I know what you mean, that celebrated epic "1994" really did seem to foretend a dystopian future that could get badly out of hand if people fail to put privacy first above all.

Too bad so few people any more have really experienced the full 1994 cover-to-cover as adults, there just doesn't seem to be the same realization how important privacy can be :\

I haven't seen it yet but this is a timely reminder about the dangers of authoritarian surveillance. As AI technology enables extremely powerful new tools of surveillance and control we appear to be sleepwalking into a nightmare.

For nation states the lure of increased surveillance over its citizens is like the lure of advertising dollars for social networks: hard to resist. It's like crack cocaine for them: they will always have justifications for increased powers of surveillance and control, it's like an inevitable creep towards Big Brother.

'If you've got nothing to hide you don't need to worry'. I think most people feel this way, but really this is a lame and lazy attitude. It's easier to carry on regardless than acknowledge the dangers of immense authoritarian control.

George Orwell had an epiphany many years ago and could see where we were heading. His warning to us in his book 1984 is more relevant today than it ever has been.