Fahrenheit 451 is set in an unspecified city and time, though it is written as if set in a distant future.[note 1][25] The earliest editions make clear that it takes place no earlier than the year 2022 due to a reference to an atomic war taking place during that year.[note 5][84]
Bradbury described himself as "a preventer of futures, not a predictor of them."[85] He did not believe that book burning was an inevitable part of the future; he wanted to warn against its development.[85] In a later interview, when asked if he believes that teaching Fahrenheit 451 in schools will prevent his totalitarian[2] vision of the future, Bradbury replied in the negative. Rather, he states that education must be at the kindergarten and first-grade level. If students are unable to read then, they will be unable to read Fahrenheit 451.[86]
As to technology, Sam Weller notes that Bradbury "predicted everything from flat-panel televisions to earbud headphones and twenty-four-hour banking machines."[87]
