The Machine Stops

“The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world.”

At the beginning of the story, Vashti has not left her room in decades. Much like today’s world, she has access to communication with others, art, literature, entertainment, and necessities of life without needing to venture out. It is notable that the room is “in touch with all that she cared for in the world,” but Vashti is not. Her isolation highlights the disconnect between humans and the rest of the world. There is a gap between people and the things that they love; their lives, like Vashti’s room, are literally empty. 

“Above her, beneath her, and around her, the Machine hummed eternally; she did not notice the noise for she had been born with it in her ears.”

Vashti is accustomed to the sound of the Machine because it is ever-present. The repeated motif of the Machine’s hum emphasizes that human beings can adapt to situations that are not healthy or good for the continuation of the species. When the hum stops, thousands of people die of shock because they have become unable to live without the Machine. 

“Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over.” 

The story warns that scientific advancement should not equal homogenization of the species or the world. Technology works to make the world smaller. With airplanes, journeys that take months by ship take only days or hours. Communication technology allows instant connection with another person without the effort of travel. Technology may break down walls between people and allow different cultures to intermingle, but completely destroying difference ruins everything that is unique and interesting in humanity.

“Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.”

Society within the Machine is focused on the mind rather than the body because they believe there is nothing more to discover in the natural world. But in actuality, unrest in the soul is what propels unrest in the body. In a tightly controlled civilization, people have the illusion of unrest in the soul, when they are really constantly seeking validation from others as they rehash existing ideas. Thus, Vashti seeks euthanasia periodically after a lecture does not go well because she believes she has nothing to live for.

“All the old literature, with its praise of Nature, and its fear of Nature, rang false as the prattle of a child.” 

Man has conquered nature, which seems to mean the end of severe weather and anything unpredictable. Although it may seem better to have no earthquakes or hurricanes, this taming of the natural environment creates a world with no variation. There is no pleasant weather either, and man can no longer withstand the surface environment. Nature may have been contained, but it cannot be fully killed. 

“The woman was confused, and apologized for not having let her fall. People never touched one another. The custom had become obsolete, owing to the Machine.”

Because people no longer touch each other, Vashti is offended when the airship hostess touches her to keep her from falling. This shows how ill-adapted people are to life outside of their rooms. Falling might have caused injury, and evolution should lean toward things that increase a person’s ability to survive. This aversion to touch is illogical, more concerned with propriety than practicality.

“Here I am. I have had the most terrible journey and have greatly retarded the development of my soul. It is not worth it, Kuno, it is not worth it. My time is too precious. The sunlight almost touched me, and I have met with the rudest people.”

Vashti travels for two days to the other side of the world in order to see her son, yet she is only willing to stay for a few minutes. Her journey was not as harrowing as she claims, and her time is not actually precious because she is not doing anything important. The fact that she believes travel hinders her soul shows a fear of change and growth. The development of the soul is not development at all, for all it requires is to remain the same.

“You, who have just crossed the Roof of the World, will not want to hear an account of the little hills that I saw – low colourless hills. But to me they were living and the turf that covered them was a skin, under which their muscles rippled, and I felt that those hills had called with incalculable force to men in the past, and that men had loved them. Now they sleep – perhaps forever. They commune with humanity in dreams. Happy the man, happy the woman, who awakes the hills of Wessex. For though they sleep, they will never die.” 

Kuno imagines for a moment that his mother would be impressed by the mountains, but she is scornful. He personifies the land just as the people personify the Machine, describing it as a living, breathing, and immortal entity. The land calls to people who are not listening but cannot help but commune with it because, in their natural state, man should be in harmony with the earth. 

“There will come a generation that had got beyond facts, beyond impressions, a generation absolutely colourless, a generation ‘seraphically free from taint of personality,’ which will see the French Revolution not as it happened, nor as they would like it to have happened, but as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine.”

The lecturer describes a bleak future, one that is devoid of color and difference. Ironically, he quotes the poem “The Lark Ascending” (1881) by George Meredith, a pastoral poem about the natural world. This shows how history and art, both full of color and rebellion, have been repurposed. The French Revolution could not take place in the days of the Machine because it was a rebellion and the Machine prevents gathering and uniting against oppression.

“The word ‘religion’ was sedulously avoided, and in theory the Machine was still the creation and the implement of man. But in practice all, save a few retrogrades, worshipped it as divine.” 

Once people begin to openly worship the Machine, this shows that humans are susceptible to religious suggestion and need a higher power to praise. However, world religions evolved from unanswerable questions about the mysteries of life. The Machine is mundane, manmade, and unmysterious. The people praise it because it is their entire world; the people are isolated from anything that would lead them to ask questions.

“No one confessed the Machine was out of hand. Year by year it was served with increased efficiency and decreased intelligence. The better a man knew his own duties upon it, the less he understood the duties of his neighbor, and in all the world there was not one who understood the monster as a whole.” 

Those who created the Machine were brilliant and intelligent people. Innovation is discouraged because the Machine is treated as the ultimate civilization. People maintain the Machine in an assembly-line fashion without knowing how it works. While this may prevent rebellion, it also ensures helplessness.

“But Humanity, in its desire for comfort, had over-reached itself.”

Much of technology exists to make life easier and more comfortable. To an extent, less labor should mean more advancement because people will have the time to think. Creative people will not be stuck digging ditches or breaking their bodies at work. However, the society goes beyond eliminating labor and treats all creation as work. Therefore, there is no creativity or individuality. Even the homogenization of comfort means that no one is fully comfortable. The food does not taste good, the bed is not what Vashti would choose, and there is no touch. Discomfort spurs invention and innovation, but only if people are allowed to think for themselves.

“Time passed, and they resented the defects no longer. The defects had not been remedied, but the human tissues in that latter day had become so subservient, that they readily adapted themselves to every caprice of the Machine.”

This refers to the acquiescence of the people as a byproduct of evolution. Their adaptability is in their tissues. They have lost all notion of self-preservation and survivability. As the water becomes undrinkable and the air becomes unbreathable, they begin to die, but they do not rise up and fight. They don’t begin to fight until the Machine stops, and then they die quickly.