Legible Review: “The Machine Stops,” by E.M. Forster
I’m a big fan of futuristic dystopian books, so I was thrilled to find this story, written by E.M. Forster in 1909. I’ve been familiar with Forster ever since I watched A Room with a View in the 80s, but I had no idea he’d also written this sci fi gem, which is so different from his usual fare. In this eerily prophetic book, humans no longer experience the world directly but through the “Machine,” which supposedly provides them with everything they need. People live underground, each in their own room with very little face-to-face contact with other people; instead, they communicate with people through the machine. They rarely, if ever, experience the outside world above ground, have no use for their own bodies, and have grown to enjoy (or at least, accept) their sedentary existence. As the story goes on, people even begin to worship the Machine as omnipotent, omnipresent, and eternal, and believe they must never question it. Spoiler: they continue to hold on to these beliefs even as the Machine fails and everyone who relies upon it dies.
Yes, a pretty depressing story — but what’s really depressing is how our current society closely mirrors many parts of this one as our lives have largely been overtaken by our machine: the internet. Here are some examples.
How we tend to have so many more “friends” now due to social media. “She knew several thousand people, in certain directions human intercourse had advanced enormously.”
How impatient we’ve become as our society moves faster and faster. In this scene, the main character, Vashti, is annoyed at her son’s desire to talk to her: “‘Be quick!’ she called, her irritation returning. ‘Be quick, Kuna; here I am in the dark wasting my time.’ But it was fully fifteen seconds before the round plate that she held in her hands began to glow.”
How limited our interactions are on social media, text, video calls, etc. “She fancied that he looked sad. She could not be sure, for the Machine did not transmit nuances of expression. It only gave a general idea of people — an idea that was good enough for all practical purposes, Vashti thought.” And, “People never touched one another. The custom had become obsolete, owing to the Machine.”
How technology makes us feel lonelier but simultaneously distracts us from that loneliness. “His image in the blue plate faded. ‘Kuno!’ He had isolated himself. For a moment Vashti felt lonely. Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded with radiance and studded with electric buttons, revived her. There were buttons and switches everywhere.”
Some all-too-familiar ways the pandemic affects us. “The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned; neither Vashti nor her audience stirred from their rooms.” And the monotony of our isolation, “She made the room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light; she ate and exchanged ideas with her friends, and listened to music and attended lectures; she make the room dark and slept.”
How much American culture has taken over the world. “Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over.”
How it sometimes seems as though our technology is controlling us rather than the other way around. “‘Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it.’”
How we are surrounded by so much noise. “She had never known silence, and the coming of it nearly killed her — it did kill many thousands of people outright. Ever since her birth she had been surrounded by the steady hum.”
The people in this culture realize their mistakes too late, when the machine finally breaks down. Let’s just hope that won’t be the same for us! Indeed, this is one of the purposes of prophetic science fiction: to warn us of possible futures in time for us to choose a different path.
