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THE MACHINE STOPS DISCUSSION
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 fraserjen |
THE MACHINE STOPS DISCUSSION |
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Posts: 14 03/04/09 13:19:48 |
Last Edited By: fraserjen 03/04/09 13:24:34.
Edited 1 time.
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fraserjen |
Opening question: | #1 | ||
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Posts: 14 03/04/09 13:26:20 |
This short story was written before computers were invented! In many ways it describes a society much like ours in 2009. Do you see similarities? Fears
realized?
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slunardi |
#2 | |||
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Posts: 9 03/04/09 13:32:13 |
Ms. Fraser- Can I have a hard copy of the story?
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AmandaPlease |
#3 | |||
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Posts: 9 03/04/09 13:42:05 |
Its chilling how even in 1909 Forster was able to see the direction in wich technology was moving. While devices such as portable phones with infinite
abilities are considered new, "fresh" inventions they are proof of Forster's 100 year old proficey: machines moving to accomodate people instead
of people developing innovative methods of helping them sealves or simply reaching resources. The smartphone's endless abilities and user-friendly format
bares eery resembelence to the buttons used for instant gratification in "The Machine Stops".
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fraserjen |
then and now | #4 | ||
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Posts: 14 03/04/09 13:54:51 |
I agree....Also, look at what we are doing now on this online board. The internet ..."smart" classrooms..."smart" phones...
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lenitortalini |
#5 | |||
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Posts: 14 03/04/09 14:02:24 |
I tihnk the most compelling theme of the story was the insurmountable momentum that the develpoment of the machine took on. Throughouth the story, I knew there
would be an eventual realization that the machine had robbed the people of their humanity but the language of the story made me feel as if even if they had
notcied earlier there would be nothing they could do to stop the cyclical rise and fall of the machine's empire. Rings a bell of the pattern of all
civilizations to rise, conquer, and eventually crumble and fall, no matter how omnipotent they seemed at their heights.
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The Freeman |
#6 | |||
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Posts: 7 03/04/09 14:30:35 |
Meh, I still think its a bit of a stretch to think that the Machine has any degree of substance.
Every workplace, the means of production, every single thing will be available at home? We will trash entire infrastructures and magically condense these things into a room? Yes, technology has allowed for communication without physical contact or presence, but physical relationships still exist, even for those that use the smart phones, or internet communication. The desire for sexual contact, if anything, will always exist and provide incentive for human contact. The problem is, this discussion is based on the application of a fictional novel, not a recollection of real human experiences, to predict the future and evaluate society. Society is not a reflection of a luddite author's ideas. |
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LUISFLORES94401 |
#7 | |||
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Posts: 8 03/04/09 16:39:16 |
I agree with "The Freeman" I think that although its great to believe your house and bed has all the
things that would make your life easier, it would greatly deterate our basic infastructure in the long run no longer would we need roads to drive to a friends
house or a car to go to school this will all be done and conrtolled by machines. Its silly to think machines can also replace and express physical human
contact. As humans we need pyhsical human contact for mental health reasons.
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Xavier Heydt |
#8 | |||
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Posts: 24 03/05/09 11:44:27 |
The Freeman wrote:It's also a cautionary tale, which is a perfectly valid topic to discuss. Obviously the elimination of all the things you mentioned is unlikely, and seems impossible now, but that's exactly the point of the story. If everything in the story was immediately possible and probable to occur, we wouldn't have much of a "future" world, would we? |
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shen |
#9 | |||
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Posts: 5 03/05/09 16:13:16 |
I agree with brotha Freeman to an extent. The story was fictional, yet somewhat believable in some aspects. Everyone in that society worshiped the machine as a
God. It's ironic that the very machine that the humans created, ended up being the death of them. The fear that this story conveys is the same fear that
Brave New World conveys: Machines making life uniform and utterly getting rid of the need to work. Today's society can relate to this society in a lesser
extent because every aspect of our life is integrated into the computer.
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kimmchie |
#10 | |||
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Posts: 11 03/06/09 11:11:03 |
I can see how the society somewhat resembles our society in 2009. People are now texting each other instead of speaking with one another directly. We are now
looking into a technology that is self efficient- one that runs by itself and that is always renewing itself. We are also destroying our planet currently and a
destroyed planet was probably a factor in creating the machine.
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mccormickk |
#11 | |||
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Posts: 11 03/06/09 11:12:35 |
I agree in thinking that this story is very far fetched. Besides the point that people can only have babies through sexual interaction and everyone in the
story that worships the machine are to "civilized" to even hug or touch then how does the society even last? No technology will ever get rid of
human's natural instinct or need of other human contact. Also people today rely heavily on the internet, but I have yet to meet someone that worships it. I
don't think that people will ever get to a point where they worship an object, maybe hold it as very important, but never worship.
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Celine |
#12 | |||
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Posts: 11 03/06/09 11:35:20 |
Everyone's always going to have sex. People aren't going to stop caring what they look like and become like the protagonist because people always want
to have sex. It's part of human nature. So I think that this story is unrealistic.
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fwdkfwdkfwdk |
Ryan's Opinion | #13 | ||
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Posts: 2 03/06/09 13:48:47 |
My post deals with the realistic and phony concepts within the story...
Here are the reasons why I believe this story would never come true:
There are several reasons why this story has some degree of truth:
I thought Amanda's comment was rather funny. I always whip out my phone to check my messages constantly. Its satisfying, similar how pressing a button will keep you in some form of contact with the most important thing: God. What else did I forget to mention? I didn't like the story :( -Ryan Alvarado
-Ryan Alvarado
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fwdkfwdkfwdk |
#14 | |||
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Posts: 2 03/06/09 13:51:33 |
Celine wrote: What about the people who "give up sex" for religion (and then touch little children)? What if everyone was brainwashed to believe that sex would kill you? If the general population believed that sex would kill you, you would most likely as well. If this machine was to have the council tell everyone sex=death, they would probably believe it. Then again, bee's have sex even when they know their going to die.
-Ryan Alvarado
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slunardi |
#15 | |||
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Posts: 9 03/06/09 19:09:04 |
True Nick.. nice comparison. The story relates somewhat to Brave New World. However, I believe where it differs is in the mind. BNW uses machines to make
people and complete their work for them, but each person still controls their own thoughts. In this story, every decision in life is run through the machine.
Can I commit suicide? Can I have a baby? Can broken music be fixed? The machine becomes their God. It's eery to think of this story realistically. I find
today's society to more closely resemble BNW rather than the story. The story suggests that technology has complete control, but I believe currently
technology is only providing and replacing work. I do not use technology to decide my clothes or when to sleep or to pick up a book that I dropped. Sure,
society relies a bunch on technology, but lets just pray that people don't give up their individual thoughts to let technology make even the smallest
decisions for them. That'd be pretty pathetic.
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