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The Machine Stops
I’m beginning to think that the machines are out to get me.
Its been one of those days, you know? Every machine that I’ve had to use today has not worked in the way that it should. The PC locks up, the paper jams in the printer, the packing machinery doesn’t pack. And now I’m sitting here writing this on another machine, which keeps slowing down for no good reason.
It has made me wonder about our reliance on machines throughout our daily lives, reminding me of an EM Forster short story, The Machine Stops. In this story, based sometime in the future, everything is controlled by The Machine and everyone lives in little cells, with everything provided to them. Then, The Machine starts to break down and suddenly no-one knows what to do…
We’re not heading that way.
Are we?
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2 Responses to “The Machine Stops”
I think you know what to do....
Wolfs Stuff
Wolfs Helpers
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I was watching a show, and this guy is so into machinery that he had a chip implanted in him, so that he can basically run like a machine. When he goes to his work, a door opens, because it can sense him coming. Bascially, he now lives off a computer. How scary is that? I think it’s weird.
I don’t know if it was the same guy, but there was a professor at one of the Universities here in the UK that did something like this and I remember thinking at the time “Why would you do that? Why do we need technology to do that?”. Every time we take a supposed step forward like this, I can’t help thinking of Cyberdine Systems and Skynet; fiction yes, but not so far-fetched anymore.