this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
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It's more that the world of 1984 has regressed even from the technology of the time it was written, but this is entirely unintentional on Orwell's part. Washing machines existed in reality, yet people in 1984 wash clothes by hand, people have to lace their own shoes rather than shoes being made with laces. It's a nostalgia for the past buried in a confusing "future" setting. It's not so much that it is an "advanced" future, but rather one that has regressed, but that isn't something the author is even aware of. Plenty of novels set in the future deal with a regression of technology, but this isn't used as proper set up of 1984 or anything, it just is a part of the setting because Orwell was unable to imagine how people might operate in the future, rather than being actual worldbuilding.