Part IV
The Return
Millenniums after the collapse of the Machine, humanity had begun to rebuild itself. The homeless who survived the collapse went on to redevelop society, finally escaping the grasp of the Machine.
In the minds of the Homeless, The Machine was perceived as the antithesis of a benevolent deity, a truly satanic creation. During the era of the Machine, there existed an obsession with control that no longer permeated society. In fact, the opposite became true. People became wary of any sort of technological advancements and attempted to maintain a primitive society. In doing so, they did not maintain the histories of the past. At the restart of humanity, knowledge was rarely recorded, especially information about the Machine, which became a taboo topic only mentioned in hushed whispers. The goal the Homeless had in mind was to prevent the revival of the Machine. As time went on, the Machine’s existence faded from the minds of the people.
With nothing concrete to associate with a fear of progress, future generations slowly began to recreate the technological innovations of the past, although with some variations. The lives of people once again became increasingly automated and isolated. While the Machine may have ceased to exist physically, it remained in the unconscious minds of the people, and society naturally progressed towards its recreation.
As is the cyclical nature of life and humanity, doomed to a cycle of death and rebirth, never truly learning from the mistakes of the past.
…
Analysis
One line in “The Machine Stops” that stuck out to me was “humanity has learnt its lesson.” In the context of the story, this statement could be interpreted as a warning for humanity, expressing the lesson that the author hopes readers learn through the story. With my rewritten ending, the story takes on a new meaning that brings irony to the statement “humanity has learnt its lesson” and reframes the meaning of the story, a meaning that is better understood in the context of our current society.
“The Machine Stops” is a cautionary tale that expresses a fear commonly held by people at the time it was written. The story depicts what can be interpreted as a possible future for humankind if they blindly continue along their current path without stopping to consider the possible consequences that could come with a more automated and technologically developed society. In this reimagined ending, the original story is placed in the past, with our current society existing after the collapse of the Machine. In this ending, the story has a more pessimistic message. Rather than cautioning people on a potential future, it expresses that said future is inevitable, stating that humanity will always drive itself towards destruction.
This ending can also be interpreted as expressing a more commonly held modern fear of an omnipotently powerful AI. In the reimagined ending, it is stated that the Machine remained in the unconscious minds of the people. This statement can be read figuratively, or literally. Figuratively, it could mean that humanity instinctively redevelops along similar lines to how it once developed. Literally, the statement would imply that the Machine, even after death could influence the minds of individuals, and the collective path of human development (although it was never stated in the original story that the Machine was an AI, with my ending it can be read as such, an assumption that builds off of the omnipotence and power that people associated with the Machine). Both interpretations express different meanings for the story, the figurative one displaying that humanity cannot learn from the past if they refuse to acknowledge it, while the literal interpretation showcases the modern-day fear of AI, which has become increasingly more common as we have developed technology that is able to mimic abilities that we once thought only humans could perform.
This new ending aims to give the story a new meaning that is more reflective of mentalities present in modern-day society. Living in a different time from the author, we have seen and experienced significant technological advancement and we can identify technological parallels between the story to our current lives, but it is difficult to imagine our society progressing into the same one shown in “The Machine Stops”.
This ending resolves this issue, allowing for modern-day readers to more easily relate to the fear of technological advancement that the author aims to express in the original tale, and has an added message of humanity being doomed to repeat its mistakes, and our inability to heed the warnings of the past.
Great job on this post! I completely agree with your points about how The Machine Stops is a cautionary story, and I loved your alternative ending. I like how you revamped the ending to fit a less extreme warning with utter detestation of technology.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is really good! You make a great argument as to how "The Machine Stops" is a cautionary tale about humanity's growing reliance on technology. I think that your new ending does a great job of reminding us that, by ignoring our history and the things that led to the downfall of previous societies we put ourselves at the risk of falling down that same path and suffering the same fate. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this! The way you framed The Machine Stops as a precursor to humanity's present state, rather than existing on a separate or fictional timeline, is very interesting. I read another blog post a while ago that expressed concerns about how stories like The Machine Stops may lose relevancy as time goes on--however, I think that rewriting the ending the way you did is a great way to relay Forster's original ideas to a modern audience, thus continuing its relevancy.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you imply in your re-imagined ending that "future generations slowly began to recreate the technological innovations of the past, although with some variations", I believe this connects a lot to what you were trying to say in your analysis as well. The Machine stops could definitely be viewed as a cautionary tale from Forster's perspective as at the time, technology was developing rapidly. Your ending aims to offer a more reflective side of the phrase "humanity has learnt its lesson" which could be connected to how fast we were progressing technology and thus how it should slow down to a more reasonable pace, as well as limit control and power situated within advancing technology. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your reimagined continuation of the story! I did not think it fit well into 'The Machine Stops" when they just said, “humanity has learnt its lesson." That sentence just seemed so abrupt and I felt unsatisfied - especially because it seemed unrealistic as well. No way they all just accepted it and *really believed* that humanity learned its lesson because I am not hopeful they would make much change. It's like those movies where they give up on the ending and just say, "And they all lived happily ever after". Although your ending suggests there is never really a "happy ending", I much prefer it over the unrealistic, lame ending Forester gave us.
ReplyDeleteI thought your version of what happens after the machine collapses was really interesting. I especially like your idea that people made the Machine a taboo subject, so it was forgotten and eventually reinvented and I thought it was a fun ending to the story to read. When I read the ending Forster wrote, I was curious about the idea that humanity had learnt its lesson and would never again build another machine too, since it seemed somewhat unlikely, so this blog was really interesting. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI really like how your ending adapts to how we perceive the story differently in a modern setting. I agree that the story may mean something different to me than the author or someone who would have read it when it was first written. I especially like how you twisted the ending to present an entirely new issue we view in society, being that we often try to hide the bad things that have happened instead of openly talking about them in order to better prevent it. I think this ending works better with the modern take because I feel like this is a problem we are starting to notice throughout history. I also really enjoyed your writing style, it fit well with the ominous theme of the story and was quite captivating.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed you idea that humanity will drive itself to destruction and revival. I think that it often happens in our world in a similar way, we see ruins of past civilizations all around us, not quite as a taboo subject, but the idea is there. I definitely agree that this story was written as a cautionary tale, but its message becomes more and more laughable or easily brushed off with the society we live in now.
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