There is a deep-seated love for speculative fiction, which means stories where we can recognize ourselves, if not the world that we are in. This contains the entire genre of fantasy but also large chunks of horror and sci-fi. It is the last category mentioned there that is often looked towards for predictions about the future. I want to bring attention to an uncommon short science fiction story that, on some level, feels prophetic towards our modern-day issues of loneliness and separation that arise from increased technological dependence.
“The Machine Stops” was written in 1904 by E.M. Forster. It is a short story that details an era of humanity that, due to their advancements in technology, rendered their own Earth uninhabitable to them. So, they have become dependent on a large technological system simply referred to as The Machine. Each member of the population lives alone in a room where The Machine supplies all of their needs, from sustenance to frivolities, and constantly new machine-generated music for their listening pleasure, for instance.
There are many interesting and concerning parallels with our modern world and its technology. These people communicate with each other through a screen in their room that allows them to see the faces and hear the voices of others across The Machine. To be blunt, this is literally what FaceTime or Zoom is. Everyone spends all of their time listening to short lectures, never more than five to fifteen minutes long. Which is, quite frankly, the envisioning of TikTok and the gradual shortening of attention spans due to constant instant pleasure.
But some things within the narrative have, thankfully, yet to pass and become the norm. For these humans, it is incredibly odd to want to see someone in person and completely taboo to touch them. Most children never meet their parents, and vice versa.
In this fashion, humanity continues on with this type of existence, living under the surface of the Earth. All the while The Machine slowly decays around them.
Until one day, The Machine stops.
For a story written in 1904, there are objectively an insane amount of parallels with our modern anxieties about our own technological use as well as what technologies exist now. Forster was, in my favorite colloquial phrase, struck with the gift of prophecy. From a globalized world interconnected by technology, a computer-like apparatus that is equipped with a combination of Zoom and TikTok is one of the earliest depictions of artificial intelligence as we know it in fiction. It is terrifyingly accurate in so many ways that when I first read it, I took a step back and tried to evaluate what I was doing with my life.
To the society in that world, The Machine was a type of God, something to be praised and worshiped for knowing all and doing all. And I think we do the same. I implore anyone interested to read this short story, it is 25 pages long and in the public domain. What I want anyone who reads this, especially at a school that is as technologically centered as Stevens, is to ask themself a simple question.
What would you do if The Machine stopped?
