The Machine Stops

E. M. Foster

May 2021 · Atlântico Press

About this ebook

The Machine Stops is a short science fiction story signed by Edward Morgan Forster (A Passage to India) that describes a world in which almost all humans have lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual lives in isolation in a 'cell', a standard room below ground, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine.

Those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as 'unmechanical' and are threatened with "Homelessness". Eventually, the Machine apocalyptically collapses, and the civilization of the Machine comes to an end.

The story, written in 1909, has proved to be far ahead of its time, with remarkably accurate predictions of modern technologies and their over-dependence on them. As well as Forster's predicting globalisation, the internet, video conferencing, and other aspects of 21st-Century reality, ex-BBC's arts editor, Will Gompertz writing on the BBC website on 30 May 2020 and said: "The Machine Stops is not simply prescient; it is a jaw-droppingly, gob-smackingly, breath-takingly accurate literary description of lockdown life in 2020."

English novelist and essayist, Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) was also known for his ironic novels examining class difference in early 20th-century British society. A Passage to India (1924) brought him his greatest success and he was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 16 different years.

The Machine Stops ebook was developed by Atlântico Press, a publisher company present in the global editorial market, since 1992.