Orwell wasn't right about where society was in 1984. We haven't turned into that sort of surveillance society. But that may be, at least in small part, because of his book. The notion that ubiquitous surveillance and state manipulation of the media is evil is deeply engrained in us.
Ramez Naam
Related What is the society we wish to protect? Is it the society of complete surveillance for the commonwea... TOM STOPPARD I don't think there's much distinction between surveillance and media in general. Better med... BRUCE STERLING Often in the past, there have been authors that were deeply disappointed in their adaptation, but th... LOIS LOWRY We may claim to believe in God, but we don't want to believe so much that it makes us different. CRAIG GROESCHEL Commissioner Kelly may be ready to launch us all into a surveillance society, but we believe cameras... CHRIS DUNN No system of mass surveillance has existed in any society that we know of to this point that has not... EDWARD SNOWDEN We do have a distorted view of our fantasies in society, but that's because we don't talk ab... SASHA GREY Every dude in your high school wasn't striving to be the best poet because then he'd get all... CHAD HARBACH I don't think anyone in the media thinks strategically about society. TODD GITLIN Unless technology itself is drastically repressed, the idea of the dystopian monoculture like Orwell... TAD WILLIAMS In a repressive society, a writer can be deeply influential, but in a society that's filled with... DON DELILLO The struggle is part of your story but Everything will be in place in the right situation at a perfe... NAPZ CHERUB PELLAZO In the '70s and '80s, the mentality of America was that everything was disposable. The notio... LES WEXNER I was taught to confront things you can't avoid. Death is one of those things. To live in a soci... DAMIEN HIRST You can move into a surveillance society one tiny camera at a time. DEIRDRE MULLIGAN I think there's a notion in our society, and it may be valid, that people aren't as funny wh... PHIL HARTMAN I don't think that I would always be asked about my feelings about liberal bias in the media if ... DANA PERINO As smartphones have allowed us to have our computers, emails, social media feeds, and a full surveil... SARAH LACY No one has done a study on this, as far as I can tell, but I think Facebook might be the first place... MARK ZUCKERBERG The fact is that the modern implementation of the prison planet has far surpassed even PAUL JOSEPH WATSON It's great that Time is moving in the direction of validating those who, by choice or circumstan... MEGHAN DAUM My favorite parts about 'The Battle of Five Armies' were the moments where you could clearly... EVANGELINE LILLY The National Surveillance State doesn't want anyone to be able to communicate without the author... BARRY EISLER It's a social contract we make. We're willing to give up certain things. We give you the rig... MATT APUZZO There's something about compassion that causes society to say, 'We're going to take this... MAX LUCADO What we've seen over the last decade is we've seen a departure from the traditional work of ... EDWARD SNOWDEN Being present is being connected to All Things. S. KELLEY HARRELL, M. DIV. In wake of that (documents outlining surveillance of the Seattle-area groups), we wondered if there ... DOUG HONIG When I started on 'Roseanne,' it was a great achievement for me at the time. But I wasn'... JOHNNY GALECKI Age is just a number. Unless, that is, you live in Hollywood, where there's this notion that if ... KATE WALSH As the defenders of the Constitution, we are deeply troubled that illegal surveillance of law-abidin... JEFF GAMSO I believe we live in a love-starved society. Everywhere you go there are probably people who haven... JOYCE MEYER At least we know that these surveillance mechanisms are deterring the potential of it being more esc... LYNN JAMIESON Life wasn't about freeing up human souls. It was about creating obedient slaves in the hierarchi... INGMAR BERGMAN The concept of surveillance is ingrained in our beings. God was the original surveillance camera. HASAN M. ELAHI The Bushes were certainly part of Texas in their mind, but they didn't have the kind of politica... GAIL COLLINS That sort of half sigh, which, accompanied by two or three slight nods of the head, is pity's sm... CHARLES DICKENS Haven't you felt a peculiar sort of worry about the chair in your living room that no one sits i... NICHOLSON BAKER For many, the recent disclosure of massive warrantless surveillance programs of all citizens by the ... JONATHAN TURLEY Who is capable of self-support?” he demanded. “There is no such thing in a civilized society as ... EDWARD BELLAMY I wouldn't say I'm vain - I'm just in a job where the way you look is important. Well, a... GARY NUMAN I think it's important for us as a society to remember that the youth within juvenile justice sy... Q'ORIANKA KILCHER First of all, the world criticizes American foreign policy because Americans criticize American fore... MICHAEL MANDELBAUM You won't really get a lot of the mainstream, lovey-dovey side because that wasn't a part of... YOUNG BUCK Passion is the driver of achievement in all fields. Some people love doing things they don't fee... KEN ROBINSON In the years since I worked with John Hughes, there were many years where I literally had hundred of... ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL To assert in any case that a man must be absolutely cut off from society because he is absolutely ev... ALBERT CAMUS Some of the recipes in the book have evolved for us. Many haven't. THOMAS KELLER Reaping political dividends out of tragedies is deeply engrained in the Congress' DNA. PIYUSH GOYAL Patriarchy is like the elephant in the room that we don't talk about, but how could it not affec... ANI DIFRANCO We don't ask the actor playing James Bond what his sexual preference is. So I don't know wha... JACK FALAHEE We all die, it's a fact that today you aren't here, yesterday you weren't here doesn't mean that tom... DEYTH BANGER I feel that Jane's is really a vibe and a time. It wasn't like we were the Beatles. We didn&... ERIC AVERY I am in favor of reducing all budget items. But the item I don't want to reduce is the pension e... MARIANO RAJOY Part of the reason why people get radicalized is because they feel they are disenfranchised; that th... BASSEM YOUSSEF I would miss months of school and then return with bright blond hair. Needless to say, there was bul... TOM FELTON Incidentally, our railroad facilities are under video surveillance by the federal police. However, t... OTTO SCHILY I don't think I'm an angry person. I think I'm a person who's angry. I'm angry a... AL FRANKEN I wouldn't say that I'm actually trying to cause chills in the audience, but certainly my go... ERIC WHITACRE The story of 'Highway' is completely about travel. It is about the fascination of travel to ... IMTIAZ ALI I don't know if high society is different in other cities, but in Hollywood, important people ca... MARILYN MONROE The two men had a conversation. Brief, cryptic, to the point. As though they had exchanged numbers a... ARUNDHATI ROY Evolution by natural selection is the explanation for why we exist. It is not something to guide our... RICHARD DAWKINS Evolution by natural selection is the explanation for why we exist. It is not something to guide our... RICHARD DAWKINS In the 1970s, we had Carl Sagan, and he was so suave with his turtleneck and his tweed jacket. And h... GREG GRAFFIN We've enshrined the purity, sanctity, value, and importance of bringing children into the world,... CATE BLANCHETT As Asian-Americans, the charge that is often lobbed against us is sort of the least original: the id... DAVID HENRY HWANG I'm not above the law. No one is. But we don't want to live in a society where Lady Justice ... DINESH D'SOUZA Here's Kanye, the great musical genius of his generation in hip hop, but, like, society really c... BEN HOROWITZ 'Divergent' is a story about people who don't fit into a category - that is a big part o... THEO JAMES I don't think there's much distinction between surveillance and media in general. Better media means... BRUCE STERLING I started classes and it wasn't because I was like, 'I want to be an actor!' - I was rea... CAITY LOTZ I think this is the most exciting time to be alive right now. We have a black president. There are t... VINCENT RODRIGUEZ III Triple tonguing? It was sort of invented. It wasn't in the script. It was something that I came ... FAMKE JANSSEN Business book writing for me is when some set of ideas gets stuck in my mind, I write a book about i... TOM PETERS At this very moment in time there will be people making, breaking relationships, regretting deeply w... DAVID BLUNKETT When you live in a place, you're not just taking from it, you're contributing to it. In Amer... BRYAN BROWN It used to be that readers were relegated because they considered themselves far above society, and ... ALBERTO MANGUEL New technologies threaten to create a surveillance society. BARRY STEINHARDT Embrace YOU...Believe in yourself, in this very moment...forgive yourself for all mistakes and 'bad'... ANGIE KARAN Magic symbolises the subconscious - that part of us that is creative and powerful that we sometimes ... EDDIE MARSAN Marriage is becoming sort of fake. It's almost like a handbag. Everybody wants the newest, great... ROB LOWE The works of previous artists have come from their own experiences or insights but haven't given... JAMES TURRELL The first comic I can remember ever reading was a 'Fantastic Four' issue that my dad bought ... CHARLES SOULE One of the things I keep coming back to in my writing is that society doesn't work on this mirro... THOMAS FRANK I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things... I do not want to live in a w... EDWARD SNOWDEN The only thing I daydreamed about was being an opera singer. But I was so skinny and so pathetic tha... PATTI SMITH I've often said in the past that I thought MTV was sort of evil incarnate and signified the begi... MARTHA PLIMPTON We can now diagnose diseases that haven't even manifested in the patient, and may not until the ... CRAIG VENTER I met Jack Nicholson when I was about 10 at a party of my uncle's, and it wasn't so much tha... EMILIA FOX There is no greater glory than to die for love. GABRIEL GARCíA MáRQUEZ Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nasti... GABRIEL GARCíA MáRQUEZ She would defend herself, saying that love, no matter what else it might be, was a natural talent. S... GABRIEL GARCíA MáRQUEZ George Orwell's science-fiction classic 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' wasn't a failure beca... ROBERT J. SAWYER You know, my hair is very upsetting to people, but it's upsetting on purpose. It is important to... TYNE DALY Climate change is one of those stories that deserves more attention, that we all talk about, but we ... JEFF ZUCKER What this taught us is that in three weeks, the state meet is going to be close. This prepared us fo... DREW YOAKUM I've gone on streaks where I haven't shot the ball well here, but I was always making up for... J. R. SMITH I think what he's - what he believes, and he may be correct, I don't know, that we have some... LAWRENCE EAGLEBURGER Society doesn't like to deal with death, but it is a natural part of living. HARMON KILLEBREW
