Back to the future

In a fairly unique move, the New York Times has taken to publishing “Op-Art” of late – images presented on the editorial page that fall somewhere between editorial cartoons and editorials, but that convey a message as potent as either of the more traditional forms. Currently, the paper has a piece by Randy Siegel up, contemplating Google in 2084.

The artwork isn’t really about Google – it is about society, the Internet and progress. The image displays a search engine with avenues of disturbing access – espionage-friendly fields, privacy-inhaling options and, of course, “pornography.” The date offered, of course, is no coincidence either – a century past the Orwellian date of reckoning.

And while the piece is surely good for a laugh, provocative thought and few inches of ink, one must question the veracity of the point it seeks to make. Frankly, I am getting tired of prophetical pieces of intellectual hogwash that turn out to be no more accurate than George Méliès’ Le Voyage Dans La Lune.

Orwell’s book is undoubtedly a piece of brilliant literature. But 1984 has come and gone. In fact, I was born in that noted year. And Big Brother still isn’t watching (though, in the interest of honesty, I don’t know that Orwell ever saw the book as a literal prophecy so much as a hyperbolic warning and pointed knock at Europe). Ray Bradburry’s theories are equally past due. Old episodes of The Twilight Zone have seen their futuristic settings come and go with little parallel. Even Kubrick’s noted film seems well off-base. (I am even tempted to wonder if Prince really thought that partying would be all that different in 1999…)

To be sure, futuristic commentaries are oftentimes either pure science-fiction or politically hyperbolic narratives, no so much aimed at any realistic invocation of prophecy so much as firm warning of an undeparted path’s eventual potholes. But looking at Siegel’s piece, one must wonder if he isn’t at least semi-serious about privacy’s supposed decline over the next 79 years. Is this piece of “Op-Art” really to suggest that society would so stubbornly do something like this to itself?

Society never will. And if for no reason other than the simple fact that Orwell is still being taught in almost every American high school.