“The Machine Stops” is set in the distant post-apocalyptic future where mankind had lost the ability to live on Earth’s surface. In fact, conditions on the surface were so harsh that being banished to the surface was the ultimate punishment for crimes in this new society, an equivalent to the death sentence in today’s world. Mankind had to live underground all over earth. Everyone was isolated in a standard cell where all their needs or wants could be fulfilled without leaving the room. They did so with the help of the omnipotent global Machine which men had invented long ago. Human interactions had greatly evolved. Interaction with others was replaced with a holographic technology with which people conducted their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what …show more content…
Any form of physical interactions were seemed as barbaric as they had become obsolete, owing to the Machine.
The story centred on the lives of a mother, Vansti, and her son, Kuno who lived on opposite sides of the world. Vashti was contented with her life and like most people there, she spent her time endlessly discussing pre-existing or outdated knowledge and opinions. Kuno, however, was the opposite. He saw new ideas despite living in a world where it seemed as though all was known. He persuaded Vashti to visit him later on and there, he told her of his disenchantment with the sanitised, mechanical world. Also, he had been threatened with 'Homelessness' as he had illegally escape to the surface where he saw for the first time, surface dwellers. As time passed, religion was re-established despite the abolishment of it ages ago when all deemed religion as a superstition. The