The Machine Stops - Home Working Reflection

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The Machine Stops - Home Working Reflection

Campbell M Gold.com
Published by Campbell M Gold in Reflection · Thursday 08 Aug 2024
Tags: Hybrid, Home, Working, Reflection, The, Machine, Stops, E., M., Forster, 1909, Technology, Future, Isolation, Interpersonal, Communication, Physical, Needs
The Machine Stops

I've been thinking about the hybrid and home working new norms, and it reminded me of "The Machine Stops" by E. M. Forster.

First published in The Oxford and Cambridge Review in November 1909, the story depicts a future where individuals live underground, isolated, and rely on technology to fulfil their interpersonal, communication and physical needs...

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In this world, each person inhabits a room isolated from others. Communication occurs through Instant Messaging and Video Conferencing, where people exchange second-hand ideas.

The protagonist, Vashti, content with this existence, lives on one side of the world, while her son Kuno, a rebel, resides on the other. Kuno has illicitly ventured to the Earth’s surface and witnessed humans living outside the Machine’s confines. However, the Machine catches him and threatens him with homelessness, expulsion, and inferred death.

As time passes, the Machine’s influence grows, and people forget that humans created it, treating it as a mystical deified entity. The Machine begins to fail and eventually plunges the underground dwellers into darkness and suffocating air. The machine had stopped...

This surrealistic, thought-provoking exploration of technology, isolation and dependency seems eerily relevant today...

Source:
https://archive.org/details/e.-m.-forster-the-machine-stops_202008/mode/2up




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