4 ms·

The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster (1909)

108 points by dedalus 11y ago

livatlantis 11y ago
I love this story. (In fact, I even wrote and recorded a song based on it, from the perspective of Kuno). I find the societal obsession with ideas fascinating. Especially this bit: > In the evening she looked again. They were crossing a golden sea, in which lay many small islands and one peninsula. She repeated, "No ideas here," and hid Greece behind a metal blind. To think that the Earth could inspire nothing is just... sad.
- kaybe 11y ago
  I really wonder what kind of ideas they are talking about. It is never really said.
  - eponeponepon 11y ago
    I think the idea (no pun intended) is that they don't know themselves. There are certainly parallels with the modern web.
  - gojomo 11y ago
    Memes.
knattt 11y ago
An audiobook version is available for free here: https://librivox.org/the-machine-stops-by-e-m-forster/ https://librivox.org/the-machine-stops-by-e-m-forster/ (librivox is a volunteer/non-professional project, so don't expect shakespearean acting, but it's good enough)
Animats 11y ago
That was so far ahead of its time.
dyates 11y ago
One of my favourite short stories. Impossibly visionary and also quite terrifying. There was a decent black and white British television adaptation that might still be somewhere on Youtube.
kqr2 11y ago
The BBC did a TV adaptation of this story in 1966 as part of its Out of the Unknown series. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060643/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060643/ The series was recently released on DVD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-7-Disc-DVD-Terence-Morgan/dp/B00KF9LPBO http://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-7-Disc-DVD-Terence-Morgan/dp/B00...
- fitzwatermellow 11y ago
  Nice! There was a BBC4 Radio version as well, but it doesn't seem to be available on the iPlayer ;(
jmtd 11y ago
This was one of a series of stories re-published by Penguin for their 80th anniversary, as part of a series of shorts priced at 80p each. The Forster book had two stories (can't recall what the second one was, I've only read "the machine stops" so far). http://www.littleblackclassics.com http://www.littleblackclassics.com
- EdwardCoffin 11y ago
  A Celestial Omnibus: http://www.penguin.co.uk/books/the-machine-stops/9780141195988/ http://www.penguin.co.uk/books/the-machine-stops/97801411959...
emiliobumachar 11y ago
"Her voice was irritable, for she had been interrupted often since the music began. She knew several thousand people, in certain directions human intercourse had advanced enormously." Prescient to the point of being creepy.
- crpatino 11y ago
  Agreed. My personal fabe is: "But the Committee of the Mending Apparatus now came forward, and allayed the panic with well-chosen words. It confessed that the Mending Apparatus was itself in need of repair." If only IVR systems were so candid!
johnhattan 11y ago
A classic. Some of the ideas presented here were literally a hundred years ahead of their time.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
pmoriarty 11y ago
For anyone to whom the name E.M.Forster does not ring a bell,[1] he's more well known for "A Room with a View" and "A Passage to India". [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._M._Forster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._M._Forster
Fastidious 11y ago
See: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=the%20machine%20stops&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=the%20machine%20stops&sort=byP... (the many "The Machine Stops" entries on HN)
themgt 11y ago
First ran into this via Atul Gawande, who was recommended it by Oliver Sacks[1] "I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you. That is why I want you to come. Pay me a visit, so that we can meet face to face, and talk about the hopes that are in my mind." [1] http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/14/oliver-sacks http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/14/oliver-sacks

108 points by dedalus 11y ago

I love this story. (In fact, I even wrote and recorded a song based on it, from the perspective of Kuno). I find the societal obsession with ideas fascinating. Especially this bit: > In the evening she looked again. They were crossing a golden sea, in which lay many small islands and one peninsula. She repeated, "No ideas here," and hid Greece behind a metal blind. To think that the Earth could inspire nothing is just... sad.

kaybe 11y ago
I really wonder what kind of ideas they are talking about. It is never really said.
- eponeponepon 11y ago
  I think the idea (no pun intended) is that they don't know themselves. There are certainly parallels with the modern web.
- gojomo 11y ago
  Memes.

knattt 11y ago

An audiobook version is available for free here: https://librivox.org/the-machine-stops-by-e-m-forster/ https://librivox.org/the-machine-stops-by-e-m-forster/ (librivox is a volunteer/non-professional project, so don't expect shakespearean acting, but it's good enough)

Animats 11y ago

That was so far ahead of its time.

dyates 11y ago

One of my favourite short stories. Impossibly visionary and also quite terrifying. There was a decent black and white British television adaptation that might still be somewhere on Youtube.

kqr2 11y ago

The BBC did a TV adaptation of this story in 1966 as part of its Out of the Unknown series. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060643/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060643/ The series was recently released on DVD: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-7-Disc-DVD-Terence-Morgan/dp/B00KF9LPBO http://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-7-Disc-DVD-Terence-Morgan/dp/B00...

fitzwatermellow 11y ago
Nice! There was a BBC4 Radio version as well, but it doesn't seem to be available on the iPlayer ;(

jmtd 11y ago

This was one of a series of stories re-published by Penguin for their 80th anniversary, as part of a series of shorts priced at 80p each. The Forster book had two stories (can't recall what the second one was, I've only read "the machine stops" so far). http://www.littleblackclassics.com http://www.littleblackclassics.com

EdwardCoffin 11y ago
A Celestial Omnibus: http://www.penguin.co.uk/books/the-machine-stops/9780141195988/ http://www.penguin.co.uk/books/the-machine-stops/97801411959...

emiliobumachar 11y ago

"Her voice was irritable, for she had been interrupted often since the music began. She knew several thousand people, in certain directions human intercourse had advanced enormously." Prescient to the point of being creepy.

crpatino 11y ago
Agreed. My personal fabe is: "But the Committee of the Mending Apparatus now came forward, and allayed the panic with well-chosen words. It confessed that the Mending Apparatus was itself in need of repair." If only IVR systems were so candid!

johnhattan 11y ago

A classic. Some of the ideas presented here were literally a hundred years ahead of their time.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

pmoriarty 11y ago

For anyone to whom the name E.M.Forster does not ring a bell,[1] he's more well known for "A Room with a View" and "A Passage to India". [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._M._Forster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._M._Forster

Fastidious 11y ago

See: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=the%20machine%20stops&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=the%20machine%20stops&sort=byP... (the many "The Machine Stops" entries on HN)

themgt 11y ago

First ran into this via Atul Gawande, who was recommended it by Oliver Sacks[1] "I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you. That is why I want you to come. Pay me a visit, so that we can meet face to face, and talk about the hopes that are in my mind." [1] http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/14/oliver-sacks http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/14/oliver-sacks