More Ramez Naam
The accumulated knowledge of materials, computing, electromagnetism, product design, and all the res... RAMEZ NAAM On almost every environmental issue I care about, in fact, I've been wrong at one point or anoth... RAMEZ NAAM AI does not keep me up at night. Almost no one is working on conscious machines. Deep learning algor... RAMEZ NAAM I've tried Oculus Rift; I've played with the Steam VR rig. Both are mind-blowing. In a tradi... RAMEZ NAAM Technology is incredibly powerful. And in many ways, the sky is the limit in terms of what you can a... RAMEZ NAAM I have an 'office,' technically. I never use it. I work on a couch in my living room, with m... RAMEZ NAAM There's a preponderance of scientists and engineers among China's rulers. New President Xi J... RAMEZ NAAM In a VR setting, you tilt your head up, and you really have the vertigo and the sense that it goes u... RAMEZ NAAM Orange juice from concentrate is labeled. Food coloring Red #5 is labeled. Fish are labeled as to wh... RAMEZ NAAM The total amount of energy we use every year - from coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, and ever... RAMEZ NAAM We have to slow down the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from coal burning, oil and eventual... RAMEZ NAAM 'Brave New World' dealt with a kind of proto-genetic engineering of the unborn, through real... RAMEZ NAAM Solar power is going to be absolutely essential to meeting growing energy demands while staving off ... RAMEZ NAAM We are cyborgs already. If you learn to read, it causes permanent changes to the structure of your b... RAMEZ NAAM In the end, our minds and their ability to create new ideas are the ultimate source of all human wea... RAMEZ NAAM Wild fish are under threat of extinction because they're hunted to feed us. Yet land animals tha... RAMEZ NAAM There are really two kinds of optimism. There's the complacent, Pollyanna optimism that says, ... RAMEZ NAAM When you're managing a large number of people, you learn that incentives matter tremendously. Yo... RAMEZ NAAM The real use of AI in industry is generally for very narrow pattern-matchers - a better search algor... RAMEZ NAAM Each additional idea is a gift to the future. Each additional idea producer is a source of wealth fo... RAMEZ NAAM I support GMOs. And we should label them. We should label them because that is the very best thing w... RAMEZ NAAM We've seen over time that countries that have the best economic growth are those that have good ... RAMEZ NAAM I'm a computer scientist by training. I'm also the author of three books, all of which endor... RAMEZ NAAM Neural implants could accomplish things no external interface could: Virtual and augmented reality w... RAMEZ NAAM I'm a geek through and through. My last job at Microsoft was leading much of the search engine r... RAMEZ NAAM We must learn to set our emotions aside and embrace what science tells us. GMOs and nuclear power ar... RAMEZ NAAM Genetically modified organism (GMO) foods are feared and hated by environmentalists and the public a... RAMEZ NAAM If we fix our economic system and invest in the human capital of the poor, then we should welcome ev... RAMEZ NAAM The world has a very serious problem, my friend' Shiva went on. 'Poor children still die by their mi... RAMEZ NAAM I do a lot of speaking about energy and environment. But that's more a second job than a hobby. ... RAMEZ NAAM Technology is vital. We have to have development in new technology if we're going to solve these... RAMEZ NAAM Americans mostly now believe the climate is changing. They believe that humans are causing it, and t... RAMEZ NAAM Food production has affected the environment more than any other activity humans have engaged in. Hu... RAMEZ NAAM Ideas come mostly bottoms-up. They come when you have a free flow of ideas and you have people able ... RAMEZ NAAM Threats that could wipe out the bulk of life on earth abound. Planetary catastrophe could come in th... RAMEZ NAAM The final frontier of the digital technology is integrating into your own brain. RAMEZ NAAM On a large scale, people aren't going to cut back how much they use. That's a pipe dream. If... RAMEZ NAAM Everything good and bad about technology would be magnified by implanting it deep in brains. Is the ... RAMEZ NAAM I absolutely hated 'Gattaca.' I left the theater shaking my head because the science in the ... RAMEZ NAAM What we want to do is put a price on greenhouse gases. Because if they're more expensive, busine... RAMEZ NAAM Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and others have stated that they think AI is an existential risk. I disa... RAMEZ NAAM You have to be able to generate usable energy without greenhouse gas emissions, and you have to be a... RAMEZ NAAM But Nita had always seen having a child as selfish. Why bring another soul into this world, she'd sa... RAMEZ NAAM Do you think that a billion people knowing your face makes you special? It doesn't. RAMEZ NAAM