Surveillance in Science Fiction

A fantastic list of surveillance devices thought up by Science Fiction authors: Surveillance in Science Fiction  About how most things that were once science fiction are now here and in use. Plus a list of actual surveillance measures deployed right now.

http://rhizome.org/editorial/2012/jun/6/natural-history-surveillance/

Submitted for your consideration: an entire list of surveillance concepts, proposed by science-fiction stories. Note the technologically real items: Augmented Reality, ubiquitous surveillance, drones, eavesdropping rays, and tracking systems. These are all things that we might call “cutting edge tech”, but indeed, certainly real tech. Surprise, shock, uncanniness, paranoia— yes, it is repeated enough to be cliche–the future is here.

But what is truly uncanny about our present “not-so-distant future”, is that we continue to refer to it as the future. There is no need to speculate. We have a fully evolved culture of surveillance technology in the United States.