“But why shouldn’t you go outside?” she exclaimed, “It is perfectly legal, perfectly mechanical, to visit the surface of the earth. I have lately been to a lecture on the sea; there is no objection to that; one simply summons a respirator and gets an Egression-permit. It is not the kind of thing that spiritually minded people do, and I begged you not to do it, but there is no legal objection to it.”
“I did not get an Egression-permit.”
“Then how did you get out?”
“I found out a way of my own.”
The phrase conveyed no meaning to her, and he had to repeat it.
“A way of your own?” she whispered. “But that would be wrong.”
“Why?”
The question shocked her beyond measure.
“You are beginning to worship the Machine,” he said coldly.
“You think it irreligious of me to have found out a way of my own. It was just what the Committee thought, when they threatened me with Homelessness.”
At this she grew angry. “I worship nothing!” she cried. “I am most advanced. I don’t think you irreligious, for there is no such thing as religion left. All the fear and the superstition that existed once have been destroyed by the Machine. I only meant that to find out a way of your own was—-Besides, there is no new way out.”
– Frå THE MACHINE STOPS av E.M. Forster
Svært interessant å lese kva E. M. Forster såg for seg i 1909 i novella om Maskinen som tar over alle delar av livet, ei maskin der du kan snakke med personar frå heile verda og du treng aldri å gå ut av huset, fordi maskina kan gi deg det du treng. Fysisk kontakt med andre menneske er overflødig. Maskina dekkjer alle fysiske og emosjonelle behov du kan ha. Ikkje så ulikt teknologien vi har rundt oss i dag. Les novella her: http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html