Both Huxley and Orwell present surprisingly accurate, if not, interesting predictions about the future of society. Connection to Orwell's 1984 can be made: surveillance cameras, Internet databases, microchip implants and other technologies can clearly be seen as a manifestation of Big Brother, and Room 101 can be tied to both torture or even more simply to interrogations. Although Orwell's future is more lauded today, Huxley's vision in Brave New World is more relevant - almost too relevant - leaning more towards eerie than just coincidental.
The life of a World State citizen begins in a bottle. In this bottle, they are conditioned through the appropriate dosage of oxygen, alcohol and other substances to become whatever society needs them to be. Upon being "decanted" - the equivalent of our word "born" - he goes through the appropriate series of hypnopaedic and experimental conditioning that feeds and creates his personality; he never gets the chance to choose his own path; he is conditioned from his birth until his death. Although this method of creating people seems too unnatural, far-fetched and even irrelevant to today's society, it isn't.
Currently we have many "unnatural" means of fertilization such as In Vitro and artificial insemination. Scientists are even going as far as genetic engineering, where they can increase the chances of having a child with a specific eye/hair color. Genetic engineering is one way of conditioning, but how about a pregnant woman playing Mozart to her unborn child, a mother or father forcing their child to use their right instead of their left hand to write/eat/play baseball, or even the vaccinations we get growing up? These are all things people do to try to change their children. Some of the methods are unproven and others don't work 100% of the time, but even merely attempting change is enough proof to connect our society to that of Brave New World. What began with Pavlov's dogs expanded to many other scientific and personal experiments dealing with conditioning; this change can be seen in human conditioning as well. All of this was unheard of in the past, but scientific advancements proved to change the way babies are brought into the world, to change how society works.
Another way the citizens of World State are controlled is psychologically through their superiors and their peers. Although the human body is controlled through conditioning at birth and childhood, human nature in general remains relatively untouched. The characters in Brave New World are still compelled to conform if it gives them the acceptance that they long for. This universal feeling is used to the society's advantage and they create a "surveillance system" based on paranoia. When everyone is watching everyone else the need to conform becomes more important. We see its effect through characters like Bernard and Lenina. Lenina's friend Fanny constantly keeps her on the right path and steers her to accept more dates and advances from men because the Director would be unhappy if she didn't follow "Everyone belongs to everyone else." Even Bernard, the outcast of World State, knows to conform during the meetings and other aspects of life in the eyes of his fellow World Statians. Peers and authority figures constantly keep the citizens in line and following the structure of society.
This type of surveillance through paranoia seems almost more effective then Orwell's Big Brother and even more relevant to the present. In present day society, people are always looking for approval. Social standards are set and spread through the media and this alone keeps our people in line. Whether it be shopping for the latest fashion trend, going "Green," or listening to popular radio stations, presently, people look for ways to conform and to fit in among their peers. Everyone has their social groups and work groups in which they fit perfectly like puzzle pieces. These current groups are Huxley's own Epsilons, Alphas, Betas, etc.
Although Brave New World may seem preposterous to us, it is quite the mirror image of today's society. Keeping in mind the progress that science has made from the Scientific Revolution, to Pavlov, to test tube babies, it would not be an outrageous assumption to say that by connecting personal interest with those of scientists and society in general there is the possibility of achieving a world close to, if not identical to World State.
