If 1984 were written today
- Carla Ra
- 30 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Disclaimer: This is the reimagining of a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locality is simply a bad omen.
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a novel forever ingrained in popular culture. It transcended the pages to become a phenomenon, sometimes to the detriment of its message. I can only wonder what Orwell would think if he learned that Big Brother became a frivolous reality show.
The book was published in 1949 and is now a classic of the dystopian genre, alongside Huxley’s Brave New World and Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. One could even argue that it surpassed these two, with ‘Orwellian’ becoming an adjective to describe the reality of people living under a totalitarian regimen.
Totalitarianism is an extreme version of authoritarianism, in which opposition to the government is not only repressed but effectively forbidden. And the methods to achieve and maintain such state in the novel are what sets it apart from the other two previously mentioned. Surveillance, repression, manipulation are in between the strategies used by Big Brother, the personification of the authoritarian Party.
It’s been almost 80 years since the book was written, and its timely themes are still relevant. But technology has advanced A LOT since then. So I thought it would be instructive to reimagine this Orwellian world with today’s tech.
If you are suspicious about the timing of this post, let me sooth your impressions by confirming it. I’m writing it on popular demand as a reaction to current events.
There will be spoilers.
Happy New Year! It’s 1984.
If the story were written today, it would still be set in the distant year of 1984.
In Orwell’s novel, the misinformation and historical negationism was so deep that the actual year is unknown. It is probably 1984, but it could as well be a bright cold April day in 2026. The doubt cast over the current year carries the clear message that we are not dealing with a reliable narrator here; not because the main character is untrustworthy, but because his contextual background is.
In the novel, the world is divided into three totalitarian superstates, Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. The three are at perpetual war. Or are they? The story is set in Oceania, and every piece of information we receive of the world is through the lenses of the Party’s propaganda. Oceania is definitely a totalitarian state ruled by Big Brother, but can we trust the information that the rest of the world follows this same regime?
In Oceania, we follow the character of Winston Smith, whose work is to modify historical records to match the Party’s narratives, and discard ‘the originals’ in ducts called “memory holes.”
Manipulating historical facts is one of Big Brother’s main strategies to control the people. The Party keeps a tight grasp on the past, present, and future information available to the public.
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
Could this strategy even work in the age of the internet?
Surely, the most straightforward way to manipulate historical facts put forward on the web is to censor the internet. This might be what the Party accuses Eastasia or Eurasia, whichever is today’s enemy, of doing but there’s more than one way of controlling information.
In Oceania, the Big Beautiful Brother learned that the best way to use the internet in his favor is to pretend it’s the land of the free, so he does not over-regulate it. In this case, controlling the gigantic volume of information created and spread on the web the same way Winston did with newspapers is not possible. The strategy would certainly need to be adapted.
The spread of content nowadays is heavily influenced by social media algorithms. They could boost or bury any news. With the speed and amount of information shared, yesterday’s news quickly becomes old news. Our brain is being conditioned to forget the past and focus on the discrepancies of the present. Those who control the present control the past by being dismissive of ‘old news’ if they do not suit the narrative or invoking yesterday’s events only when convenient.
History is entombed by an avalanche of information every day. The internet becomes its own memory hole.
If the book were written today, Winston would be a social media algorithm programmer, working in creating and monitoring echo chambers.
Big Brother is watching you!
The high level of mass surveillance combined with a cult of personality is what feeds the propaganda in the novel 1984.
Similarly to what happened with the date, we are not sure if Big Brother is a real dictator or a symbol that represents the oppressive Party in control of the government. The thing is, he is an emblematic leader. And his omnipresence and omniscience are felt throughout the narrative.
The law enforcement body responsible for mass surveillance in 1984 is the Thought Police.
The Thought Police is there to punish those who commit a thought crime, that is, those who foster unapproved thoughts against the Party. These ‘criminals’ could face the penalty of being erased from history—any official record of them would disappear (alongside the person themselves).
I believe the Thought Police would be way more effective in this task today, in the age of social media oversharing. With an army of bots designed to farm engagement through ragebait, and an AI ready to detect patterns and report them to the Thought Police, identifying and persecuting thought criminals would be a walk in the park.
If Orwell had written the book in today’s technological context, the Thought Police would employ bots and AI to identify thought criminals.
War is peace
To complete the commandments of the Party, Orwell presented us with the concept of doublethinking. In his words, “doublethinking means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”
It is encapsulated in the famous slogan, “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
Doublethinking does not need technology to occur. It is a mind trick, an exploitation of the devotion people offer to a cult leader. It is instigating invasions (domestic and abroad) while demanding peace prizes; or advocating for people to have a permit to carry guns and accepting that law enforcement can execute those who do.
The power of doublethinking is shown in one of the most eerie demands by the Party.
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
Despite not needing technology, generative AIs could be used to instigate doublethinking and strengthen the cult’s devotion. With the widespread of altered records, how can we trust our eyes and ears? If the Party says the evidence is fake, generated by AI, who are we to question it?
If 1984 were written today, AI would be a powerful tool to reinforce the Party’s final command: reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.
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That’s it for today folks.
In our reimagining of 1984, we added two neo-Orwellian terms to our dictionaries. The concepts of echo chambers and rage bait are wild. Not futuristic. Straight up dystopian.
Another thing that would change in our new version of 1984 is the impact of the first line.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
The clock striking thirteen is supposed to give a jarring feeling right out of the opening, but it feels less weird nowadays. Plenty of people don’t know how to read an analog clock anymore. In a digital clock with a 24-hour setting, 13:00 is simply 1 P.M.
See you next post,
Ra
Carla Ra is a scientist by day, sci-fi writer by night.
You can check out her anthology ARTIFICIAL REBELLION here.
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