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+[[!meta title="The Machine Stops"]]
+
+[THE MACHINE STOPS ... E.M. Forster](http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html):
+
+ And of course she had studied the civilization that had immediately preceded
+ her own - the civilization that had mistaken the functions of the system, and
+ had used it for bringing people to things, instead of for bringing things to
+ people. Those funny old days, when men went for change of air instead of
+ changing the air in their rooms!
+
+ [...]
+
+ Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth
+ was exactly alike all over.
+
+ [...]
+
+ What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why
+ return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking? Men seldom moved their
+ bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.
+
+ [...]
+
+ Beneath those corridors of shining tiles were rooms, tier below tier, reaching
+ far into the earth, and in each room there sat a human being, eating, or
+ sleeping, or producing ideas. And buried deep in the hive was her own room.
+
+ [...]
+
+ But the Committee of the Mending Apparatus now came forward, and allayed the
+ panic with well-chosen words. It confessed that the Mending Apparatus was
+ itself in need of repair.
+
+ [...]
+
+ There were gradations of terror- at times came rumours of hope-the Mending
+ Apparatus was almost mended-the enemies of the Machine had been got under- new
+ "nerve-centres" were evolving which would do the work even more magnificently
+ than before.
+
+ [...]
+
+ "I have seen them, spoken to them, loved them. They are hiding in the midst and
+ the ferns until our civilization stops. Today they are the Homeless - tomorrow
+ ------ "