, ending Mead's last hope of victory. humans rather than machines.