THE MACHINE STOPS, a story by E.M. Forster

[polaris93]

http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html

Anybody who uses the Internet should read E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops. It is a chilling, short story masterpiece about the role of technology in our lives. Written in 1909, it's as relevant today as the

Comments

[mauser]

Sounds like the first episode (and the last) of the first "Connections" series by James Burke.

[polaris93]

I don't know that one. I read "The Machine Stops" years ago in one of those wonderful anthologies of science fiction of which so many were published in the 1950s.

[mauser]

Ooooh, you never saw Connections? James Burke is a science Historian, and this British series was shown on PBS in the '80s. It was amazing in showing the odd ways that scientific ideas cross-pollinated in ways we don't conventionally think of. But it started off with showing how the BIG blackout in New York in the '60's demonstrated our dependence on technology, and the final episode asked where we're going with technology.

The second and third series weren't quite as good, being more of a Kevin Bacon game through the history of technology. There was one that was more concerned with the development of ideas rather than inventions called The Day The Universe Changed that was also quite good.

Still, they're ALL highly worth seeing.

(Alas, I used to have a link to a guy who had them all up on YouTube, but they all got nuked.)

[polaris93]

Oh. My problem was that from the time I was able to escape that godawful foster home and go out on my own (1967) until I was around 50 (1995) -- nearly 30 years -- I simply couldn't afford a television set. Before that, when I was still in that foster home, five years worth of it, they didn't allow me to watch any of the TV shows I wanted to, and the ones they watched sucked. So I became very, very used to not having a television. I missed an awful lot of good stuff because of it. {sigh}