Recent development in technology may turn our reality into a dystopian Orwellian nightmare – should we worry about it?

In George Orwell’s 1984, the protagonist Winston carefully keeps his back to the telescreen in his living room, to stay out of detection in the fear of certain punishment, as he begins writing in his diary. Fear of the “Big Brother” watching is not anything new, but for this generation living in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), the dystopian masterpiece may make one feel an eerie sense of familiarity and foreboding.

The rapid development of new technologies could enable, or already is enabling, totalitarian-style surveillance and control to silently creep into our everyday life.

Use or Misuse of Technology?

… Tan Ming Hui is an Associate Research Fellow in the Office of the Executive Deputy Chairman and Walid Lemrini is a student research assistant at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

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