The Machine Stops

THE MACHINE STOPS by E. M. FORSTER is an amazing short story first published in 1909. (Many sources list the second publishing in 1928 as the story's official date, missing it's first appearance in THE OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE REVIEW.)

The Machine Stops tells of a mother and son in a future, underground utopia. Each person in the society lives in a hexagonal cell, inside of a larger "hive" of other individuals. When they travel, which is rarely, they use automated cars that travel through tubes and… (more)

THE MACHINE STOPS by E. M. FORSTER is an amazing short story first published in 1909. (Many sources list the second publishing in 1928 as the story's official date, missing it's first appearance in THE OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE REVIEW.)

The Machine Stops tells of a mother and son in a future, underground utopia. Each person in the society lives in a hexagonal cell, inside of a larger "hive" of other individuals. When they travel, which is rarely, they use automated cars that travel through tubes and airships with the window blinds drawn down. Mostly, though, people hang out in their cells where all of their needs are met by "the machine." There they participate in an Internet-like community, talking and sharing new ideas with each other, though they rarely have new ideas as a result of not having any new experiences on which to base them. If you can imagine living inside of FACEBOOK ... Anyway, the son is a "weird" individual whose curiosity and remarkable physical strength (he can hold his bed pillow out from his body for minutes at a time) results in his daring to go outside! The reaction this unorthodox behavior earns from the machine, and the ultimate fate of the machine itself is the meat of the story.

Even without considering it's chronological point of origin (before chip technology, let alone before computers or the Internet), The Machine Stops is an eerily accurate commentary on trends in our modern technology-based society. Several weeks ago my wife showed me a single-panel cartoon in which a woman was asking her husband how he could have 134 friends on Facebook when he didn't have a single friend in real life. I didn't think it was all that funny because it seems to draw an distinction that is uncomfortable for those of us who are willingly "plugged in" to the latest and greatest technologies. I have an exoskeleton built out of an iPod, laptop, cell phone, etc. I want to believe that my virtual connections to other human beings are meaningful and I don't necessarily believe that physicality makes connections automatically meaningful. Still, Forster pokes a similar kind of fun at modern society, pointing out that lack of experience and direct human contact reduces us in all capacities until we no longer matter as a species.

I would recommend this story to anyone and everyone. First of all, you can get it for free. Second, it will not fail to provoke a reaction from you, regardless of your opinions about modern technology.

I read this book on the AMAZON KINDLE II.