The Terrifying Predictions of The Machine Stops

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  • Опубліковано 11 лип 2023
  • An overview of The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster.
    Read 'The Machine Stops' here: www.cs.ucdavis.edu/~koehl/Tea...
    Listen to my reading in audiobook format: • The Machine Stops by E...
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 78

  • @psionicsknight6651
    @psionicsknight6651 10 місяців тому +22

    The whole idea of a decadent, technology-obsessed, and environmentally/spiritually-apathetic/antipathic eventually collapsing and making way for a new group of people who have more knowledge, ingenuity, and connection with one another, the planet, and maybe even something higher is actually very interesting in light of the Solarpunk Genre/Movement (which I recommend you check out if you haven’t seen it).
    While Solarpunk isn’t about completely discarding technology as a whole-more refitting/reforming it to be more environmentally friendly-one of the main ideas is that Solarpunk people (both in fiction and real life) are rebelling against an oppressive system that is eroding our humanity and values. As well as having the belief, and hope, that they will win out in the end, one way or another.
    It does make me think that the ending of the Machine Stops could still happen, perhaps in our lifetimes, but in a much better way-with people like Solarpunk supporters starting to help people see not only the truth of what is happening in the world, but allow people to make better choices. Some in power might try to stop them, but said change is ultimately inevitable-and in the end, humanity will survive and adapt.

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +9

      An excellent comment. This is exactly my philosophy. I was previously unaware of the term 'Solarpunk', but I am guessing the name comes from solar power.
      But connections with nature, with like-minded people and a higher power or powers are all things I strive for today and would like others to strive for too.
      We've tried modernity and post-modernity and it's clear that they don't really work. Let's take the good parts of it, like solar power and certain technologies, and bring them into a new future that, in many ways, resembles the past.

    • @psionicsknight6651
      @psionicsknight6651 10 місяців тому +4

      @@BewareCast Well, thank you, I appreciate it!
      And yes, Solarpunk gets it’s name from solar panels. While a Solarpunk story/setting/world does not *need* to use solar panels alone to “be” Solarpunk-anything environmentally friendly is, ultimately, accepted-solar power is something of the “iconic” energy source for Solarpunk. Both because solar panels are icons for green energy in general, and the fact that Solarpunk tends to be politically left libertarian. Thus, solar panels can make things like communal ownership of energy production both feasible and practical.
      But yes, I agree-even though we have done a lot of good with progress, we can’t just completely dismiss the past since there is value in what we did before. Besides, something I’ve heard from both Though Slime and from the RPG Coyote & Crow is that the idea of a teleological progression of the world from “Hobbesian hellscape” to “utopian spacefarers”, as well as the idea that things like the spiritual and the logical are incompatible and opposed to one another, is something that largely comes from European colonial views. Multiple real-life groups, especially ones who hold more reverence and care for the environment (such as Native American tribes), do see things like science, nature, and spirituality as things that can and should exist in harmony with one another, as opposed to “pick the one that is ‘right’ and discard the rest.”
      In any case, I do think that as the Solarpunk movement grows, your own hopes and views about people becoming more connected and finding a way to overcome our modern problems will also become more and more of a reality.
      Your comment about Modernity and Post-Modernity, other than being insightful, also reminds me of another, lesser-known sci-fi book: A Canticle for Leibowitz. If you haven’t heard of it-it depicts the world after a nuclear war, dubbed the “Flame Deluge” eventually, ended society. Due to the war, people for a time saw science and technology as dangerous and evil, and so persecuted intellectuals-however, an abbey of Benedictine/Cistercian monks known as the Albertian Order of Leibowitz vowed to find and preserve knowledge for future generations, as well as how their efforts shape the future. While the book more explores the nature between science and religion, it does have a similar view to The Machine Ends-namely, that technological and scientific progress are still separate from moral and social progress, and we need to look to old traditions and values in an effort to retain our humanity and not just become barbarians with shiny new weapons.

    • @Mallard942
      @Mallard942 10 місяців тому +2

      Eww, god I hope that isn't our future. Space hippies is probably one of the bad endings of humanity

    • @psionicsknight6651
      @psionicsknight6651 10 місяців тому +1

      @@Mallard942 Ok, Boomer.

    • @Mallard942
      @Mallard942 10 місяців тому

      @@psionicsknight6651 You have to be a teenager or very naive to think that's a good future.
      Note how hippies don't do much besides get high and die.

  • @utrrogue7030
    @utrrogue7030 10 місяців тому +25

    It was written in 1909!?!?!? Wow, absolutely clairvoyant.

  • @TheNecroswanson
    @TheNecroswanson 10 місяців тому +7

    "Hey guys, I built the Torment Nexus from the popular Sci-fi novel, 'Don't Build the Torment Nexus'!."
    Sci-fi has always been a warning, we just never look passed the convenience it offers today toward the control it exerts tomorrow. Worse, most want the control. Nothing is more terrifying sometimes, then having to function on your own accord.

  • @brynstarkiller7419
    @brynstarkiller7419 10 місяців тому +29

    I was a 70’s kid. If we’d got a time machine and seen everyone walking around staring at phones . We’d have seen them as having been zombies or hypnotised .

