The Machine Stops

After reading an excerpt from EM Forster's The Machine Stops written in 1909 I'm left wondering if I live in a machine or at least according to the machines and what if these machines stop?

When I became a Scrivner devotee recently I read an article by 'The Thesis Whisperer' (http://thesiswhisperer.com/2011/01/13/is-your-computer-domesticating-you/) called 'Is your computer domesticating you?'

I didn't realise I was 'in the machine' until the Whisperer pointed it out. I've been a slave to Word for ever and not realised how bloody crap it is. Now I'm using Scrivner and I'm liberated, or am I.

In Forster's story people live in a post apocalyptic world underground where is it safe from the mess made above ground by people in the previous generation.

Airships fly people between underground worlds where they live in 'splendid isolation' using pneumatic post and a form of telepresence to communicate. They talk in half-baked, second-hand ideas that feel spookily incomplete and fear visceral communication above all.

They are the old school hikikimori (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori). They are sort of me and very much a lot of the younger people I know.

Tonight I had two things delivered that I bought online - a bag to hold the machine (a lap top) and a food dehydrator. Technically now I could exist in isolation if I begin dehydrating the figs and vegetables in my backyard.

I also shopped for a door online, received two phone calls from family members, sent and received multiple texts, submitted an online task for a class, checked the weather for tomorrow to decide if I would ride my bike or take the tram.

Why go outside? Why seek out people in person?

I guess it is for that nuanced emotion that Forster's character Kuno feels and seeks and to practice real human contact and empathy. Because I like my friends and the fresh air and ultimately because I'm afraid of that empty feeling becoming normal.