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There is another element within the story that I think people overlook. Most people seem to focus on the Machine stopping, and that because of this, the humans

There is another element within the story that I think people overlook. Most people seem to focus on the Machine stopping, and that because of this, the humans dwelling within it perish. More importantly, why did the Machine stop? It stopped because the people within it lost the science, engineering, materials, maths, and physics knowledge it took to build the Machine in the first place - the Machine appears to have bred that desire for such knowledge out of them. In effect, the Machine killed itself by removing the humanity from Humanity.

jodrellblank 13y ago
Most people seem to focus on the Machine stopping I think the more miserable dystopian part of it is that the people inside the machine don't seem to do much, have no purpose, no future, even if the machine works perfectly. That seems to reflect my experience of the present day, in a much more unsettling way than the idea that "someday it might all fall apart". And interestingly, "the horror of direct experience" and the references to the interaction with the air stewardess - the sort of things you might have a therapist or self-help guru to work on today - there's no mention that those are even recognized as problems, not things The Machine can help with or is trying to help with. While Vashti is having ideas and lecturing on music, she's blunt and cruel to people, even her son, she's preoccupied with keeping up appearances ("that's not mechanical, you can't say/do that") and afraid of being seen taking comfort from the instruction manual, something presumably a large number of people also do. Do these sort of things automatically follow from the idea of "setting a story in a technological future", and why?
- scarygliders 13y ago
  >> Do these sort of things automatically follow from the idea of "setting a story in a technological future", and why? Not necessarily - Iain M. Banks' Culture series is a good example, where the Culture is portrayed as being a Utopia where the Machines - Minds - have all but taken over the day to day running of the society, replete with limitless energy availability, hedonism, and the inhabitants can basically do just about whatever the heck they want. The great thing about the Culture stories is that for some, that Utopia is a bit of a nightmare for them.

jodrellblank 13y ago

Most people seem to focus on the Machine stopping I think the more miserable dystopian part of it is that the people inside the machine don't seem to do much, have no purpose, no future, even if the machine works perfectly. That seems to reflect my experience of the present day, in a much more unsettling way than the idea that "someday it might all fall apart". And interestingly, "the horror of direct experience" and the references to the interaction with the air stewardess - the sort of things you might have a therapist or self-help guru to work on today - there's no mention that those are even recognized as problems, not things The Machine can help with or is trying to help with. While Vashti is having ideas and lecturing on music, she's blunt and cruel to people, even her son, she's preoccupied with keeping up appearances ("that's not mechanical, you can't say/do that") and afraid of being seen taking comfort from the instruction manual, something presumably a large number of people also do. Do these sort of things automatically follow from the idea of "setting a story in a technological future", and why?

scarygliders 13y ago
>> Do these sort of things automatically follow from the idea of "setting a story in a technological future", and why? Not necessarily - Iain M. Banks' Culture series is a good example, where the Culture is portrayed as being a Utopia where the Machines - Minds - have all but taken over the day to day running of the society, replete with limitless energy availability, hedonism, and the inhabitants can basically do just about whatever the heck they want. The great thing about the Culture stories is that for some, that Utopia is a bit of a nightmare for them.