The short story “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster written during the early 20th century addresses the negative role of technology in our lives and the way modern people interact with them. Forster developed this science fictional world of a destroyed Earth where there is a disconnected relation between a mother and son. Throughout the story, the machine played an immense role in the trajectory of humanity and the relationships between people. Although the story is unrealistic and is dramatized, Forster was able to foresee the possible danger of technology such as the issue of human dependency on technology.
The story is indeed a society where everything is controlled by machines and human was heavily depended on it. The author began the story by leading the readers into this world where individuals live and function within a cell. This can be symbolism for how our society is becoming more homogeneous. An example can be the job industry where individuals work in an office building or factories and work in their own little workplace that looks and function just like a cell. But the more serious problem of this story is the human dependency on machines. Vashati, the mother is being characterized as someone who is completely living off of the machines. This machine allows individuals to communicate but without being face-to-face or being able to touch each other. You can see this as a modern communication tool like Wechat, Facebook etc. Vashati’s son, Kuno, on the other hand, doesn’t favor the machine at all. He said to his mother “you talk as if God made the machine”, while his mother says to him “One mustn’t say anything against the Machine,” (Forster). Her response clearly states not only the importance of the Machine but that we should obey it. Also, Forster capitalized the letter “m” whenever the “Machine” is mentioned. This shows off its significance and how it is held at such high level, that it is worthy of praise. In fact, the machine is far more powerful even though it is us that we created them. Like Kuno says “it is we who are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine” (15).
My take away from this story is that people today are obsessed with technology, whether it is a smartphone or computers. We live in a world where technology is rapidly advancing making it a necessity to our lives as if it was our way of breathing. It can be seen as a lesson for human advancement in technology and anyone who is building a new technology should reconsider before building it because it can cause these complications that can possibly disturb humanity.