10 ways big government uses AI to create the totalitarian society of Orwell's classic '1984'

From Fox News.com (May 1):

George Orwell envisioned the dangers of monolithic government armed with artificial intelligence in his famous novel of a future dystopia, "1984," published in 1949.

The Party, led by Big Brother, uses omnipresent technology to monitor constantly and to propagandize to the docile citizens of Oceania.

The terrifying tandem of technology and the human intoxicant of power is used in Oceania to rewrite history, control society, crush the human spirit and keep the Party entrenched forever.

Protagonist Winston Smith works for the ironically named Ministry of Truth, a job he hates. He dreams of the freedom to think, act, write and love.

The totalitarian scenarios described in "1984," and the technologies to enforce them, seemed like science fiction 75 years ago.

Protagonist Winston Smith works for the ironically named Ministry of Truth, a job he hates. He dreams of the freedom to think, act, write and love.

The totalitarian scenarios described in "1984," and the technologies to enforce them, seemed like science fiction 75 years ago.

The warnings of "1984" are also more ominous after big tech proved its eagerness to partner with big government in recent years to influence elections and stifle dissent.

The book that issued warnings about these very scenarios may now also be a target of governments armed with technology to track dissent.

Orwell was recently added to a list compiled by government officials in the U.K. of authors whose works are allegedly shared by people sympathetic to "the far-right and Brexit," according to The Spectator.

Here are 10 warnings from "1984" that seem more prescient — and more urgent — than ever.

1. The screen on your wall knows what you’re doing

"The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely," Orwell wrote of the household electronic device in Oceania we now recognize as the television.

Few homes in the U.S. or U.K. owned televisions in the late 1940s — but Orwell already saw their potential for surveillance.

"You may not be aware of it, but your TV knows — and shares — a lot of information about you," Consumer Reports noted in 2021. "We’ve found that you can’t stop all the data collection."

2. History is canceled and rewritten to benefit the state

"Who controls the past controls the future," wrote Orwell. "Who controls the present controls the past."

Thomas Jefferson, and his words from the Declaration of Independence, such as "all men are created equal," are recast or canceled in "1984."

"Jefferson’s words would be changed into a panegyric on absolute government," wrote Orwell, while only fragments of the Declaration of Independence exist as it is slowly erased.

3. Technology supplants the rule of law with political purpose

The legal system is obsolete in Oceania, where society exists only to support the government.

Orwell discussed the phenomenon when Smith opens a diary to pour out his thoughts, then considers the dire consequences of his action.

"This was not illegal (nothing was illegal, since there were no longer any laws)," Orwell wrote.

"But if detected it was reasonably certain that it would be punished by death, or at least by 25 years in a forced-labor camp."

4. Technology is leveraged to savage a man who challenged the system

The residents of Oceania are fed a constant stream of digital hatred against a figure who dared to speak out against the Party.

"As usual, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, had flashed onto the screen," wrote Orwell of an office meeting.

"All subsequent crimes against the Party, all treacheries, acts of sabotage, heresies, deviations, sprang directly out of his teaching. Somewhere or other he was still alive and hatching his conspiracies."

5. Virtues are erased, replaced by empty new language

Words such as honor, justice, morality, democracy, science and religion "had simply ceased to exist’ in Oceania, Orwell wrote.

"A few blanket words covered them, and, in covering them, abolished them."

It might already sound familiar today: Concepts such as morality and religion are belittled on social media, while new phrases quickly gain political power by their sudden and constant presence on the same platforms.

Speaking new phrases becomes a virtue unto itself even if the words are undefined. [read more]

Yeah America is pretty much 1984 with the deep state in charge. The other 5 ways are:

1. The worship of God is replaced by worship of the state.
2. The elite rule amid grandeur while cities crumble.
3. Basic facts are rewritten as a tool of oppression.
4. The family is replaced by the state.
5. 'Big brother is watching you.'