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I wouldn't say it's beyond imagination. Science-fiction authors have been predicting this for years.

Decades. The first pervasive surveillance state story I can remember reading, of the sort that's nominally free, we're not talking Nineteen Eighty Four, was "The Hunting Lodge", a 1954 short story by Randall Garrett (collected in the great 1968 Men and Machines, edited by Robert Silverberg).

I've read 'Darkness at noon'[1] at year ago or two. It's one of the books Orwell was heavily influenced by. It's about Stalin's Russia and it's amazing. Same topic, total gov control.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkness_at_Noon

Second 'Darkness at Noon'. A very powerful read. By Arthur Koestler 1940. Orwell's 1984 was published in 1948, wasn't it?

Well yeah, wikipedia says 1949 but 6 months up or down doesn't change much..

About DaN[1]: 'In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Darkness at Noon at number eight on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.'

Although the depth of thought and analysis of the 'soviet regime' was impressive, I had no idea it was that highly praised novel.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkness_at_noon

"The Hunting Lodge", a 1954 short story by Randall Garrett:

http://bookre.org/reader?file=230833

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