The Machine Stops (Part 1)

By E.M. Forster, 1909

After initial publication in The Oxford and Cambridge Review, the story was republished in Forster's The Eternal Moment and Other Stories in 1928. After being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965, it was included that same year in the populist anthology Modern Short Stories. In 1973 it was also included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.

The Machine Stops describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge.

MUSIC:

• "Candlepower" by Chris Zabriskie)
• "Tomie's Bubbles" by Candlegravity)

Of Now And Then retells fantasy and future fictional stories in the public domain produced as audiobooks. The show is voiced, edited and produced by Aram Vartian.

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