Machiavelli The Scrivener

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever." So wrote George Orwell in his novel, 1984.' 

Reading in my safe, terror-free teenage bedroom, I often used to wonder what kind of boot it would be.

A traditional Nazi jackboot? 

Or a trendy desert boot designed to conceal the threat to our republic behind an aura of nonchalant hipsterism?

A muddy hiking boot maybe, for intimidating rural insurgents in the mountains? 

Or perhaps a furry Ugg boot worn in feminist controlled dictatorships? 

An authoritarian astronaut's anti-gravity boot to future-proof any nascent Stalin's off-Earth autocracy? 

Wellington boot for history buff tyrants who conduct their brutal repressions via live action re-enactments of the Battle of Waterloo? 

Thigh-high river wader for reigns of terror focused around the Venetian lagoon? 

And what about a Das Boot, for confused German film students with a poor command of remedial English? 

Submarines aside, I guess it doesn't matter what type of boot it is, as long as we're talking about a size twelve with steel toe inserts.

But Orwell was ever so slightly incorrect, of course. It isn't a boot we need to fear but a bot. An internet bot, from Russia or China or even Arizona. 

And it won't be stamping on a human face. No, it will be doing the informational equivalent: posting on social media.

In other words: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine an AI bot commentating on a human Facebook feed —forever."

To be fair, the blog post you're currently reading can't claim to provide much better content than the imminent AI bot dystopia. 

All I've done is waste your valuable time with a list of whimsical boot possibilities for 21st Century Caesar's shopping list.

Mind you, if any 21st Century Caesar is reading this, please consider me for a role in your propaganda department. I need a job.