Posted on 11/01/2013 11:55:02 AM PDT by null and void
On this day in tech history, EM Forster's short story "The Machine Stops," a look at the collapse of a future society reliant on technology, was published in The Oxford and Cambridge Review.
The story follows a mother and son who live on opposite sides of a world where humans live in underground cells because they can no longer live on the surface of the Earth. The cells have buttons and switches to request everything one might need and communicate through systems similar to modern instant messaging and videoconferencing.
The global Machine is a system everyone uses to access electronic information from their cell, reminiscent of the Internet. The only actual books are instruction manuals to operate the cells, and all forests have been destroyed.
In a time where radio was just coming around, Forster predicted technologies still decades, if not a whole century, away.
In the end, the people forget they created the Machine and treat it as a diety, so when it breaks down they don't fix it, and the underground society collapses.
Apart from not relying too heavily on technology, the story seems to focus on the importance of man's connection to the natural world and reality, as evidenced by this quote from one of the main characters: "I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you."
Forster said "The Machine Stops" was a reaction to the science fiction work of HG Wells, and it went on to be included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two in 1973.
For your amusement.
interesting
Interesting.
My husband has an old scifi book that is about the collapse of tech and how society deals with.
The US of course has the only man on earth that can add/subtract/multiply/divide on paper rather than reliance on a calculator.
This guy is sought by the evil USSR.
Very fun.
Looking forward to reading your recommendation as well.
If you happen to remember the title?
(It sounds a little like Asimov’s short story The Feeling of Power)
Don’t be a downer; I was just about to get my black box fitted under my car.
SciFi come true ping
I loved that story as a kid in school, and it made an impression on me.
When I finally found it on the internet, I was surprised that it was written so long ago.
I ran it off the printer and put it into a binder.
Thanks for the ping. We are, indeed, overly dependent on our technology.
You might be correct, will have to take a look.
Someone mentioned homeschool probably so.
Chilling tale.
Anyone else see The Machine as a metaphor for centralized government?
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