The Future of Freedom: Politics & Technology

Surely no literary vision of the future can match the power and enduring influence of Orwell’s 1984. Perhaps the most provocative element of that vision is the prospect of using sophisticated technologies of intrusion and manipulation to consolidate totalitarian power. Since Orwell, it has become impossible to speculate on the future of freedom without considering the role of freedom-destroying technologies.

Politically, the Western democracies have thus far fared better than Orw...