Science Fiction: The Short Stuff discussion

The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster is a co-winner of the poll to determine our September 2024 group reads. An SF classic, it of course has its own Wikipedia page as does its classical Modernist British writer. Have I ever read anything by Forster, I wonder? A search tells me "You have no books matching 'forster'. I've seen the film "A Room with a View", based on his most popular novel. I might have watched "Howard's End", or at least started to. His "A Passage to India" I have heard of. I've usually classified India as a British interest thing and largely tried to steer clear. Colonialism depresses me.

Anyhow, I knew Forster had written some SF in his time. Is this the only work he wrote in the genre?

Wikipedia states the following about the story: "After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review (November 1909), the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories. In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.

The story, set in a world where humanity lives underground and relies on a giant machine to provide its needs, predicted technologies similar to instant messaging and the Internet."

Hmm, I have read most, maybe all, of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame volumes as a teen, meaning in the late 1970s. It was a Christmas present. I wonder if I'll remember this story as I read it. Is anyone else down for this read?

I'll be rereading it!

I just found a copy on Kobo available for 49 cents. No doubt there are less expensive (meaning free) ways to obtain one since this story (12,000 words long they say) is in the public domain. But I'll pay 49 cents for ease and convenience. Starting this now since I must await the arrival of the other work.

I am through the first third of this story and am liking it so far. I do recall reading it in 1977 when I was thirteen years old.

Even as far back as then, I thought the story accurately depicted future trends we were heading towards. The living individually aspect, having a machine take care of our needs, and us all becoming xenophobic because we didn't have to deal with people in person were things I could definitely see happening in the future. It seemed to me the goal of what we as a society wanted. I even saw the fictional society Forster depicts as having some advantages over the one I lived in (1977). But that imaginary society would never come around into my own soon enough to become my future, I figured.

I was mistaken. Shockingly, our true societal lives now and the society this story depicts are almost the same in most respects. The difference is in the details of how, not in what not gets handled for us in our lives by machine (computer connection). People may not be as xenophobic as the story depicts, but younger people, I observe, have become increasingly unable to relate to one another in a mature or meaningful way (by my standards) in person. Xenophobia and ineffective social skills are two feathers of the same bird. It's amazing just how prescient this story is!

Scott wrote: "I agree, we are well on our way to that state. The things they did to us over the last few years sped things along."

"They" did something to us? Who's them? The government? That's me then. I've worked for the government in one form or another more than half of my life. Still do. But I don't think I did anything like this to anyone.

Anyhow, I initially gave this novella (is it technically a novella?) four stars. But then I realized that was an evaluation of how well written I thought the story, or how important to read. It wasn't a measure of my enjoyment of it. That's three stars. I therefore downgraded. Ancient science fiction that describes conditions that actually are what we have today in all important respects, that differs only in a few unimportant details or in nomenclature, simply describes reality. And that's less interesting. At least to me it was.

Anyhow, here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The first time I read this story was a couple of years before the Covid years and thought it was interesting, but now I realize that a lot of things that he's mentioned are a part of a reality-people texting instead of talking to each other-who needs personal interactions?
Kuno realized that something was wrong way before the machine stopped-but what could he do by himself?

This is the review i wrote of this novella reading it for the second time in 2020 (It was for a blog post - so a bit lengthy):

# The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster Predicts Social Media


The Shallowness of Social Media and Online Learning in a 100-Year-Old Book: A brief look at the novella by E.M. Forster, The Machine Stops

With the ever-growing expansion of social media influencers and internet gurus who are constantly offering to teach us from their vast experience or depths of accumulated knowledge, I can’t help but think of a novella written by E.M. Forster’s, The Machine Stops.


I read it for the first time about nine years ago, but I have stumbled upon it again recently and was even more shocked by how accurately it predicted the world we live in now. 

**And this is not a small achievement, considering that the novella was written in 1909.**

## Everyone is a Teacher

The onset of the Pandemic has seen an incredible rise in online teachers. They were suddenly everywhere, they kept rising up, offering their services, for free or otherwise. The offers range from full-on live courses to booklets, webinars, infographics, guides and email courses. 

Writing on a subject doesn’t seem to be enough anymore, _you have to teach it_, you have to present yourself as an expert.

There are courses on how to create courses and how to become an expert in a subject matter within days.

It is simple. Find out what people are interested in, make it your niche. Read up on it, market it, and you are good to go. You don’t have to have any significant real-life experiences on the subject, you just need to know a little bit more than your audience. If that.

I took some of these courses, the allure of free is hard to avoid, and, honestly, I even enjoyed some, but to what purpose, to what end?

I kept on taking the webinars. I kept on signing up for email lists offering me free email courses or free downloads. It was like the Pinterest of learning, the allure of promises without any substantial content. 

## The Machine Stops


In the “The Machine Stops” people are controlled by…well.. the Machine. They live underground. The Machine provides them with everything they need, provided they stay compliant with the rules of the Machine. They live in their rooms, they meet occasionally in person but they see each other through the machine wherever in the world they are.

_(It still gets me that video calls/instant messaging were predicted as something regular over 100 years ago!)_

People pass their time mainly by listening to lectures and discussing ideas and concepts which are largely irrelevant to their confined lives.

As an example of irrelevance, our main character prepares lectures on Australian Opera. Everyone can pick a topic and prepare a lecture. People then listen to lectures from the comfort of their rooms. Then they discuss it as if it was the most important thing in the world. 

I was feeling thoroughly unproductive during the Covid19 lockdown. It seemed like the whole world was doing something important in their homes. Learning a new language, a new skill, cooking, crafting, coding or coming up with witty things to post online.  

I picked up the novella I had already read, but this time the message really stood out. Consider this excerpt:

> _“As for Vashti, her life went peacefully forward until the final disaster. She made her room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light. She lectured and attended lectures. She exchanged ideas with her innumerable friends and believed she was growing more spiritual.”_
>
> _Forster, E. M.. The Machine Stops (p. 28). IAP. Kindle Edition._

The creepy world of E.M. Forster became even creepier by the fact that, at that very moment, I and the many of my fellow humans were actually living it. 

## Takeaways

I asked myself about the significance of it all. What is the point? What do we do with the influx of information, of influencers, of following trends, of watching yet another youtube how to video?

Are we just trying to pass our time until the final disaster?

Or are we living? 

E.M. Forster’s magnificent ability to see the future aside, I hope that my _innumerable online friends_ and I refuse to be Vashti. 

I certainly hope that some of us have actually lived and learned the real lessons from what we are trying to convey to others. That we connect on that level. With purpose and quality.

I like your parallel thoughts, Stella.

And I am definitely not becoming a Vashti! I love nature too much and even get excited when I see a new type of tree.

I appreciate your thoughts, Stella. I agree that there are too many online experts in every field now. They post topics in their expertise on widely followed YouTube posts. I'm guilty of subscribing to them, too. I follow YouTubers who post about chess and advanced mathematics (linear algebra especially), two non-fiction passions of mine from earlier days. There's also the udemy phenomenon. All of this predicted by Forster. Amazing, I grant, but not news for us.

My one caveat to your comments though is, what if they really are experts? I subscribe to GothamChess for example, because he really does have a lot to say about chess that adds to my knowledge. Same for my favorite math professors. Aren't these guys really worth watching, listening to, and learning from?