[cyborg_cinema]

Originally Posted by asydhouse

since Orwell's book is specifically social sf, ie not interested at all in the effects of technology, his lack of speculative rigour in addressing the central issues of his novel invalidates the very sf aspect of his novel that is his central concern...

...The "telescreen" did not display rockets circling planets, but it should be listed among the most notable speculative technologies found in science fiction. That device alone gets 1984 in the door. That eavesdropping chatterbox was Big Brother's full frontal technological assault on privacy—part of the reason why "Big Brother" is a household word today.

"The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."—George Orwell, 1984