Machine Stops (version 3), The by E. M. Forster (1879 - 1970)

The Machine Stops is a science fiction novella by E. M. Forster, first published in 1909. It imagines a future in which humans live isolated underground in individual cells, with every bodily and spiritual need provided by an omnipotent global Machine. People communicate through screens and have lost direct contact with the surface world and with one another. The story explores dependence on technology, the loss of physical experience, and what happens when the Machine begins to fail. This LibriVox recording presents the complete public-domain text.