New Think usually involves lateral thinking. Lateral thinking is based on biological information processing principles which differ from the physical information processing principles of mathematics, logic, and computers. For instance, with biological information processing there may be a need to be wrong, which is unthinkable with physical information processing. It is these principles that make lateral thinking so necessary for New Think and the generation of new ideas.

However, readers who pick up Nineteen Eighty-Four because of the current worries over the Prism programme would be wrong just to see it as a novel about the dangers of overweening technology. The all-seeing telescreen in the corner of the room is an important device for allowing the state to exercise control, but Orwell’s real concern is about far more insidious threats to liberty. The Big Brother state aims at nothing less than the control of language and thought. According to the slogans repeated by the Ministry of Truth, “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.” Deprive people of the words with which to resist, and you will crush resistance.