1984

We will be assimilated.

The movie for 1984 was also quite good.
I believe that the book 1984 (written in 1948 I think) was mainly cautioning us against Communism - given the failure of Communism, I'm not that worried about it really happening. I still think the book is valid and quite a good read though. ....The movie (was it a book too?) Gattaca was somewhat similar, though it focused on loss of freedom due to genetic engineering.

I don't know about 'much like 1984', but dystopian books are fairly common (A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, or Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are famous ones).

I like the Apple Computers commercial.

The telescreen is the retina of society's mind. Freedom is an illusion perpetuated by the hallucinatory state that people live in. You may think you have freedom, but you are a slave to your chemistry, your physics and your ideals. You are a prisoner in your own skull. The telescreen is a window to a more honest illusion.

I read 1984 and found it an interesting topic of discussion at the time (I read the book in December 1983).

I think people who are worried about the reality big brother scenarios are paranoid

The movie Brazil was along those lines (or my memory is playing tricks on me). Also, the bookBrave New World was good. in high school we had a choice of that one or 1984. I read that, then started 1984, but lost interest. I don't think we will end up in a society like that one. although it is possible. the trend currently seems to be trying to legislate intelligence, which doesn't work, or pass laws for our own good. it doesn't address the sources of the problems, but the method of dealing with them is accepted and people seem to be willing to give more and more power to those in charge.
*q: just because you are paranoid, it doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you.

I do think it's already starting (being so easily tracked and watched by Big Brother), and we will be somewhat undone by it. Newspeak? isn't that how I got my start in journalism ;)?

I don't think all human freedom will ever be destroyed but we're well along the path described in 1984.

I lived in the Middle East under the rule of an absolute monarch & I was amazed at how frightened the people were & how careful they were of what they said. The average guy would not even speak freely if there was a telephone in the room because they claimed all the phones were bugged. If that were true, they would have needed half the country just to eavesdrop on the other half. I, at this time, am not worried about personal freedoms, but you have to admit, the government knows an awful lot about us. It is somewhat scary, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I hope I am not too trusting of officialdom.

There are many dystopian books. Were you thinking of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley? How about Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood? This is a common theme in sf.

Is "will be destroyed" the correct tense of the verb? And just what is human freedom anyway? There are the freedoms we choose not to exercise, and then there are the freedoms we are forced not to exercise; the latter are in general far fewer. I am de facto free to go as fast as I wish on the highway, because I choose to ignore the law against it as unreasonable and unlikely to have a serious impact on me. Still, I don't go faster than a certain speed because I think it's stupid. Am I free to speed, or not?

I read 1984 in school and it was very interesting. I think a lot of the basic fears discussed in the book exist - they're making nationwide ID systems with fingerprints and everything, they have cameras in "crime-likely locations" in NY that cops watch all the time. The internet and many supermarkets track our purchases and predicts what we'll do next. Sure, some of this "helps us". But it all leads towards a potential abuse (if you don't believe it's being abused already).

Pookster: Every biotech I worked for had card-reader doors between labs. Just because you're a secretary for a company, should you get in to where the live virus and radioactive material is kept? Those readers are on there for safety reasons, as well as for "hmmm all of our radioactive material is missing, who was in there last" reasons.

I've read it a couple of times. It has some interesting ideas, it's not astonishingly well-written but isn't bad either, it's gratuitously depressing; it's not one of my favorite books but I wouldn't say I disliked it.
Newspeak is hogwash taken literally but I like its symbolic value.
As classic dystopias go, I find Brave New World (Huxley) and any number of Kurt Vonnegut novels more compelling.
I think it's always true that some humans have control, others are controlled, and most play the middle.
***Later -- on looking at my book collection, I realize my favorite dystopias are John Brunner's... The Sheep Look Up, for example, or Jagged Orbit. Possibly because he writes about decent people with a plausible amount of power trying (sometimes failing, sometimes not) to deal with the world, rather than just wringing his authorial hands and moaning about how awful the/his world is. I recommend him, though he's hard to find in print.

Witness the downfall of the Soviet Empire, which is after all what Orwell was writing about. I don't think human freedom is likely to stay destroyed even if it does manage to get that way.

