All throughout Totalitarian and Dystopian fiction, there is a common idea that future societies will have advanced technology. A few examples are the cars that exceed speeds of 200 miles per hour in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and the mind control serum in Veronica Roth’s novel Divergent. Yet, in Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, the society is technologically primitive. This shows that science and technology will continue to advance until it will one day collapse then retrogress hundreds even thousands of years. Rand is correct in depicting the future this way. Evidence as to why she is correct can be found in many ancient cultures (particularly the Ancient Romans) and their downfall. The Ancient Romans were very technologically advanced and had
