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I remember reading it many years ago. He made some good points - which is disconcerting.

Has anyone else read it? What did you think?

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[-] subspaceinterferents@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Sure, the guy was a murderer and somewhat nuts, but this quote of his always rang true with me. This is, in a nutshell, the future: "But I am suggesting neither that the human race would voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the machines would willfully seize power. What I do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines' decisions. Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide."

[-] GreyShuck@feddit.uk 18 points 1 year ago

Not exactly an original thought though. This had been a staple of SF writers for decades. E M Forster's The Machine Stops from 1909 being a fine example.

[-] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

And certainly not the last to do it: that’s essentially the plot of Wall-E.

[-] kalkulat@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That 1909 story came up with the -same- conclusion ... complete dependence (with the machine enforcing it). Except, in the story, the Repair machine is malfunctioning.

Speaking of which - the other day I found this video, which might be useful to both those who've read it (or don't have the time). Besides an analysis, it includes some fine SF artwork.

"The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster - Short Story Analysis" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2XXkauk0eU

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this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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