Aldous Huxley's letter to Orwell on "1984."

Interestingly, I think reality is converging towards something like a hybrid of the two worlds described by Orwell and Huxley. Well, in the case of Huxley not so much the literal use of hypnosis and psycho-analysis, but if you treat that stuff as a metaphor, then you can see the connection.

TV, pop music, Fox News, and so much other low-value content has become the "sedative for the masses" at the same time that the government assumes more and more power and control...

"Of course," you might say, "we're nowhere close to Orwell's world with his Minitru, etc ." But if you substitute "We are at war with the USSR and the Taliban are our allies and have always been our allies" and "We are at war with the Taliban and the Russians are our allies and have always been our allies" for certain bits of Orwell's work, you might notice some eerie parallels and scary possibilities.

There is more widespread fear of "1984" scenarios (abuse by controlling authorities) and a bizarre tendency to give up personal automomy and be lulled into complacency ("Brave New World"). Modern America's seems to gravitate towards promoting the two opposite poles: Big government and big business on the one hand, increased personal freedom and reduced constraint on the other.

See this even on the interweb where major players get established (Apple/Google) and subsequently targeted for their oppressiveness.

"The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency."

I find this point extremely interesting as much of what we do as developers/engineers is automate. I've always thought of it as a good thing, even if it meant I could automate the tasks someone else was doing manually. At the same time, sometimes it's a kind of "efficiency through laziness," in that you are only wanting to have to do something "once" (even though that "once" may take a long time to build initially). There is also automation for the sake of accomplishing something greater, and not having to worry about the smaller components. I suppose it depends on what the architect's vision of greater is in that regard.

I don't think (and damn sure hope) that what he describes will come true (WALL-E style) but that one line hit home a little being a developer and all.