There are many examples of Sci-Fi novels that bear frightening resemblance to our modern day world.

The first of which I'd like to bring up is
Fahrenheit 451. In this book there are large televisions the size of walls that people are glued to all the time. People are brainwashed and always walk around wearing "shells" on their ears. These are just the two most apparent ones that I recall (there are many more that I have just forgotten the specifics of since I read the book). The large televisions, obviously, are the big screen TVs. Now you have to understand, this book was written way before TVs were even a common household object. The shells are exceedingly similar to the iPods and mp3 players that people walk around. In some of my classes even students are listening to their music, they literally never take them out of their ears...just like the shells.

Another example of this (and possibly the most frightening) is Brave New World.I wont get into too many details as there are rather crass parts, but everything mentioned is merely a slightly exaggerated version of today's world. What's frightening is that the book was written in 1932, way before the world ever even thought of being anything beyond conservative. Yet, in this book the author talks about the mantras over loudspeakers that control and brainwash the humans that have become but brainwashed clones that are literally made from machines to be certain levels. It's nearly impossible to get into all of them, so to make this slightly more organized, I'll just make four main points:

-The brainwashing mantra's say stuff that downplays each class below them. Is this not similar to how people have automatically grown to assume that being called to the office over the loudspeaker is a bad thing?

-Sex hormone chewing gum. This may SEEM as though it's far away, however, it's actually frighteningly possible. There are sexually stimulating lubricants available. Also, there's caffeinated gum. It's only a matter of time before scientists put the two together.

-The humans are literally made and placed in pre-determined classes with pre-determined and brainwashed thoughts of the other classes. Today people are mechanized by the media and told already how they should act and what they should think of people who are different or in other social stereotypes or social classes.

-The last, and most disturbing one I would like to request that only those with strong stomachs should continue to read this particular section.
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The children are encouraged to have sexual relations with each other from the time they are as young as 3 or 4. In todays world, there are sexually active 10 year olds and I've even heard of a few 8 year olds that had been chastised by their parents for immoral acts. In such a sexualized world, I cannot help but to wonder about just how soon all this will come to be.

There are also striking resemblances in other futuristic tales such as IRobot and 1984 however I think that the general idea has been presented through the prior two books.

So what do you think?

Do you think Huxley, Bradbury, Asimov, and Orwell can tell the future?

Do you think that society needs to try and move back to it's roots to avoid the inevitable?

If no to both of the above, do you just consider these to be striking coincidences?

I do not think anyone can predict the future; rather, people become intrigued and curious about science and technology and fantasise about what the future could be like. These things move at such a fast pace that much of science fiction does become science reality. For example, cars that could drive themselves used to be just science fiction, but it's been done now! Not mass-marketed yet, but it exists.

I think we as a society are becoming increasingly brainwashed. Look at all the hype over celebrities these days. The media provides more gossip than wholesome entertainment, and people buy into that and idolise the people they see on television. People seem to be more ignorant and apathetic now too, which only makes brainwashing easier than ever. People see some government-sponsored public service announcement and assume it is true because it comes from a higher authority. Look at the war on drugs -- it's being fought by people who blindly go along with whatever they hear without question.

Society does need to go back a bit and reevaluate what is truly important to humanity, rather than what the media says is important to humanity. Unfortunately, that will never happen because we have become too lazy to care.