Week 1: Response to “The Machine Stops” E.M. Foerster – Lily Deng

I can’t help but feel mesmerized when reading Foerster’s “The Machine Stops”. This story vividly insinuates the dependence of people on technology in a dark and sarcastic way, with an interesting conversation between Kuno and Vashti. After finishing this reading, I remembered a saying that’ the furthest distance in the world is that we are together materially, yet we are both absorbed in our cell phones as if we were apart. Inevitably, a great preponderance of people are too addicted to technology that they have lost the abilities of real-life communication in one way or another. At the same time, they blame technology for manipulating them. However, it is not technology’s fault but theirs. The way they rely on tech to a great extent is inappropriate. I am looking forward to reading such fascinating passages next time!

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