Is the future finally here...opinions?

Hmm, interesting. I read it in high school too (not that many years ago...), but it didn't freak me out. That's kind of a strange reaction, I think. I just remember being annoyed by the ending.

Then again, Fahrenheit 451 really made me think about the future being "here." I read it in HS, too. Similarly, it was the prediction of wall-sized TVs that really made me think, wow, it's happened. But again, I wasn't freaked out.

I think big-brother societies have been around for quite some time, we just don't live in one (in the US). But that's how I would classify North Korea. Everyone watching everyone else to see who will show a hint of resistance.

I think if current attitudes about freedom persist in the US for any amount of time, chances are we'll never fall into the same kind of trap as a whole. There are enough people here who are vocal about their rights, and their right to have an opinion on their rights.

I think we're all so scared of Big Brother that we'll answer the door if the knocks, but to hell if we'll let him in.

But I suppose someone else will argue that Big Brother masquerades as protection, and that he's already in our living rooms eating our popcorn and hogging the remote. After all, I'd classify the red-scare of the cold war as Big-Brother behavior, which is ironic, since part of it's purpose was to prevent such a society.

There is always a new future - tomorrow...

Maybe I should read that book and get back to you.

Hey Cathy,

It's a good question, even without the connotations of Blair's vision.

But future is such a flexible term. The adults of tommorow will not notice the progressions from the past. Same as us, taking the technological advances of our parents for granted.

The future is here today because there's no longer any sense of wonder.

My granny grew up in a era of steam trains and ended up in a world of jet planes, computers, atomic bombs and Man on the Moon.

I grew up at the tail end of the Space Race. But I know that I look at the moon in a different way to my daughter. Hell, she even laughed at me when I had a manly tear in my eye as we watched Concorde's last flight.

But I remembered watching Concorde's first flight.

And that's what the children growing up today don't have. There's no sense of the future because all the big moments happened in the past.

We're now the been there, done it generation. And sure I might be drunk, rambling and not getting to the point.

But there doesn't seem to be any magic in the future, no sense of wonder. No Concorde or Us on the moon moment.

Mainly because we didn't go to the moon.

And I've not even started on 1984 yet!

Regards

Whacko

Well, I wouldn't say there's no wonder in the future. But, then again, I'm a science fiction writer.

After all, we've been to the moon, but have we been to another planet yet? No! And it's an amazing thing to look forward to... There are still big events yet to come.

I'd say we're one step away from stagnation if we're actually the "been there done that" generation. But I don't think that's the case.

*folds arms huffily, refusing to believe it's the future until provided with proper 'beam me up, Scotty' transport*

So, there!

1984 was an excellent book. Doubleplusgood, I must add.

1984 is already real. Fahrenheit 451 is already real. Interestingly and depressingly, they both look like Robocop.

In a place like North Korea, 1984 is horribly real.

In the United States and other first world countries--nah. We are kept track of by companies and the government to some extent, it's true. However the amount we are exposed is still largely our choice. People choose to carry smartphones everywhere. They choose to be "plugged in" or not.

Having that choice makes all the difference in the world.

The question now is, will the average person continue to value privacy? Because information is valuable to companies, and they will continue to push for more of our lives to be public. It is important for consumers to push back, and show that the inherent individual right to privacy (when not harming others, etc) must be respected.

Personally, I think people still care enough about their rights, as well as what is really going on in the world, to not fall into the 1984 trap. Stupid news is popular, it's true, but most folks want to be informed on real news, too. If given the opportunity, I believe most people would become more educated on politics, science, economics, etc.

Yes, Orwell's vision of the future is at hand, but what's more troubling is that most people don't recognize it. ;p

I think we're delusional if we think 1984 isn't here. Sure, some of the invasions of privacy are voluntary, like carrying smartphones or having OnStar in your car. When the government or a company can train a satellite camera on your backyard where you're sunbathing nude, that's not exactly voluntary.

As others have said, in some nations, the Thought Police are in your face public knowledge. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that our government and the major corporations have much more access to our information than we realize. They may not choose to flex that muscle yet, but eventually, they will.

As long as we have forums like this one, there ain't never gonna be a '1984' ...

Kenra Daniels said:

I think we're delusional if we think 1984 isn't here.

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With all respect, I highly doubt I’m that delusional . A brief look at the breadth of topics being debated, nationally and internationally, shows that we are not in 1984.

The potential for a 1984 situation in first-world countries is there, of course. It was there when Orwell wrote his novel, and it was there in the year 1984, and it will continue to be there.

However it is not happening yet. And so long as people continue to fight for their rights to privacy and the various freedoms, it will not be allowed to happen.

