Has anyone read farenhight 451?

~bartender, give me some orange juice, I need another one later on.

Many people would think that we are going towards 1984 as we speak. However, I do not believe entirely that our society will go only to that direction. Age restriction is good on paper, but on practice just restricts what we can see, but also puts social media companies and the tech companies underlying them on lots of pressure. If some governments try to set up age verification, then in the best case, some competent tech companies would just file million dollar lawsuits. So it’s not entirely going to happen, there will be pushback by some companies.

However, I believe that there is a situation bigger than this. The reason why age restriction and privacy-breaking laws are passed is because people trade convince over everything.

With the rise of social media, and quick based algorithms. People are looking into screens now more than ever. (Im not saying it’s not an entirely bad thing by itself) With that our brains are becoming numb. With companies are profiting off of them more than ever. So, at some point our government (or any country that reaches to that stage of technology) has to capitalize our short attention spans if it wants to adapt.

With this convenience, people are not reading books that much. And with the rise of more banned books, this could culminate in a basic ban of books.

That is the setting of Farenhight 451, in which society is saturated with flashy screens, with slap-stick participation. And we are not far from that.

If a competent dictatorial person takes control we could get something like the setting of 1984. Yet how can a competent person can emerge if he or she is trapped in a corporate, and algorithmic based world?

So, it’s not likely that we are going to 1984, yet we might be going towards a farenhight 451 situation.

I dont fear the government, the wigs, the congress men, the congress women or even the president. I fear the carpenter, the mason, the boatman, the shoemaker, the wood-cutter, the ploughboy, the mother, the young wife, the little girl or anyone who sings with open mouths their strong melodious songs. Who are ignorant to the suppression and censorship of our kind.

kirk781

I have read Ray Bradbury's book though Huxley's 'Brave New World' is probably closer to our real world. In 1984, it's constant totalitarianism that is the problem however, in Huxley's work individuality is removed and folks fed on non stop dopamine/happiness rushes. In Orwell's work, people are afraid; in Huxley's people just don't care that the world is ripping itself apart.

Fahrenheit 451 was essentially about the banning of books and reduced interest in literature.

Also, if anyone is interested in dystopia sci-fi;they should read 'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It was by a Russian author published a century back [and thus predates all the modern classics]. Orwell was almost convinced that Brave New World could not have been written without it's writer being inspired by 'We' in some way.

ropocl

You might find Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge interesting as well, part of the plot involves a private company digitizing all books via a simultaneous scan and shred process.

<nitpick> Fahrenheit 451 </nitpick> by Ray Bradbury.

There is one other regarding books: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

And a novel which is imho closer to what we have now: The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

louq

I might read both of them.

A Canticle for Leibowitz reminds me of nuclear semiotics.

But, The Shockwave Rider is quite accurate. So im going to read that first when i have the time.