The Machine Stops A Cautionary Vision - 906 Words

â€Å"The Machine Stops† – A Cautionary Vision Science fiction is a literary genre that explores potential consequences related to scientific innovations. It is largely based on the idea of writing rationally about alternative worlds or futures. Provided adequate knowledge of the past and present world, science fiction tales provide realistic speculations of possible future events (ReadWriteThink). E.M. Forster’s story The Machine Stops can be regarded as a work of apocalyptic science fiction in that it is a cautionary vision of the future. Through speculation and storytelling literature belonging to the genre of apocalyptic science fiction provides a means of understanding the world. What is chilling about the story The Machine Stops are the similarities that it has to social media, the internet and other technologies. All of which have significantly empowered, disrupted and seduced the modern age. The story The Machine Stops describes an era where humans trade first hand experience for a life situated in front of a screen, known as the â€Å"machine† (Forster 1). In the constructed future Forster describes a life where people are confined to â€Å"a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee [and] it is lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance (Forster 1).† With a touch of a button the machine provides human necessities; food, water, light, and screened social interaction. Human contact is only ever encountered when one travels via theShow MoreRelated John D. Rockefeller Essay1337 Words   |  6 Pageserase the memory of his predatory business practices. Who was Rockefeller? 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