Review: The Machine Stops, by EM Forster

I don’t often read short stories, especially as a stand-alone rather than part of an anthology, but I heard of this book by EM Forster some time ago and decided the time was right. There are spoilers below.

Published way back in 1909, books about future technological, social, and political developments can naturally be prone to looking rather false and even quaint. I think there’s much value in Brave New World and 1984 (far more in Animal Farm, mind) but these dystopian futures are also something of a slog to read.

The Machine Stops, while very short (just over 12,000 words), falls into neither trap. If anything, it’s combination of being not merely easy but compelling to read and the chillingly relevant consideration of the dangers of an excessive reliance upon technology feels like it’s eminently timely.

The story is thus: mankind has become civilised, meaning we all know live underground, each individual occupying a single hexagonal chamber. The Machine summons whatever is required, and facilitates instant communication across the globe. Vashti, most content with this, is unexpectedly asked to visit by her son Kuno, who is less enamoured with the Machine than she and has even had the temerity, daring, or perhaps heretical thinking to venture outside not via an approved access point but by finding his own way.

The Machine reacted by drawing him back in, and slaying a woman he encountered on the surface. Soon, respirators, permitting surface excursions, are forbidden. The Machine begins to be worshipped.

And then fails. The Machine Stops. And everyone underground, utterly dependent on the creation of their forefathers but not understanding it at all, coddled, comfortable, lazy, compliant, dies. So too does Kuno, but in the knowledge there are surface dwellers who will live on.

The dangers of excessive technological integration with everyday lives are easy to understand. Some parents have literally let their babies starve because they were so busy playing videogames. In China, social credit is a real world hell combining state control with tracking and data managed by the power of modern technology. In the UK and elsewhere, politicians are keen to inflict so-called vaccine passports not for international travel, a common and long term approach to such things, but to permit free citizens to access essential goods and services.

I was slightly wary of reading The Machine Stops as some comparable books I’ve read have sometimes been a bit of a chore, though the subject matter was of great interest and relevance. But this is one of the best books I think I’ve ever read and if you’re remotely interested in any aspect of it then you should spend the 72 pence or so it will cost you and grab the e-book.

Thaddeus