THE MACHINE STOPS by E.M. Forster (1909)
It is remarkable how prophetic E.M Forster’s dystopian short story is.
It is set in a future that seems eerily like our present in which “thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over”.
In the story, the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth.
A woman, Vashti, lives in an underground cell where all her creature comforts are provided by ‘the Machine’.
This centralised system means that direct contact with nature and other people is no longer necessary.
It is as if Forster foresaw how the Internet would come to dominate our lives to the point that we may come to fear, and even detest, direct experience and physical contact with fellow human beings.
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