I once read a book called When the Machine Stops by E.M Forster. It was a great work of literature, and one of the first few science fiction novels ever written and because of that it didn’t have much believability to it at the time. But it was the premise the book was based on that made me a complete fan-girl for it. So here’s a summary to get you up to date with the book:

When the Machine Stops is based in the far future, when people are all dependant on machines for their living; they play on them, study from them and socialize through them. Since people don’t do more than sit in a chair and gulp down nutrition pellets, they eventually began to desert the unpredictable surface of Earth and moved underground, where all living conditions were controlled by machines: air, water, temperature. Everything. Over the span of centuries people became so dependant on machines to do everything for them that their muscles degraded, save for in their fingers which they used to input commands.

Then one day, the main system that controlled the entire outfit crashed. This was unprecedented, as nothing of this sort had happened ever before. People panicked but found they could no longer move to save themselves. They could not communicate with each other since they had lost the power to use their own body for the purpose, and were not comfortable with being in any other person’s physical presence.

The life support systems broke down and due to the lack of circulating air, and the heat from the proximity to the Earth’s mantle, people began to try to escape to the surface. They dragged themselves up using only their fingers. Most died since their hearts, unused to physical exertion, seized. Others died during the long journey without food. Some managed to make it to the surface but their skin and eyes, which had never seen sunlight before, could not stand it and they died like roaches spewing out of a poisoned drainpipe.

I’m not a big fan of doomsday theories but this one really hit me. What do we do these days but depend more and more on machines and computers? Video games, computers, Kindles have all begun to replace things like exercise, books and hard work. People are more adept at talking through text (IM, text messaging, FACEBOOK) than they are at communicating face to face. True conversation has died and rotted. People sit like zombies in front of the TV instead of going out, getting fresh air; doing things we did before electronics took over our lives. Back when we HAD a life off the internet. I mean look at how much the NEET population has soared…

I am a complete anti-advancement supporter in many ways. Everything was better back in the old days. War was more limited, people had says in each others’ lives, hey had a respect for nature rather than the greedy drive for MORE MORE MORE that people seem to have these days. “Better bombs, better processors, better air-conditioners, better calculators” which basically leads to dumber people pretending to be smart by using these intelligent things.

I mean, come on. We have toilets that clean you up after you do your business! Can’t you even wipe your own ass yourself now?

The time isn’t too far off when we’ll be making babies in little pouches in laboratories, and have machine tap into our lungs and pump air in and out so we don’t pull a muscle breathing…