Topic > 1984: Technology in Orwell's book and today

In his book, Orwell wrote about a totalitarianly run society that uses technology to keep track of its occupants. Orwell's novel explores the idea of ​​Big Brother and the concept of technology always watching every citizen's every move. The main protagonist of the book, Winston, says that “there are always eyes watching you and a voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, indoors or outdoors, in the bathtub or in bed: no escape. Nothing was yours except the few cubic centimeters of your skull.” Throughout the book, Big Brother can be seen as a “protector” of people. They keep the population in line by observing civilians through hidden cameras and microphones when they are awake and even when they dream. Big Brother even has mind control. In the novel, thoughts are controlled by the ministry of truth. The Ministry of Truth provides the media through educating people to believe very specific events that are one-sided and not always truthful, to begin with. As a totalitarian government, they believe that “war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength”, which is a perfect example of how Big Brother brainwashes people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Facial recognition devices recognize the precise facial characteristics of individuals. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), “Some facial recognition systems, instead of positively identifying an unknown person, are designed to calculate a probability match score between the unknown person and specific face patterns stored in the database.” This feature became available to the general public in late November 2017 with the release of the iPhone With these new features, our society cannot rest easy. There have been many reports of iPhone unlocking for non-owners. All new devices carry great risks. Thanks to twenty-first century advances in facial recognition, the technology “when used ethically and accurately, for example, can increase public safety. However, there are also serious risks, including the potential misuse of data, improved techniques for fraudsters and loss of privacy." As tested by famous identical twins, Ethan and Grayson Dolan, most of these facial recognition devices have difficulty distinguishing people with very similar facial structures. With just one glance at the camera, the two were able to access all the personal information on the other twin's phone. This raises the crucial issue of quite literal identity theft. With these products selling out left and right, there is still no warning label about the possibility of a stranger with similar facial features hacking into another person's bank account. In our world today, it is truly fascinating to compare Orwell's 1984 with the technology we now possess. . As it was written in the novel, the people of Oceania, Winston's home, Big Brother watched people using telescreens. These devices were large television screens that projected government-approved entertainment. These screens not only served entertainment purposes, but were also used as two-way monitors so that the government could watch and listen to citizens' thoughts and actions. As recognized.