The Machine Stops
by E. M. Forster.Published by Suzeteo Enterprises.
First published 1909.
Hardcover.
ISBN-10: 1645941566
ISBN-13: 9781645941569
Description:
ISBN-13: 9781645941569
In our modern era, we like to congratulate
ourselves for our sophistication, knowing that we have doubtless created a
world that our feckless ancestors could never have imagined. Actually reading
the works of those ancestors would disabuse us of any such notion, and E. M.
Forster's The Machine Stops is a case in point. Not only does it seem that
Forster has contemplated the ubiquitous 'Zoom' call, but he correctly sensed
the deadening of the soul that would accompany the faux-mastery of Nature,
expressing itself through technology.
In The Machine Stops the height of mankind's
advances was The Machine, and it cared for every aspect of human experience,
and anticipated every human need, until such time that there was nothing left
for humans to do except eat, and, if the algorithm approved, procreate; and
when the algorithm decided Euthanasia was due, then Euthanasia was happily
accepted. The Machine was not just the pinnacle of human ingenuity, it was
Progress Incarnate. And then... the Machine Stopped. Today, we hail our own
progress, technological and societal. If our machine stops, what then? Do we
really suppose it is eternal?
No comments:
Post a Comment