Communication, connection, sensibility, free will, these are the keywords that popped up in my mind after reading Forster’s sci-fi. Setting the background in an imagined, highly developed society, Forster conveys his idea of anti-utopia and inquiry into the human-machine relationship through two different ways — the fierce struggle of rebels like Kuno and the compliance of the mass like Vashti. On one hand, the advanced technology does free people from the pain of disease and bring convenience, but on the other hand, it also deprives people’s sense of the space and the capability of communication. In other words, although the living conditions on the material level seem to be better, the development of one’s free will is reversed. The mind is supposed to generate more meaningful and original thoughts, but the result is the opposite. The word “idea” is frequently mentioned in the story, but the valuation and definition of this word are manipulated by the big machine. In this case, although people are still communicating with each other, it doesn’t count as the real “communication” but just the transfer of information. The irony in this fiction is to see how human beings chase the development of technology for freedom and well being but end up imprison themselves in small cells physically and mentally.
It’s intriguing to find the inquiry into the relationship between human and machine in a sci-fi written one hundred years ago that echoes some of the relevant critics today. The prediction of the powerful control of the big machine parallels the fear and despair in a high-tech society depicted in Black Mirror. And the homogenization of objects and human beings, the lack of communication and the isolated individuals remind me of the world in 1984. What is in common in these works are the worries of human being controlled and not “being human” anymore. It’s the ability to think independently and exchange ideas through communication that differentiates us from other species. And the anxiety is there may be a decline in this ability due to the rapid development of technology. I think we don’t have to be as pessimistic as Forster does in this fiction, but it is a warning for us on the overdependence of the technology and the communication channels. Instead of focusing on the tool itself, we should pay more attention to the original thoughts conveyed through the tool. Is not the tool but people’s self-abandonment that brings human beings to the bad ending. We should keep that in mind — not before “the machine stops” but before the machine takes control of us.