George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four really lay down the groundwork for dystopia that came after, such as Radiohead’s 3rd album “Ok computer”, Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?”, later adapted into the 1982 movie classic “Blade Runner” and later “Blade Runner 2049”, and Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange”. Although the setting is drastically different between these dystopian worlds, a commonality is the use of technology being used by a greater power for control.

“Ok computer” is a 53 minute long alternative rock album which concerns itself feelings of paranoia and alienation one can feel in the digital era. The album builds a dystopian landscape where technology is the largest concern. The lyrics are cryptic which allows the album to be comprised of short stories or ideas rather than a larger narrative.

The album is a constant battle between traditional instruments and digital instruments such as drum machines and synths. The track “Karma Police” ends with screaming synths coming over top of, and replacing drums, vocals and acoustic guitars. The overbearing synths shows technology replacing the album’s human element. The very next track “Fitter Happier” is a monologue by an automated voice which talks about seemingly positive improvements to his life.

“A patient, better driver. A safer car, baby smiling in back seat. Sleeping well, no bad dreams. No paranoia.”, “A pig in a cage on antibiotics”

Some lines however critique the loss of humanity and despair as a result of this change.

Thom Yorke fears a future where technology leaves us empty and susceptible to indoctrination. Moaning lyrics and dreary percussion makes the album overall inspire a feeling of melancholy. The album speaks to the emptiness someone might feel in the digital era. The subject of the song “No Surprises” is about someone considering suicide, with an “…unfulfilling life, dissatisfied with the social or political order”.A Clockwork Orange ultra-violence as a distraction

This song to me almost perfectly mirrors Part 3 of “A Clockwork Orange”. When Alex is set free, the people he wronged as his past self aren’t exactly ready to pardon him. Alex feels alienated and unfulfilled and attempts suicide just like our protagonist from “No Surprises”.

Alex from A Clockwork Orange is also living dissatisfied with the social and political order and him and his droogs seek to distract themselves through drugs and ultra-violence. Unlike pre-miniluv Winston from Nineteen Eighty-Four, pre-ludovico Alex doesn’t consider himself in a larger social context. He acts violently, not as a political statement but because he gets pleasure from it. His violent actions however, still represent a failure from the state. Life is made so unfulfilling and boring that people resort to entertaining themselves through harming others.

After undergoing the Ludovico technique, Alex is successfully pacified, but he loses a part of himself in the process. This can be seen with him losing his passion for classical music. Alex and Winston’s non-conformity endangers the perfect image of the state, so the state will attempt to destroy this part of them at all costs. Someone ripped from their non-conforming attributes becomes a “half-person” who will seek to join a collective, thus furthering the goals of the state.

The idea of reducing a human into a shell of it’s former self in order strengthen the state is also very present in George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Winston Smith is tortured into submission and servitude of Big Brother. Through the Ludovico Technique Alex’s very thoughts of violence are made nauseating. Winston is tortured until he cannot possibly think ill of the state.

Aside from Ludovico and miniluv, technology is often seen to observe and police the population. Winston prior to the state’s intervention is under constant observation. He is under perpetual test conditions by virtue of the telescreens, where even a rapid heart beat or a murmur in your sleep could reveal unorthodoxy. similarly “K” from Blade Runner 2049 is subject to daily “baseline” tests to assure he doesn’t stray from his original purpose, else go through a rigorous rehabilitation program, or be killed. (the corporations deem it unsafe to have stray replicants unmonitored or unserving).

The eye is the symbol of state observation in many dystopia. Beginning the original Blade Runner movie, we get a shot of the pyramidal Tyrell corporation building followed by an extreme close up shot of an eye. Reflecting from the eye we can make out that it’s overlooking the city, presumably from inside the building we saw in the first shot. This “all seeing” eye is left to speculation as opposed to being Roy Batty’s or Doctor Tyrell’s. The “eye” is metaphor for observation by the state. For this reason, I believe it’s a direct reference to the pyramidal ministries of Nineteen Eighty-Four and ever-watching Big Brother.

More population prying; cameras can be seen everywhere in Blade Runner’s LA, and cops seem to show up with second to none response times. All of this supervision gives both Nineteen Eighty-Four and Blade Runner an oppressive atmosphere, adding to the tension of our rebel anti-hero always on the verge of revealing their identity.

The writing of the Blade Runner Universe, OK Computer and A Clockwork Orange were all undoubtedly affected by ideas originating from Nineteen Eighty-Four. Either ideas were directly inspired, or they were inadvertently added due to Orwell’s impact on the development of the genre as a whole. All of these texts are interlinked by the use of technology by the state to gain control of the individual.