The universe Forster creates in “The Machine Stops” is a dystopian one, telling the common tale of a single revolutionary with radical ideas in opposition to the status quo. In this universe, the Machine governs society and the everyday lifestyles of individuals through the pure convenience of its technology. It is treated as a godlike being even though the population seems aware that it is, indeed, a manmade creation. But like man, the machines they create can never be perfect, nor can they satisfy the many needs and wants of people. As such, it is important to note that technology is viewed as humanity progressing, though Forster’s narrative shows an alternate reality in which technology both governs a society and destroys it.
Forster illustrates the alienating quality of technology through the way in which the characters interact (or don’t) in this society. Human contact is extremely limited viewed as something primeval and abnormal—after all, when you can simply conjure an image of a person or audience, what is the need for physical contact? This is emphasized through the way Vashti interacts with her son Kuno, as the method of childrearing is left to a public nursery where children and parents have limited contact. In spite of this, Vashti still relents when Kuno asks her to: “True, but there was something
special about Kuno — indeed there had been something special about all her children —and, after all, she must brave the journey if he desired it” (Forster 6). This “something special” alludes to the natural bond that parents have with their children, though in such a society this feeling would go unannounced or reached taboo status, as many things related to emotion have.
Forster warns against depending upon technology to the point that it is allowed to infringe upon the innate qualities of human nature, such as human contact (considered “rude”) and exposure to the outside world. However, while assimilation into a society is inevitable when you have known nothing else, it is not impossible to break free of a damaging cycle or simply to identify it, as Kuno asserts, “We say ‘space is annihilated,’ but we have annihilated not space, but the sense thereof. We have lost a part of ourselves. I am determined to recover it” (Forster 11). For a society so infatuated with ideas, the people who inhabit it are terrified of experiencing anything that isn’t within a screen or in the safe confines of their rooms.