11.07.2015 Views

1984 - Planet eBook

1984 - Planet eBook

1984 - Planet eBook

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

is its subject matter. The scientist of today is either a mixtureof psychologist and inquisitor, studying with real ordinaryminuteness the meaning of facial expressions, gestures, andtones of voice, and testing the truth-producing effects ofdrugs, shock therapy, hypnosis, and physical torture; or heis chemist, physicist, or biologist concerned only with suchbranches of his special subject as are relevant to the takingof life. In the vast laboratories of the Ministry of Peace, andin the experimental stations hidden in the Brazilian forests,or in the Australian desert, or on lost islands of the Antarctic,the teams of experts are indefatigably at work. Someare concerned simply with planning the logistics of futurewars; others devise larger and larger rocket bombs, moreand more powerful explosives, and more and more impenetrablearmour-plating; others search for new and deadliergases, or for soluble poisons capable of being produced insuch quantities as to destroy the vegetation of whole continents,or for breeds of disease germs immunized againstall possible antibodies; others strive to produce a vehiclethat shall bore its way under the soil like a submarine underthe water, or an aeroplane as independent of its baseas a sailing-ship; others explore even remoter possibilitiessuch as focusing the sun’s rays through lenses suspendedthousands of kilometres away in space, or producing artificialearthquakes and tidal waves by tapping the heat at theearth’s centre.But none of these projects ever comes anywhere near realization,and none of the three super-states ever gains asignificant lead on the others. What is more remarkable is

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!