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +6

      Like something out of a 70s sci-fi movie.

    • @awesomethecool
      @awesomethecool 10 місяців тому +6

      You're talking as if everyone is doing that. "Everyone walking around staring at phones" is a huge exaggeration. People are just walking around normally. At worst, listening to music or an audiobook or something.

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +1

      @@awesomethecool Depends where you are tbh

  • @gamemaniac22
    @gamemaniac22 10 місяців тому +11

    Love that you're covering other obscure and fascinating stories! Great source for finding some gems out there. Thank you!

  • @johnmiller7637
    @johnmiller7637 10 місяців тому +7

    Sounds like an interesting short story, I think I might check it out.

  • @shocbomb23
    @shocbomb23 10 місяців тому +4

    The true foundation and start of how the Adeptus / Cult Mechanicus started worshipping the Omnissiah before the eventual move to Mars

  • @Jaysin412
    @Jaysin412 10 місяців тому +10

    So happy to see you covering other stories Qu!! Love your content! Wanted to ask if you could possible, maybe, eventually, cover the book "Neuromancer" by William Gibson. Its kinda R rated, but its an amazing story/warning of where were headed...

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +5

      One day I would like to. I own a copy of the book but I'm only a couple of chapters in so far, but hope to get back to it and finish it fairly soon

    • @Jaysin412
      @Jaysin412 10 місяців тому

      Oh man... bruv, you gotta finish it! Aside from P.K.D., Gibson is the father of modern cyberpunk. Keep up the great work!

  • @andrewmcguinness1845
    @andrewmcguinness1845 10 місяців тому +11

    It's terrifying no one has stopped to ask of the modern age "What if the Machine stops?"

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +4

      Exactly.

    • @hideousruin
      @hideousruin 10 місяців тому +2

      People have asked, but no one really listens.

    • @OreadNYC
      @OreadNYC 7 місяців тому

      Some of us are stopping and have stopped to think and ask that question...but at least as often as not, we're dismissed as cranks or extremists or lunatics or even subversives and shouted down.
      As I often like to point out, it's said that the one-eyed man is king in the land of the blind -- but the reality is that far more often than not, the blind will regard the one-eyed man as a heretic or a liar or an idiot or a lunatic for having the audacity to claim that there is such a thing as color.
      Frankly, I often feel like I'm finally arriving at a point of resignation where I lean back against a building out of the way and simply eat popcorn as I watch everyone else mindlessly burn the world down. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the human race is not intelligent enough to save itself and that maybe the sooner we clear off and make way for something more clever than ourselves, the better.

  • @marcusblackwell2372
    @marcusblackwell2372 10 місяців тому +7

    The Machine Stops would make an excellent Twilight Zone episode

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +4

      Ha yeah it would

    • @jrgrimm6091
      @jrgrimm6091 4 місяці тому

      But it does make a very terrifying reality

    • @marieascot
      @marieascot 4 місяці тому

      Out of the Unknown was the UK equivalent and did include this as an episode as described in the video.

  • @charliekearns2873
    @charliekearns2873 10 місяців тому +3

    Great book and famous space rockers hawkwind had an album in 2016 based on the book

  • @normavoyton3208
    @normavoyton3208 10 місяців тому +3

    Thankful for this video after listening to your reading of the story. This has become a new favorite channel ❤ if that's your real voice, it's beautiful. Thanks for all the cool stories 🙏

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому

      Haha thanks, it is my real voice. I appreciate your kind words👍🏻

  • @mariapapadogianniratinggam3778
    @mariapapadogianniratinggam3778 10 місяців тому +4

    My one and only question is. "Why did the humans leave the surface to go live deep underground?". My theory is that man slowly grew bored of the surface and. Shovel wrench in the other. He dug and concentrated about other matters. Till his own creation failed him. Left him to die. And suffer in the cable's and wires of his own creation. The upper ape's will take his place

    • @hideousruin
      @hideousruin 10 місяців тому +1

      The story mentioned there had been an environmental collapse.

  • @Bulley
    @Bulley 10 місяців тому +3

    People don't drink Soylent Green yet thank God but plenty of people drink Soylent and it does have a variety of flavors

  • @user-fx3lv8im7f
    @user-fx3lv8im7f 4 місяці тому +1

    I remember listening to your audio on this terrifying story of humanity being controlled by some artificial intelligence in the future. I had not heard of this story before until I had heard your fantastic audio , about a month ago. The machine stops by E.M Forster . I had heard of the author, who is more famous for his novels. Hard to believe it was written in 1909 . Serves as a warning , not so much science fiction, but science fact , particularly now when you hear so much of A.I , which is nothing new , as you have stated. Thanks for sharing with me , it's most enlightening !

  • @SirMillz
    @SirMillz 3 місяці тому +1

    Just learned of this hidden sci-fi gem. Great video.

  • @JohnTandy74
    @JohnTandy74 10 місяців тому +2

    Thank you for your all tomorrow’s piece it was brilliant, I am trying man after man today.. you earned my subscription & respect!! Cheers Bravo

  • @TroyTheCatFish
    @TroyTheCatFish 10 місяців тому +2

    Yet another Fantastic Video! 👏👏👏👏👏 ❤️❤️❤️ 💖💖💖

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +2

      Thanks Troy!

