Literary Inquiry [ Video ]

[universal_charm]

[ So, Luceti, you have Kirk showing up today on our totally hi-grade, super deluxe communication system (haha, yeah right). Anyways, he's there, and he currently has a copy of George Orwell's "1984" displayed in hand. ]

So... I have an honest to god sort of question for everyone. 

How many of you ever thought or believed the stuff in books like this would come true in the future? Or better yet, does anyone actually live in a world like these books describe?

Because, really, the twenty-first century view of the future is... interesting. 

Comments

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert is all-too-aware why Don might not like a "rat part", but he doesn't feel like he ought to presume and so doesn't speak for him. Instead:]

Much of the i-information on Terra is... digitized. As a result, I... p-presume it is simpler to keep track of it...

... And I suppose that could b-be used nefariously... [He hasn't ever actually had to think about it until Luceti, because it was just... normal that everything could potentially be on display.] Additionally, all Terran c-citizens are assigned identification chip cards... at b-birth, which alone are a compendium o-of... information.

... None of this was... c-considered questionable, and... at any rate, there are l-legal ramifications in place for the m-misuse of data... [But his own tone suggests that maybe these legal ramifications might not have stopped higher-ups before.]

[i_speak_softly]

Rats just don't normally act that way.

[But don't let him derail this fascinating conversation about data security.]

[universal_charm]

_{[ Kirk would be interested to know why a talking turtle seems to have such insight into rat behavior, but later. Later. Data discussion now, and his world is all about data. Paper was getting close to becoming a luxury these days. ]}

My world is like that too - everything stored in 1s and 0s. It's easier to keep track of, I guess, but a lot harder to control of it gets loose when you don't want it too. Believe me, more than one fight has been started over leaked data that someone wasn't supposed to have in the first place. But it makes it easier to speak between races too - easier to translate electronic words than it is to try and rewrite the written.

But the ID doesn't surprise me. The US used to have a big system like that - Social Security. It was your.... life, basically, in a set of numbers. If someone stole it, you were screwed more or less.