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Recently I've decided to go on a book buying spree. Part of that includes picking up Brave New World and 1984. Both books pull me in because of how closely they parallel the world we live in, especially Brave New World. Surveillance and data harvesting are becoming more common, and AI is getting better at predicting your biases and desires. My instinct is that while we do have the infrastructure for a surveillance state, Brave New World might hit a bit closer to home right now.

Algorithms feeding dopamine. Food designed for addiction, not nutrition. Obesity rising while health collapses under sugar and seed oils. Attention spans eroding. Porn wrecking people's ability to connect. And in twenty years, many of us might have BCIs in our skulls, literally being fed Coke adverts, and you can't tell if it's an intrusive thought or an ad anymore.

For anyone who's read both, which one did you prefer and why?
And if you've only read one, how much did the message resonate with you?

1984 should be required reading in schools.

You can just pull up any list of quotes from it, and it's hard to believe it wasn't being written today.

I've only read 1984, which I finished under a month ago. Let me just say this: If you are used to happy, or even semi-happy, resolutions, than this isn't for you. The ending hit me like a brick wall, and I couldn't stop thinking about the book for the entire night. I also think that there is the possibility of the world turning into an approximation of the book, but only if almost everything goes wrong.

I always remember Berka talking about when he first read Animal Farm in school. He said he got so angry at the ending he destroyed the book, and instead of being mad the teacher was actually impressed that something he was teaching about affected him so much.

Wow, he destroyed the book? How did he get that mad? I remember reading Animal Farm, but I was only annoyed that I had guessed that it was going to happen.

Also, who's Berka? You don't have to answer if you want to btw.

A CYStian of some fair repute, influence and involvement that has not been around for awhile.

For some reason I always seem to sub the plot of Stranger in a Strange Land when I think of Brave New World.

I've read Brave New World, I would've really liked it if there wasn't so much romance. Not my thing. But the message was great and the biology was questionable. I'd give it an 8/10.