Amber Smith

Dr. Lavender

English 2085, Section 001

21 October 2014

“The Machine Stops”: A Downward Spiral

Throughout the years many dystopian novels have changed the way we look at our

future. From Orwell’s depiction of a society that is ruled by an all seeing eye looking over their

shoulders in “1984” to a society where the government has all but collapsed to every man is for

himself in Butler’s “Parable of the Sower”. E.M. Forster's short story “The Machine Stops” gives

readers another look at a future that seems entirely plausible. In this particular short story,

Forster depicts what he imagines would happen if all humans turned their back on physical

contact and preferred only to be connect through a machine. The machine not only fulfilled

human needs but had even begun to control people’s thoughts. Eventually, “The Machine”

became a life, religion, law, and government to people, it was everything a person needed and

desired. The mother, Vashti, did all her tasks with the help of the machine. She listened to music

through the machine and didn’t go outside of her place which reduced the human interaction.

The reader can observe that Vashti practically worships the machine. She considers the book as a

guide of life. Even when provoked by her son that she is nothing but worshipping the machine,

she is does not admit to it and lives in denial. She hands over her entire life to the schedule of the

machine which responds to her every need. She refers to the machine in a holy manner. To show

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the consequence of the people’s choice to accept the machine, Forster’s shows a world that is so

in tune to the machine they are completely unaware of nature and life going on around them. To

show their dependence on the machinery Forster then asks what would happen when “The

Machine Stops”. Will there be chaos or enlightenment? This short story was first published in

1909, when technology had just started to contribute to society, and E.M. Forster predicts the

terrible consequences of technology. Forster’s depiction of a society that is entirely dependent on

technology, closely resembles the one we live in today, though it may be an exaggeration, he

sends a message that there is still hope for humanity if we turn away from technology.

In the short story, we learn that humanity has completely lost touch with reality. There is

no human contact and very seldom a reason to leave their rooms. In today’s world we are not

quite there yet but we are moving closer to that point each day. A study by an assistant professor

of communication studies found that people who use cell phone frequently are less likely to

communicate in public [Goscicki]. If this progress further it is easy to see how we could be a

society with no human contact. And with the genetic need in human beings to have instant

gratification, technology is going even further [Muther]. Today, you can work from home, attend

school from home, you can do just about anything in the comfort of your own home. Imagine if

everyone decided that they no longer wanted to leave their houses. With the technology we have

today it would be easy, some people do it already. This shows our reliance on technology. We

use text messages and emails if we need to communicate with one another, we use the Global

Position System on our phones or in our cars to get where we need to go. The entire system of

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face to face interaction, asking people for directions, or even making small talk at the bus-stop

seems naïve and ancient to us now. We use Siri to find out information that we need and we use

the internet for hundreds of things, from useful information to entertainment. We may not be

able to press a button and a bed appears or presses another button and is able to attend a nine am

lecture class but we are rapidly moving toward it. Several old concepts such as libraries which

were considered to be the center of knowledge and research have ceased to even exist since the

introduction of e-books and e-libraries. We as individuals prefer to stay at home and achieve

whatever we need or want through the usage of technology. Why walk or travel all the way to a

library

when we can just download what we need by one click on our devices? We are a society that is

so reliant on technology that if technology ceased to exist, there would be complete and utter

chaos. We would not know what to do. This is why Forster’s concerns about this machine based

society do not seem like an exaggeration.

Everybody in “The Machine Stops” lives under the surface of the Earth because

somehow the air was poisoned and unable to be inhaled by human beings. Today, many

scientists agree that pollution levels in the air are at an all-time high and we may not be able to

continue inhaling it. If we can’t live on the surface of the Earth, where will we go? Underground

seems like a reasonable idea. Also, with the risk of nuclear war looming over our heads, it’s not

hard to imaging moving underground in the future to stay safe. On the other hand, Forster's “The

Machine Stops” might be a slight exaggeration. Will we ever get to a point where we do not

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control technology but technology controls us? Also, a very evident doubt that arises is that if

everyone is busy staying at home, who is inventing these machines and bringing us the

technology we want? In the machine stops, people seldom travel away from their cells because

everything looks the same no matter where you go, why bother to go anywhere? That is true

today also. Humans of our society take our world for granted, not a lot of people go out and

travel anymore. Everyone is too content with staying home.

Forster tells in his short story another consequence of the progress of technology. Kuno,

the son wants to contact his mother personally and have face to face contact with her; but his

mother is satisfied with the contact she has through the machine. The author seems to show the

importance of interpersonal relationships and how it may affect us in the future if we completely

stop them due to our increasing use of technology [Steglitz]. It is not just use of technology now-

a-days, but in fact, its abuse which is causing us to get hooked on to it.

The description of how technology may be like in the future, in the story is a bit much but

in several ways Forster has imagined the future correctly. The time hasn’t come for us to dig

downstairs and start living underground, in fact we are the ones trying to find solutions to several

problems that seem to exist in today’s world due to abuse of technology. The future of

communication has been predicted accurately by the author, people tend to prefer the virtual

form of communication any day rather than the physical, which seems to be too much work to

many. Without these means of communication today, life may even seem to be inconceivable

and insecure.

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 With technology advancing so quickly and the effects it has on humanity, we as a society

need to stop and ask if one day we would be able to turn away from the technology that

negatively affect our humanity. As of now, technology does not control our society completely,

but its part in society keeps increasing day by day. People are tending to rely on technology for

the smallest of things such as buying groceries online rather than use the old, simple ways. We,

as human beings, have an intense need and desire to move forward. That is why technology is

advancing so quickly. There will always be a need for new things. Every year there is a new

innovating technology. And if there is always new technology being made, then people will keep

buying it. We as responsible citizens of the world need to learn when to curb this developing

technological addiction we are developing. Technology is a product of our innovation and

intellect, we must know to control it, not let it control us and our way of life. Dependency

eventually leads to addiction and Forster’s story would prove to be a reality if do not set some

boundaries.

E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops” is a chilling yet very plausible future society that

comes to a halt due to their extreme dependency on technology. Forster, through exaggeration

has uncovered several issues that exist today, back in his time. Some aspects of his story do not

seem very far off now and he was very accurate in one sense: the means of communication. The

means of communication was invented by us to bring people who are separated by great

distances together, but Forster predicted that in the future we would simply stay at home all the

time and use the new advance in technology to communicate with others. The face to face

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interaction would fade away. This fact can be verified by looking at all the virtual

communication products and services we have today that were developed by us. We prefer to do

everything from homes on our laptops or computers, rather than go out and get it done. Without

technology life may seem completely unimaginable and unreal, but if we continue to depend on

technology in every aspect of our lives, Forster’s exaggerated story will become a reality. The

future may seem far away but if we have to take matters into our own hands and treat technology

like our invention, not us being its invention. We must keep in mind that with great power comes

great responsibility.

Work Cited

Goscicki, Claire G. "Study Discovers How Cell Phone Use Affects Social Interactions."

The Michigan Daily. University of Michigan, 11 Mar. 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.

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 Muther, Christopher. "The Growing Culture of Impatience."BostonGlobe.com. Boston

Globe Media, 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

"Berlin, Department of English." Englisch Online, 11th Grade, Gymnasium Steglitz

Berlin, Department of English. Gymnasium Steglitz, 2005. Web. 21 Oct. 2014

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