The World of Tomorrow
Translation: Victoria Bakshina
During the last century, literature underwent enormous changes, ranging from the early fin de siècle trend which discussed the degeneration of civilization, to the self-help books of the nineties. Another prominent literary trend of the 20th century was science fiction, and you, the reader of this paper, now have a unique opportunity to delve into a superficial analysis of science fiction.
A common player error is to view science fiction as futuristic; in fact, most of it was supposed to criticize extreme ideas through a veil, thus escaping censorship. Since the human race is unable to cope responsibly with technological innovations, some of the themes of these books have found a common ground with reality.
The most famous example is the book 1984, which is frequently discussed by the scavengers and keyboard warriors of outrageous social media platforms such as Reddit and Facebook. In their Freudian existential nightmare, they mostly fear Big Brother (a man in charge) and feel a connection with Winston Smith (a lonely forty-year-old male). Despite the fact that the book is often used to criticize certain countries or institutions (CIA, China, IRS, and more), we live in a world where all rulers, regardless of ideology, spy on individuals whenever the opportunity presents itself. The difference is that in 1984, only states are guilty of spying, when in real life their data collection is healthily contested by large corporations.
Those madmen who read more than one science fiction novel in their wretched lifetime also feel the need to point out Brave New World. There is an elimination of ennui (lat. tedium (d. kedsomhed (sp. aburrimiento (kl. tlhuH (en. boredom))))), preferably through the use of the drug SOMA. Those who have not read the book can experience the plot by turning off their phones and looking at the beauty of our Lord’s creation... until they get bored and prefer to watch funny clips from Family Guy. The warning about suppressing boredom with technology can also be found in Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? where the use of a compassion box allows the community to experience the suffering of an imaginary person named Mercer. Experiencing the suffering of others and making it your own through boxes can be done in a variety of ways in modern society, for example by changing your profile picture on Facebook, sharing slides in a story on Insta or posting with any popular hashtag on any social network. #timetoact #vote #wecandoit #climateaction. What Brave New World and DADOES have in common is the warning regarding how people are moving away from nature and developing an obsession with ignoring the real situation through the use of technological innovations. Are you reading this through the Internet?
Regardless of where you read this, you belong to a social elite that thinks independently. We can all agree on that. Due to uncivilization, it won’t be long until political works such as Hard Choices, What Happened and Back to Work will be burned at the stake by a mob, just like in Fahrenheit 451. Barack Obama himself considers the latter to be one of the best books ever written. For fear of reprisals, we will not object to it. “Double tap” if you like that review!
Nowadays, machines not only commit war crimes on our behalf, but also select the news that we diligently consume. If readers, just like the people in the short story Someday by Isaac Asimov, trust machines to think for them, that is fine, but let us be aware of who profits from this arrangement.
The title of this article is a parody of the book title The World of Yesterday, which briefly mentions future predictions from before the first world war. In those days, people believed that trains would wipe out borders, poverty would be eliminated with better jobs, and diseases would stop threatening people's lives due to vaccinations. While some of that is true for some of us, especially Europeans, we also live in a world of inequality and atrocity beyond human understanding. This is experienced by law and mathematics students, as well as other slaves of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, so that impenetrable consumption and joy can reign on the surface, just like in Wall-E.
We want to thank you, dear reader, for reading this to the end, patience is a virtue. We sincerely apologize.