Response to E.M Forester’s The Machine Stops – Justin Chen

The Machine Stops by E.M Forester is a dystopian short story that centers around the human reliance of what our protagonist and others in that universe calls, the machine. In this fictional piece, human civilization has reached a sense of utopia. Every aspect of human life from entertainment to basic necessity has been managed by the machine. While the machine may be beneficial to these humans, the short story also goes into depth of the shortcomings regarding human society in general. One of those shortcomings centered around the lack of human touch and physical contact. The society in The Machine Stops has progressed to the point where holographic communications between two people are possible. While holographic projections of humans may seem to be the pinnacle of communication, not all seem to enjoy this medium to communicate. The protagonist’s son states “I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you.” In this brief exchange between the protagonist and her son, we can see how her son is dissatisfied by this medium. He wants to see her mother in person in order to have that personal interaction. The fact that while this was written in 1906, E.M Forester was able predict problems that modern day society face today. Currently, the digital age has progressed our ways of communication but at the same time has left people more lonely than over. A research has been done to show how the youth of today have far less social skills compared to older generations. The problem is attributed to consumption of a media such as phones or computers. Another interesting part of that dystopian society is the social norm to not come in physical contact with one another.  For example, the flight attendant was ridiculed when she made physical contact with our protagonist in order to help her when she tripped. While the scenario of a stigma of physical touch is an extreme case, this shows how far human interaction can be removed as a society such as the one in The Machine Stops as communication becomes more revolved around technology and between two humans face to face.

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