"The Machine Stops"

When predicting what our world would be like in the future there have been many different opinions on what this environment would be like. In the story “The Machine Stops” a futuristic world of isolation is explored, and helps support the idea that in the future people will be so reliant on technology that all other interaction and relationships will cease to exist.  This idea of a barren future, of a world without books, religion, and relationships has become a popular hypothesis of futuristic life. Although the Machine Stops was written years ago it still validly expresses the fear that technology will eventually replace everything our society already holds dear.  In the article “Our Media, Ourselves: Are We Headed for a Matrix” written by Bob Mondello; a similar view point is examined.  According to Mondello new technologies are taking away what used to help us express ourselves.  Mondello states “It’s as if we’re deciding en masse that when it comes to the arts and entertainment, we can do without the actual object that is the the object of our affection. Who needs real world clutter in an age when everything streams?”  Mondello like Forester blames technology for harming our society but not by separating people from each other but by making people distant from their things.  

In Forester’s story Vashti does not have any possessions in her tiny cell, only buttons to fulfill her every command , “the room although it contained nothing, was in touch with everything she cared for in the world.” Now this statement would shock many today. In our society our possessions are almost as important to us as the people that gave them to us.  Art work, books, gifts, all the things we own and surround us with help to shape who we are.  So in aiding in Mondello’s claim it could be said that without the possessions we have around us we become less and less like ourselves. 

Although Forester and Mondello have logical fears towards technology I would have to disagree with their opinions. In Foresters mind technology is the reason why people are distant from one another but in our world today technology is the one thing that has kept us together. Before technology the world was as isolated as Forester describes the people in the machine, yet today it is possible to communicate and interact with anyone around the world at any time. With texts, phone calls email, and Skype, the entire world is at our fingertips.  As for Mondello, although people are less likely to surround themselves with objects that represent themselves it does not mean that people are losing what makes them themselves. Many technologies today are based solely around what their owner wants. The iPhone today is all about personalization, your music, your apps, your contacts, your games are all able to be with you at all time.; it’s not like you can carry around an art masterpiece that represents yourself all the time, but you can carry a pocket size gadget that contains a multitude of things that you like.

Based upon these two sources I believe that technology should be raved about as much as it is revered.