In George Orwell’s 1984, the book’s hero, Winston Smith, is a minor party functionary living in a London that is still shattered by a nuclear war that took place not long after World War II. He belongs to the Outer Party, and his job is to rewrite history in the Ministry of Truth, bringing it in line with current political thinking.
According to a truly disturbing article on vice.com, the Midjourney subreddit is being flooded with images of historical events that never happened, such as the “infamous Blue Plague Incident” that occurred in the 1970s in the Soviet Union, the “July 2012 solar superstorm and blackout” in the U.S., and “the 2001 Great Cascadia 9.1 Earthquake & Tsunami” that devastated the west coast of North America.
Orwell’s novel highlights the dangers of totalitarianism and the importance of individual freedom and free thought. I don’t think anyone ever believed that rewriting history was going to be a real thing. Thanks to a few motivated individuals and their generative AI coworkers, Orwell’s dystopian world has arrived.
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