Nien Lam

I really enjoyed this short story. It touches on many themes used in both old and new science fiction. The theme that seems to come up again and again is that in mankind’s attempt to attain perfection, we screw something up along the way. Think of all the movies where overuse of technology creates a dystopia. Logan’s Run, The Terminator, and The Matrix to name a few.

In this story, the main characters are Vashti and her son Kuno. Vashti is an older women who is content with her existence and conforms to the norms of society, while Kuno believes that their existence is a mere illusion put on by “The Machine”. The Machine is the omnipresent technological force that sees and controls all. Kuno decides to break free from the machine as he believes their is more to living outside of the world he has always known.

What’s really impressive about this story is that it was written in 1909, and it foretells of technology ranging from teleconferencing to information on-demand. If you wish to dive deeper and try to interpret the many ideas in this story, you’ll get different conclusions depending on who you ask. Though what’s certain is that there is some E.M. Forster in most present day technology.