It could be argued that technology has become or is becoming a totalizing system, and that it is becoming more difficult to make a distinction between the positive and negative effects of technologies. As Leopold would argue, as technologies become more complex, their ethical content increases. E.M. Forester, writing in 1909, imagines a dystopian future where “the Machine” has taken over by doing everything for humans. In such a world, there is little else to do but think. Yet, increasingly what is thought is divorced from real entities and real experiences. Kuno perhaps just wants to make contact with something “real,” but the Machine appears to have been slowly closing off the possibility for contact. However, the natural world upon which the machine is built hasn’t just disappeared, but where has it gone? Where has reality gone? How has it changed? Once contact with the natural world has been lost, is there any chance of return?
Read the questions below first, then read the “The Machine Stops” and consider the questions:
1) Describe the relationship between Kuno and his mother. What is odd about it?
2) As you read, think about and write down some of the ways in which the technological landscape of the Machine is different from ours. Be specific.
3) Think about and write down some of the ways in which the technological landscape of the Machine reminds you of ours. Be specific.
4) What important changes happen within the Machine during the course of the story? What do these changes reveal about the nature of the Machine?
5) What is the mending apparatus? What does it do? Why is it important? Who ultimately controls the mending apparatus?
6) What if any is the moral of the story? Explain.