Locate an image of the future that was developed before 1990 Essay

Locate an image of the future that was developed before 1990 - Essay Example Orwell’s vision, written in 1948, originally pertained to some future indeterminate time, but the publishers thought to use a more catchy title and reversed the last two digits of the year of writing. The vision truly conformed with the two postulates proposed by James Dator: first, that ‘the future cannot be studied, because the future does not exist’; and second, that ‘any useful idea about the future should appear to be ridiculous from today’s point of view.’ (NRC, 2010, p.31). That a see-all-know-all government did not exist in 1948 was apparent because the enabling technology was not yet available. It was also considered extremely unlikely, even outright ridiculous in the post-war Western democracies, since 1984 was considered little more than ‘a [part of the] mythology of our culture’ (Chatfield, 1975, p.947). I interviewed my high school literature teacher, who at 77 years could recall the exuberance of the post-war era. After we won the war, he said, there was a fierce pride in our freedoms as inalienable and incontestable, so the thought that people will tolerate a â€Å"Big Brother† was ludicrous. It was possible, though, that 1984’s image of a totalitarian society was suggested by the rise of socialist states and the threat of communism. Unlike my teacher, I feel Orwell’s society is possible, since the technology is already available and the governments of the world are already encroaching on human rights. Images of 1984 as construed in the fifties, and the updated counterpart images evoking the same are shown below. Orwell’s vision is, as Dator’s theory states, just one of many possible ‘futures’ – pertaining to the possibility that the threat of communism shall triumph over America’s status quo; it is at best a ‘what-if,’ allowing for a ‘what-if-not.’ How the choice made among alternatives is therefore crucial. The perceived alternative futures may possibly turn into