The Machine Stops: Book Review
* Contains spoilers *
The Machine Stop is a short science-fiction story published in 1909. I have seen it referenced a couple of times, and the fact that was short made me curious to check it out.
It is set in a world where Earth’s surface is no longer habitable, and everyone lives underground. Every human being lives isolated, with a room that provides every need imaginable. The story is based solely on two characters, Vashti and her son Kuno. The son calls her mother asking her to meet her, which is a weird request. Since travel is possible, there isn’t much interest, and people only do so out of obligation for specific work duties. The son is questioning what they call the “Machine”, which is basically the technological system that runs society. It personalizes technology, but it’s not sentient or anything of the kind. It is referred to as simply the system that the world is running on.
Kuno plays a sort of messianic role in the story, being the one that wants to go back to humanity’s roots — to nature. His mother, Vashti, fails to understand him completely, viewing his desires as almost an episode of psychosis. The plot is basically trying to illustrate the possessive nature of technology, our increasing reliance on it, and how it alienates us from nature. What the story does brilliantly is to illustrate a dichotomy of both the technology itself not being evil, but rather how we approach technology and our relationship with it. While society is largely divorced from anything that is natural, it is voluntary. The technology doesn’t prevent it in any direct sense.
But at the same time, how gadgets and increasing comfort lure us to an ever-increasing desire for further utility and comfort, neglecting our true needs and misaligning our values. It’s a warning both against the complete rejection of technology as if it was objectively bad, but at the same time, recognizing its inherent “pull” on humanity.
The topic of alienation, in particular, is quite interesting, and something I have been trying to articulate more. There is always this hint that the Machine is hiding the “truth”. It is separating us from our “true” lives. But of course, this is quite hard to explain. Why is a particular way of life true? Why do we need human intimacy? Why do we need nature? What makes it true or untrue? It is not a straightforward statement as if a chair is made out of wood or out of steel.
What the story tries to hint at and what echos throughout our culture is that it is because certain ways of living cannot be transcended and bring us “down” (no coincidence, of course, that society is underground), away from our potential. We have a certain nature that has embedded us with certain apriori values that are required by default. Their deficiency brings only misery, and we have no way of escaping that categorization of that being bad — being “untrue”.
There are also some interesting religious undertones, such as the “breakthrough” of Keno’s revelation against the Machine, his warning against his mother, his attempted escape, and the fact that society exists outside of the Machine. Most noticeably, the quasi-prophetic nature of the story, ends with the collapse of the Machine, and with the hopeful rebuilding of the civilization, learning from its past mistakes and now correcting the path towards the “truth”.
Overall, it was very enjoyable and well written. Highly recommend it, especially given that it’s super short, taking one or two hours to read at most. The technological predictions were also pretty impressive. He basically predicted the internet and real-time video calls when the radio was just invented a few years ago.
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I also have a philosophy podcast. If you want to check it out look for Anagoge Podcast.
Tiago V.F.
