The World of Tomorrow

1984

From WIKIPEDIA.ORG:

Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes unofficially abbreviated to 1984), by George Orwell, published in 1949, is a dystopian novel about the totalitarian regime of the Party, an oligarchical collectivist society where life in the Oceanian province of Airstrip One is a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance, public mind control, and the voiding of citizens' rights. In the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue), protagonist Winston Smith is a civil servant responsible for perpetuating the Party's propaganda by revising historical records to render the Party omniscient and always correct, yet his meager existence disillusions him into rebellion against Big Brother, which leads to his arrest, torture, and conversion.

As literary political fiction, 1984 is a classic novel of the social science fiction sub-genre, thus, since its publication in 1949, the terms and concepts of Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, Memory hole, et cetera, became contemporary vernacular, including the adjective Orwellian, denoting George Orwell's writings and totalitarianism as exposited in Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm (1945).

 From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

1984 and Today

George Orwell's novel is about a powerful government, located in Britain. In this government, Winston Smith is an editor who is concerned with historical revisionism. His job is to rewrite history the way the Party wants it.

Interestingly enough, history textbooks are constantly being revised today. It has been noted that older history textbooks have facts which later ones omit.

The protagonist of 1984, Winston Smith, lived in a tiny, run-down apartment. A two-way television was built into the wall of his apartment and it watched his every action while it simultaneously plays non-stop. He had no privacy.

Today, in Britain, there are over four million close circuit television cameras which are located in private locations. Some British residents have cameras in their "dust bins".

Beside the surveillance cameras in Britain, sensors are set up along roadways. They track the speed of passing cars. If a car is breaking the posted speed limit, the driver will receive a ticket in his mailbox. His license plate is photographed. Simply entering the number in a special computer database will bring up the owner, his driving record, and his personal financial history.

Not only that, cell phones can pinpoint the geographic location of the caller. In his book titled Shadow Government, Grant R. Jeffrey describes the technologies of today and how they are being used by a "shadow government" to monitor every American citizen. Some of these startling technologies include DNA identification, facial recognition systems, RFID chips, data recording, storage, and processing of all the actions of every person using the internet, and much more.

This video is from youtube. It was made by ThErEdPiLl09 .

This video explains Metropolis and its symbolism. Metropolis is a German silent film that portrays a dystopian future. It came out in Germany in 1927, a few years after World War One. The screenplay for it was written by Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang.

This dystopian movie has gained a cult following in more recent years and has a possibly influenced a few recent movies.