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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
A quite prescient short story from 1909 about a future where people are physically isolated from each other by choice, and the world is run by a machine. A young man won't take it anymore, to the consternation of his mother.
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Very impressive and progressive for the time this short novel was published. I can imagine this could lead to some discussions about a possible future in which humans rely solely on technology to keep them alive, fed, clean and breathing. It‘s especially uncanny when read during the COVID-19 pandemic in which most our lives turned into a mostly digital one. The protagonist here was brought into a „world“ / into outer space, where life on earth is no longer possible due to pollution and nature‘s death. Humanity lives inside a kind of spaceship, The Machine, and this Machine provides everyone with food, clothing, clean air, etc. Communication and work is done through the Machine. You video call each other, face to face contact is unusual. You rarely leave your cell/room. Why would you when you have everything you need? Thanks to the Machine, which gains religious status. But is this life the only possibility? Is this man-made Machine the answer to everything? Can humans really rely on it?
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Ah, the joy of 19th century apocalypse writing seen from over a hundred years gone by. Yes, much of what Forster described is unfathomable from a science fiction sense, yet there are eerie reflections of some things with the present day, although we haven’t gone fully underground to live in our machines, the worshipful machines, as Forster feared. Have we given over ourselves to the idea of the machine? That’s entirely possible. Not so much the mechanical machine, but in the last decades we have let the intellectual machine take over, the social media of individuals lecturing to other individuals without regard to actual expertise or knowledge—I’m thinking of the talking heads of our mass media that regurgitate and then discuss what has been said on Twitter. Will we be able to correct this before an apocalypse occurs, before the machine stops suddenly? Or will ChatGPT and machine learning replace it all? (I’m wondering now how many have already started having the AI writers at Wikipedia, and how, if so, would we be able to stop the corruption.) If my phrasing seems odd, it could be because of the influence of Forster, for I find myself often mimicking the last thing I’ve read when I write these thoughts, but also because that language seems somewhat appropriate for dire warnings. While the story itself doesn’t hold up, enough of the concepts and ideas (oh, the ideas) and the warnings, do, and make it worthwhile of one’s time.
A short, but nice read, warning us even today about the danger of having technology take over our lives. I say this having read the story on my laptop, found through the internet, while listening to music which is readily available to me (almost at the press of a button). So perhaps I have already allowed technology to dictate too much of my life...
Luckily, we're not as far gone as the people in Forster's world... Yet.
4*, would definitely recommend!
Luckily, we're not as far gone as the people in Forster's world... Yet.
4*, would definitely recommend!