1984 Foreword: Internet and social control

[jbor]

    [...] the wonders of computer technology circa 2003,
    most notably the Internet, a development that promises
    social control on a scale those quaint old
    20th-century tyrants with their goofy moustaches could
    only dream about. (p. xvi)

Isn't one of the key words here "promises"? Way I read it, Pynchon's point
is not that the Internet was specifically *developed* for the purpose of
social control (he doesn't address its origins), and it's not that it's
currently ("circa 2003") being *used* for the purpose of social control, but
that it's something which *might* be used for that purpose at some
undisclosed future time. A prophesy, in other words.

best