    • @TroyTheCatFish
      @TroyTheCatFish 10 місяців тому +1

      @@BewareCast your welcome 🤗

    • @TroyTheCatFish
      @TroyTheCatFish 10 місяців тому +2

      @@BewareCast this video inspired me to go outside

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +2

      @@TroyTheCatFish YES! I hope everyone who sees this video is similarly inspired.

  • @loganlogon3720
    @loganlogon3720 10 місяців тому +2

    Thank you sooooo much! I've been salivating since you said you were doing this!🤩

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +2

      Haha hope you enjoy it!

    • @loganlogon3720
      @loganlogon3720 10 місяців тому +2

      @@BewareCast Of course, I always enjoy hearing your "ideas"!

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +2

      😂😂😂

  • @takoyaki_ssbm9976
    @takoyaki_ssbm9976 10 місяців тому +2

    Holy hell this is dope. I have GOT to read this.

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому +1

      PDF in the description! Or my audio reading which is on my channel, whichever you'd prefer.

  • @troycoley-cn5bb
    @troycoley-cn5bb 10 місяців тому +2

    yet another fantastic video

  • @user-qk4kg7xw8o
    @user-qk4kg7xw8o 10 місяців тому +1

    Fantastic Video

  • @theterminaldave
    @theterminaldave 2 місяці тому +1

    Weird. I also shout O Machine, O Machine, before firing up my computer.

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  2 місяці тому

      You're an early adopter of the religion, I see.

  • @alexritchie4586
    @alexritchie4586 8 місяців тому +1

    Forster seemed to be drawing a great deal of inspiration from Swift's Laputans in 'Gulliver's Travels'. Smug, aloof, constantly doted upon, and so enraputred with their own 'ideas' (which turn out to be little more than semantic navel gazing with no real application) that they must be constantly nannied by a coterie of silent and unrecognised servants, as their high-mindedness causes them to forget to bathe, eat, sleep, etc.

  • @marklombard9360
    @marklombard9360 Місяць тому +1

    Thankyou, I kinda lost the plot at the end and wasn't sure what happened. Very interesting story not to far from our present... for example here I am talking to no one... pretending to make human connections.

  • @janomacko5764
    @janomacko5764 10 місяців тому +2

    Many aspects of our technology are just crude imperfect immitations of what exists and had been pefected in nature during billions of years.

  • @llanero4069
    @llanero4069 9 місяців тому +1

    Been re hearing this and the book. Is one of the best books i have heared.

  • @seanrosenau2088
    @seanrosenau2088 8 місяців тому

    8:37 What is that? A farm of some sort? Looks beautiful, like a piece of geometric art.

  • @jasongraham3488
    @jasongraham3488 7 місяців тому

    I find in the failed prediction category the bulk of them look a great deal like things that would have been made obsolete by smart phones and Teslas.

  • @Xeroxorex
    @Xeroxorex 7 місяців тому

    Incredible

  • @jovesun8303
    @jovesun8303 8 місяців тому +1

    Comment! More random, cool, horrifying sci-fi stories mainstream culture doesn't cover, please!

  • @kanna-san.
    @kanna-san. 10 місяців тому

    We live in a society where

  • @Raulikien
    @Raulikien 2 місяці тому

    A random box complex underground where humans live like prisoners doesn't seem plausible but a headset/neurochip that enables full dive VR does. If it's more real than real life and you can do anything it would be insanely addicting, maybe a prison in it's way. However, would that be bad? Maybe we don't see other alien civilizations because they all decide to create simulations and live their best lives there, tailored to whatever they want. And let's be honest, if something like a massive supercomputer was built by a superintelligent AI around a sun or black hole to support the energy needs of that, it wouldn't just stop like that.

  • @marieascot
    @marieascot 4 місяці тому +1

    I'm glad we don't waste our time with chatting about our ideas all day.....Oh wait.

  • @OGRE_HATES_NERDS
    @OGRE_HATES_NERDS 8 місяців тому

    yo maybe this shot like already happened before for realz

  • @teddycush55
    @teddycush55 10 місяців тому

    Laughs in adeptus mechanicus

  • @KimJungGooner
    @KimJungGooner 10 місяців тому +3

    First.

  • @craighalliday5621
    @craighalliday5621 10 місяців тому +3

    Make a video about murderi's all tomorrows animation and its so realistic

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  10 місяців тому

      I'm not doing All Tomorrows at the moment

  • @llanero4069
    @llanero4069 10 місяців тому +2

    Hello Mr. Qu, hope you are well. I liked this one keep up the good work.

  • @godless-clump-of-cells
    @godless-clump-of-cells 4 місяці тому

    10:26 That illustration is dishonest. Science is mutable, methodological, and self-correcting. Religion is immutable, dogmatic, and self-deceptive. One produces real-world results; the other perpetuates fear, ignorance, and misanthropy.

    • @BewareCast
      @BewareCast  4 місяці тому

      That's some mighty-fine reductionism you got goin' on there.