There is Russian novel called "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin which I believe was written around the same time as 1984. While 1984 is an attack on Stalinism, We is an attack on Leninism from a Russian view point. It describes a future where society is heavily regulated by a precise schedule dictated by the state, were there is no privacy thru the use of translucent building material and your emotional being is ultimately lobotomised thru x-ray surgery to make you a "better" worker.

Ever wonder why you have to wear badges and slide them through a reader to get into work? or sign in with a security desk. I could understand them to get in but all through work...I think they get more in the way than help out. A man was caught murdering people that he hitched a ride with by sophisticated satellite system that zoomed in on him from space.....imagine yourself as that person. UFO's exist...I've seen them...but the government denies all. You say that the people won't follow the rules? think back to your graduation....everyone hears the first name and then the screaming and cheering doesn't let up until the gym is clear. My cousin's was quiet. Not a sound was made except the names being called. Why you ask? because the superintendant ask that this be a solumn event and that you should remain quiet to hear everyone's name. So...everyone was quiet (except us). If the people are told to do something for a reason that they can accept then they will...if they are too ignorant to see the real reasons why they will obey. The television and computers and games keep us all subdued and, I believe, slowly reduce our reasoning so that soon we'll all be puppets to whomever is in control. (sorry Gates, but I'm on to your little scheme) lisashea: I'm talking the extreme that we cannot even enter the lobby without a badge. I can understand keeping non-authorized personnel and avoiding theft using cards, but just to get through the front door because you have an appointment.....It's a little extreme.

pookster: my ex works as an engineer for Westinghouse, and they had to have special cards just to get into the lobby; fortunately, you don't even need to take them out of your wallet, the scanners are that good. In really high level places, they use methods more resistant to fraud, such as iris scanning... You said "imagine yourself as that person," i.e. a murderer -- I can't do that, and I'm glad that that murderer was caught. The murderer's privacy seems to me to be a secondary value; the primary value is people's lives... Aliens from outer space (which is what I assume you were referring to by saying "UFO's," which simply means unidentified flying object) may or may not exist, but the fact that you think you've seen them proves nothing. People misinterpret what they see all the time. If you don't think so, pick up a book of optical illusions... my High School graduation was conducted in a similar manner, and I fail to see anything particularly sinister about that.... if you hate computers so much, what are you doing using a computer to access SC? But I agree that Gates is evil. Now he is in cahoots with the government to allow them access to all information about what files you request from the internet. The idea is to have ALL transactions go to a governmental office and either be approved or denied/prosecuted. They have been anticipating this since 1994, so now they can magically convert anyone's Windows 95 or Windows 98 program somehow (I'm fuzzy on the details as I'm not very knowledgeable in this area). And -- get this -- the whole deal will reduce the speed it takes for you to get documents by 20%. I just heard about this today; maybe this is old news to people who work in computers. But I was shocked.

I watched the movie for the first time in late December 84. (I specifically chose to wait)

Brave New World is the similar/opposite type of tale.
Interestingly, both 1984 and Brave New World are really about masses of people who no longer are individualists, and don't think
for themselves. Except the key figures in each book....
I'd say the increase (my perception) in laws and regulations,
for our 'good' - and aren't laws always passed for that reason anyway - is an indication we're already in that frame of mass-mind.

Distopia will happen as much as we let it. What is *currently* happening is greater isolation and alienation. But i do not think it will be our undoing, as this isolation and alienation is only increasing for those divorced from the technology. the technologists or technophiles (like SC users) are increaing, not decreasing, in number, and feel right at home in what feels cold to others. There are many people I would consider friends whom I have never met, and only know online.

Utopian and dystopian novels are some of my favorites, when done well. Other books in the same (or at least similar) theme that jump to mind are Brave New World by Aldus Huxley and We by Yevgeny Zamiatin. Other good dystopias include Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, several books by John Brunner (Stand on Zanzibar and Jagged Orbit are two good examples), and to an extent, perhaps Ayn Rand's Anthem

***bill - actually, 1984 was more of a comment on the state of england's working class - i.e., that they were slipping towards a sheep-like state where they were no longer capable of revolting. Orwell's Animal Farm is a more direct attack on, not communism as an idea, but the Stalanist implementation of communism ("All animals are equal but some are more equal than others").

***Actually, lion, Zamiatin's book predates Orwell's by about 25 years.

Technology will defeat us all!

I don't think all human freedom will be destroyed.
I liked 1984.