One of my favorite movies is Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” I love how the film is set in the future (relative to its release in 1968) but looks at the future through 1960s lenses.
For example, I love “2001’s” set design, but I can’t help chuckling at how the set designers thought mod-style furniture would still be going strong over 30 years into the future (and in space, no less).
Likewise, technology in the film looks silly compared to what we have today, or even what we had in 2001. Of course, it’s impossible to predict what technology, life, or fashion will look like decades from now, and I’m sure we are getting it all wrong in our futuristic films today.
Therefore, I try not to snicker too much when I encounter an old film or novel set in the future. In fact, lately, I’ve been noticing how much they’ve gotten right.
That’s because while we may not have flying cars, or androids living among us, many other grim predictions by sci-fi authors and filmmakers are coming true.
It’s no coincidence that copies of “1984” were flying off the shelves in record numbers in the past month. I purchased the book myself – at an estate sale with cash, mind you, so the government couldn’t track me for my thoughtcrime.
I kid of course, but consider the current saga playing around Edward Snowden:
A former National Security Agency employee blows the whistle on his country’s secret spying of citizens through the Internet. Snowden reportedly flees to Russia to evade the U.S. officials who will do who-knows-what to him if he is captured. Meanwhile his strategic hiding places further force the U.S. to acknowledge its hypocrisy among countries with which its relationship is already more than rocky.
If that doesn’t sound like George Orwell’s nightmare come true, I don’t know what else to call it.
Many dismiss the NSA spying by asking why worry if you have nothing illegal to hide? Isn’t this worth it if we can prevent another 9/11?
There’s certainly merit to that point, but the secrecy is frightening. If these spying practices were left under wraps for this long, what else is going on behind closed doors? It’s become harder to dismiss the tinfoil hat wearers; maybe we should ask them what else is going on behind closed doors before it takes another international fugitive to reveal it.
I welcome debate on whether Snowden is a hero or traitor. On one hand, I believe his enlightening us to the NSA’s spying program is an act of patriotism. As citizens, we should work to ensure our country holds fast to its founding constitutional principles. The NSA spying program is a direct affront to our Fourth Amendment rights, so I welcome its fixing.
On the other hand, if Snowden has put our country under threat by undermining our security, that is of course a crime.
Regardless of your thoughts on Snowden, it’s impossible to deny that our dependence on technology is coming with serious consequences.
Technology’s development far outpaces legislative output – these days, what doesn’t? This leaves us without definitive regulation or defenses against hacking and spying. The Internet today is a wild west of servers and networks in which hackers are the train-robbing outlaws.
My wild west analogy may not be accurate, however. In those days, the conductors didn’t willingly let their trains get robbed and passengers did not eagerly hand over their money before even encountering a robber.
In his 1932 novel “Brave New World,” Aldous Huxley made the prediction that technology would render us passive consumers of data, too embedded in trivial and personal information to care about larger matters. He called this our “almost infinite appetite for distractions.”
Today, people freely hand over their personal information across the Internet. Consider an average teenager today, eager to post every nuance of their social life online the moment it happens. It’s no longer crazy to think a federal agent follows it all.
That information is coveted by Google, Facebook, and other companies who use it to make highly specific targeted ads. We now know our government values that data as well.
Does knowing that teenager’s favorite bands or weekend plans prevent a tragedy like the Boston Marathon bombings? Of course not. It’s time we develop a system that does.
So hats off to you “paranoid” skeptics out somewhere far off the grid – you were right. Now, let me know if there is a way to cryogenically freeze myself for the next couple of centuries. If humanity is no better, we should at least have flying cars by then.
