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> Certain backward areas have advanced, and various devices always in some way connected with warfare and police espionage have developed, but experiment and invention have largely stopped.

-- George Orwell, "Nineteen-Eightyfour"

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That quote is exemplary of Orwell's personal feud with Stalinism rather than an accurate prediction. Historically, neither in the USA or China, has technological cooperation with the military slowed down technological advance (in fact public moonshots were arguably a driver behind most of the technology we take for granted).

For a thorough criticism of 1984 as a device to explore technology in the future, I recommend Asimov's harsh criticism of the book.

http://www.newworker.org/ncptrory/1984.htm

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