Showing papers on "Dystopia published in 1909"

The Machine Stops

Abstract: Despite being written over a hundred years ago, this powerful story by E. M. Forster is still pertinent today. On one level, the story can be interpreted as a cautionary tale about humans becoming too dependent on technology. On another level, one can read Forster as more concerned with the deep social and psychological changes that accompany massive environmental and technological change. "The Machine Stops" depicts a world in which machines not only make up the physical infrastructure but constrain and shape people— their capabilities, desires, inner lives, emotions, family relationships, and so on. Forster was incredibly prescient. The future he presents us with is perhaps more relevant today than when he wrote the story. This seems especially true when we remember how we retreated to our houses and apartments and turned to technology as a way to interact with others during the COVID-19 lockdowns. In this story, Forster describes a world in which technology fulfills some of the deepest desires and values of humans—to have everything at their fingertips and to be free from the mundane tasks of everyday life so they can engage in what they consider "higher" activities such as art, music, and poetry. Forster challenges us to consider whether these goals, which shape much of our daily lives, would ultimately make us happy. The story implicitly raises profound questions that will resonate through the rest of this book: What is progress? Will our technical achievements bring us happiness? What are the implications when people accept new technologies as unquestioningly good? How does technology mediate our experiences and relationships, and how do we want it to mediate our experiences and relationships? How can we get the sociotechnical future we want and avoid receiving one that is less desirable than what we have now? Forster challenges us to consider which values are most important to us and how technology might help or interfere with those values.