I think a more correct assessment of Orwell was that he was predicting what was to come, based on what he saw was going on in 1948, and he would be correct, at least to an extent. The tech wasn't quite there by 1984, at least not on a wide-scale basis, but it is now. Just watched a news clip about a plane that can fly over and mimic a cell phone tower, recording all cell phone data being sent and received. Not just smart phones, all cell phones. I'm not surprised in the least bit. But it's only to catch 'criminals' of course.  

Remember Scholastic News from elementary school? And all their sci-fi gadgets they talked about would be widely available by year 2000? Like hotels on Mars. Whatever happened with that? 

I'm still waiting on my hover-car!! 

But yeah, none of that tin-foil hattery in here folks. This is the poser forum. :)