Look at what is going on in the Middle East—they are fighting right now, to basically take their countries away from their version of Big Brother. It is an ongoing battle, everywhere. And though it is not completely won, and probably never will be, it certainly is not lost.

I'd say that it's not here in a literal realization of everything in the book. But it is here and all too real in the free-flowing and obvious bullshit that passes for propaganda these days. Listen to just about anything coming out of Congress and/or the media. One day "cap and trade" is our savior, the next it's the work of Satan. The mortgage meltdown was caused by poor people. Medicare is an oppressive example of government over-reach and a delicate flower of freedom that must be protected from the government, at the same time. It's becoming indistinguishable from Eastasia/Oceania.

Look at social attitudes. Purity rings -- what, red sashes are too garish these days? People reject and revile thinking and free inquiry in favor of partisan indoctrination. We can send our kids to Party Camps, while so-called filter bubbles automatically tailor the internet just to what some machine thinks we want to hear, defining reality by user preference.

And all of it in a self-propelling loop with widespread general complacency of a people content to allow themselves to be ripped off and abused in any number of ways so long as they are given lots of privileges and shiny toys to keep them entertained.

The thing to remember is that books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 and movies like Robocop are not predicting the future. They are commenting on the present. The books were warnings of what the authors saw (correctly, it turns out) as the obvious outcome of the trends in society at the time they wrote their books. To me, there is no question that the conditions in their books are real now, and there isn't any surprise in it, either. They were mostly real when they were written, too.

muravyets said:

I'd say that it's not here in a literal realization of everything in the book. But it is here and all too real in the free-flowing and obvious bullshit that passes for propaganda these days. Listen to just about anything coming out of Congress and/or the media.

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Except that we all still have the right to speak out against what congress has to say, and what the media has to say, etc.

I'd say once freedom of speech goes, then we can claim to be in a 1984 scenario.

But then again, that's my point all over. If we were in 1984, we wouldn't be allowed to say so without fear of people knocking on our doors to haul us off...

muravyets said:

The thing to remember is that books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 and movies like Robocop are not predicting the future. They are commenting on the present.

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This is so very true. Social commentary for sure.

Heh, that's why I said they aren't here in a literal realization of everything in the book.

But in the sense of a funhouse mirror vision of ourselves right now, yeah, despite differences in specific details such as secret police, etc., I say and believe they are the here and now.

But man, I really wish I could look at those works and think of them as quaintly dated.

That's just it, though. They'll never be dated. Books like 1984 are not a hint of what to come, they're a reminder of what's already here. Orwell couldn't have visualized a society to come unless that society already existed in embryo. That's why 1984 is so topical no matter what the date is--much the same way Swift's Gulliver's Travels are once you get past the differences in the English language.

Well, it was, when I woke up this morning, that is. But it just kind of sailed right on past, and then it was today, and the future was tomorrow, and now today is almost yesterday, and the future will be the today about to happen, and after that, this morning's future will be yesterday, and the future tomorrow will be today, and . . . . .

crap.

Since we're not living in a totalitarian dystopian society that outlaws books other than propaganda pamphlets and where you have to toe the party line or you'll be tortured until your soul is burned out, I'd say we're not living in 1984. Those who think so, should read the book.

I'm kind of amused by some of the comments of denial here. We all live in a Big Brother world now. Somewhere there is always someone watching. Someone knows every tv channel we watch, what we spend our cash on, they can trace what streets we walk down through cctv, they monitor our bank accounts and our phone lines. It's real.

Admittedly we aren't subject to a limitation on free thoughts and will, but it's only a matter of time really. Look at what happens to people who are radical - people who openly oppose war, political decisions etc - look at how many people ended up being held without charges because they spoke out about the war.

For the most part, so long as everyone is nicely middling, then no one will really care too much about what we think or say. It's the radicals and the extremists that are being targeted. It's a case of 'think what you like, so long as it's not too different from everyone else'

The proles are with us. They're called chavs.

mscelina said:

That's just it, though. They'll never be dated. Books like 1984 are not a hint of what to come, they're a reminder of what's already here. Orwell couldn't have visualized a society to come unless that society already existed in embryo. That's why 1984 is so topical no matter what the date is--much the same way Swift's Gulliver's Travels are once you get past the differences in the English language.

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Exactly. These stories are about attitudes and how people think and relate to society and each other. In terms of what the messages of the books are, they are real in the here and now. I think it's possible for them not to be relevant (or become less relevant), assuming some very fundamental social changes, but from their dates of publication up to now, they most certainly are realistic descriptions of the world we live in.

The only reason 1984 is so scary is because it's real and it's here. If it weren't, the book would be amusing, ridiculous, satirical. It isn't, because we recognise how realistic it is.