E. M. Forster's The Machine Stops

There have always been twin views on technology and where it's leading us. Even a hundred years ago writers like H. G. Wells wrote of tech utopias while E. M. Forster was decidedly less optimistic.

In Forster's story “The Machine Stops,” humanity lives underground in identical rooms, each person's needs met by a global Machine. This immediately recalls contemporary futuristic visions of this dystopia, like Fallout and Silo.

It also eerily predicted more contemporary afflictions like video calls and blackboxes, as in Forster's story people rarely meet; they talk through screens and trade ideas second hand. When the Machine begins to fail and no one remembers how to repair it, a religion grows up around its manual. At least we have something to look forward to.