The Machine Stops Essay Research Paper The — страница 2

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money to the machine. Today, when the Internet came about, people again abandoned video games, television or their friends and devoted their time to the machine. Some people could even stay in their room for hours playing the Internet without physically seeing or talking to others. People rely on the microwaves and ovens to do the cooking and use a vacuum cleaner instead of a broom. One single button on a machine can help us do the work, as portrayed in Forster s story. All of these machines improve our living conditions, increase efficiency and productivity, giving us more leisure time. On the other hand, physical human contact seems to be less and our dependence on machines is greatly increased. Almost nobody can live without light, heat, or even television. Even if a single

machine broke down, our lifestyle will be affected. Furthermore, science and technologies have progressed to a stage where, a single cell in the body can be made to create another identical body. Therefore, having everyone absolutely identical as portrayed in Forster s story is not merely just an imagination. Are we really safer with all of these machines around us, or the opposite? What would become of the human race without machines? Will the machine and the world progress to the stage as predicted by Forster? These questions are still unanswerable now, but one thing is certain: Machines do need repair and will break down one day. If we rely too much on it, we will not be able to adapt to the changes caused by it. This is the message that Forster is trying to point out. Forster

believes the relationship between the Machine and human is an outcome of the social construction of technology approach, as illustrated by his story. This approach argues that at all levels choices exist in the ways to design, develop or adopt technologies. Thus, technology is born of the social, the economic and technical relations that are already in place. This is quite true as evident from the story and from our society today. In the story, people chose to obey the Machine; they chose to go by all rules directed by the Book of Machine; they chose to let the buttons and stoppers to do their daily works. It is because of their willingness to accept and follow, which encourage the advancing and domination of the Machine. Similarly in today s society, humans created the machine

in hopes for a better lifestyle. Humans chose to design the television that will dominated hours of our time; human chose to develop a new way of having babies; human chose to use machines to satisfy their needs and wants. These are all the choices that we have made without realizing the consequences. In other words, we encourage, accept and brought about the advancing of technologies. In making these decisions, human beings are becoming more and more civilized. But in turn, technologies have pushed us towards the unknown, almost as fearful as described in the story. Nobody can promise that the existing domination by the machines will not increase. Who is to say that the future of our society will not turn out to be the same as the one described by Forster? However, there is no

way of turning back since technologies are only becoming better each and everyday. The only possible solution is if we could control our reliance on machines. In Forster s machine dominated society, he suggested that humanities would not be able to survive without the Machine. This is certainly true in our world today, where machines dominate every aspects of our life. Individuals will be vulnerable and helpless without the machines. Many of his predictions are already beginning to become visible. While others might possibly be a reflection of our future society. Furthermore, the conception that the relationship between human and machines being a result of the social construction of technology is proven through the fact that, human beings made choices regarding issues surrounding

technologies. If we are not too careful, our world can possibly become exactly the same as Forster has predicted. That is, a world without changes, new ideas and development, where life is no longer exciting and lively; a world in which Kuno described as, human are dying, the only thing that really lives is the Machine. It is doing, making humans do their will. It makes them lose their sense of touch, space, blurred human relations and narrowed down love to a carnal act; paralyzed bodies and wills, compels them to worship it. Obviously, this is not what the human race want. We desire changes, options, love and the power to control ourselves. Without these advantages, we will all go mad.