Fahrenheit 451 Lesson Plan

This section introduces the first truly science-fictional technology in this seminal sci-fi novel. What is it?

At the time Bradbury was writing, the interactive televisions, two-way bugging devices, and mechanized tracking equipment were all still a number of years away. Now, we read Fahrenheit 451 and recognize all these technologies as commonplace. But the ray of hope at the end of the novel depends on something that is still science fiction – a way to recreate a text from the mind of someone who has read it only once. It adds another layer to the novel to realize that the technology required for the dystopia has been in our hands for decades, but we are still far away from...