At the very end of E.M. Forster’s short work “The Machine Stops” he writes, “For a moment they saw nations of the dead, and, before they joined with them, scraps of the untainted sky.”  This line stands out in many ways.  Initially, we notice the contrast between “nations of the dead” and “the untainted sky”.  Death and chaos paired with  serene imagery.  However, the line also provokes  another thought. That is, that life, the world, the universe will go on despite the folly of man.

In a similar vein, Michael Crichton’s work Jurassic Park tackles similar thoughts.   Throughout the novel, one of the main characters, Dr. Ian Malcolm, muses on the fact that should the human race wipe itself off the earth by way of dinosaurs (or the catastrophic failure of a globe spanning machine as the case may be) the world will keep on spinning.  Though underneath the earth’s surface there is death and destruction, above, the sky still remains.

In addition, once “civilized” life has fallen, life, to quote Malcolm, “finds a way”.   As the single sex dinosaurs in Jurassic park were able to adapt and breed, those homeless refugees on the surface of Forester’s world will grow and repopulate the earth, continuing humanity.