The future of surveillance is here, and it's extremely frightening

You’ve read 1984, right? You know, George Orwell’s delightful romp that painted a picture of a horrifying future where Big Brother is aware of the public’s every single move? Well, it appears that we’re now closer than ever before to such an existence.

Over the last year, we’ve heard of those wild stories about how facial recognition is being used to catch people at concerts, but now we’re getting an idea of just how powerful technology can be.

As Digital Trends note, Chinese company Big Pixel has recently released a stunning gigapixel image of Shanghai that is like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Before you take a peek, it’s worth noting that the average smartphone can take images that average around 12 megapixels. That’s plenty, right? That’s more than enough to document your trip to the beach this summer, but pales in comparison to Big Pixel’s whopping 195,000 megapixel image.

Taking two months to put together, this phenomenal image comprises thousands of individual images which have been stitched together to form an astonishing panorama.

From a cursory glance at the image, it appears like it’s nothing special. Just another image of Shanghai, right? Well, when you start zooming in, you can realise just how powerful this picture is.

From the words on street signs to the facial features of pedestrians, this image provides a stunning, if frightening look into just how powerful and invasive the future of surveillance is.