The Machine Stops
The Machine Stops is a dystopian science fiction story written by E. M. Forster in 1909, yet prescient in its description of a future in which people have become completely reliant on, and subservient to, technology.
The story imagines a world where all of humanity is kept alive by a complex set of technologies known as the Machine. People live in isolated cells, with only an illusion of sociality as they meet through telecommunications equipment. The Machine is providence embodied, and the ultimate tragedy is that humanity has collectively placed this man-made creation in a position of god-like authority.
You see glimpses and echoes of our current day. Rather than transportation and conveyances bringing people to places and things, the reverse occurs: people stay in their isolated cells, and the Machine brings things to them. They have largely given up their embodied nature. Rather than dealing with artifacts, places, and things, they receive seminars and lectures. They are in love with abstractions and the ephemeral. They have lost sight of the physicality and embodiment of the human soul.
Those who do not conform, or who put themselves at odds with the Machine, run the risk of being declared Homeless — stripped of the cell that mediates their life and left for dead. Every person is completely dependent upon the Machine. It feeds them, clothes them, houses them. It is the medium through which they speak to one another, consume entertainment, and give their lectures.
Ultimately, the Machine, as a man-made creation, succumbs to entropy and breaks down. And the climax of the story? The protagonist’s son, Kuno, has been to the surface. He knows that although everyone in the subterranean cells will die with the Machine’s imminent collapse, the Homeless still live above. The surface-dwellers will keep the flame of humanity burning.