The idea of totalitarian social stability occurs first in this chapter. Thus, the Alphas represent the intellectually superior group, followed by the Betas, and continuing down to the Epsilons, who have little to no intelligence. The Centre conditions all the non-Alpha and Beta embryos for their future status in society by dividing them into Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Only the Alphas and Betas come from single eggs that are not budded and hence have no twins. The society contains a five-tiered caste system that ranks Alphas and Betas on top. Predestinators then decide the future function of each embryo within the society, essentially assigning a future job to each human.

The scientists take an ovary, remove and fertilize the eggs, force the eggs to bud up to ninety-six times, and subsequently grow the embryos in bottles. The students view various machines and techniques used to promote the production and conditioning of embryos. A group of students receives a tour of the facilities by the Director. The novel begins at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center, a production factory for human beings. The underlying principle of the regime is utilitarianism, or maximizing the overall happiness of the society. The world has submitted to domination by World Controllers, whose primary goal is to ensure the stability and happiness of society. Brave New World occurs six hundred years in the future.

Chapter 1 brave new world summary