
The Machine Stops (1909) [pdf] - tosh
https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machine-Stops.pdf
======
pmoriarty
For anyone to whom the name E.M.Forster does not ring a bell, he's more well
known for _" A Room with a View"_ and _" A Passage to India"_.[1]

He also wrote another short story which I consider to be even better than _The
Machine Stops_. It's called _The Other Side of the Hedge_ [2], and while it's
not as prescient it's one of my favorite short stories and I would highly
recommend it to everyone.

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._M._Forster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._M._Forster)

[2] -
[http://www.101bananas.com/library2/otherside.html](http://www.101bananas.com/library2/otherside.html)

~~~
asark
I've not read Passage (yeah, yeah, I know, it's supposed to be his best, I'll
get around to it) but have read both of what I think of as his Italian novels
(A Room With a View, Where Angels Fear to Tread) and English novels (Howards
End, The Longest Journey) and, of those, would recommend Howards End as the
best of those four, by a long shot. Angels is the only one I'd suggest maybe
skipping, even if you like his other work.

As for his short stories and short nonfiction (reviews, essays) I'd probably
just recommend _all of it_ , though there's quite a lot of that.

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dang
Thread from 2015:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10490198](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10490198)

Also 2015:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9544256](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9544256)

2014:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7637635](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7637635)

Oliver Sacks pilfered the title, or someone did on his behalf:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124608](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124608)

~~~
optimuspaul
> Oliver Sacks pilfered the title, or someone did on his behalf:
> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124608](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19124608)

I think you mean paid homage.

~~~
dang
For sure. I was just being cheeky.

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simonh
The bit where Kuno is climbing up towards an exit to the outside world brought
to mind the ending of THX-1138. The dehumanising austerity of the rooms, the
Machine and the almost religious reverence they have for the Machine isn't too
far off either. It's as though THX-1138 was a re-imagining of this, but seen
through a 70s Californian lens.

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godelmachine
I had read this story on Wikipedia. Very compelling.

~~~
tosh
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops)

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mooneater
AI pioneer Stuart J. Russell recommended this story, to understand one of the
dangers with moving towards automated society.

~~~
noblethrasher
Jaron Lanier often recommends the story in his talks on the dangers of social
media.

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8bitsrule
BBC TV sci-fi series 'Out of the Unknown' aired a pretty decent adaptation of
the story at the start of Series 2 on Oct. 6, 1966. (It -was- online at some
point.)

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davidgerard
if some blockchain doofus says "but when the web started, did they predict
Facebook in 1993??" then the answer is "E.M. Forster predicted Facebook in
1909."

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DontHack
Fantastic read. This would be a great Black Mirror Episode.

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GnarfGnarf
Very prescient.

~~~
protonfish
Agreed, it describes today's paradox of mass social media and epidemic of
loneliness surprisingly well.

