1/10 This is the story of The Machine Stops by EM Forster, written in 1909. It's also the story of #AI #Brexit & #China. You could be a theatre director looking for a gig, an academic researching the future of #AI or a citizen of #China ...read on... 
2/10 The Machine Stops tells the story of Vashti and Kuno (her son) who live in standard rooms with The Machine providing everything through screens that deal in 'second hand' information. Vashti does not like the idea of travelling & trusts the omnipotent machine for everything.
3/10 Kuno is more rebellious; he has heard of people living above ground on the earth. He persuades Vashti to visit him IRL & she does. He tells her he doesn't like the confines of The Machine & that he has visited the surface. The Machine disapproves of 'unmechanical' behaviour.
4/10 This is the #Brexit bit. The machine begins to stop but instead of complaining, people make do. Finally the Mending Apparatus itself fails but belief is so strong in The Machine that people just keep going. There is no 'wake up' moment. Belief in the machine is too strong...
5/10 Kuno is transferred to a room nr Vashti. 'The Machine Stops' he says. She doesn't believe this. At this point the work can be read as a commentary on technology but moreover it is a commentary on the dominant state's hold over people. It is dangerous to disagree.
6/10 Things continue to fall apart. Nobody knows how to repair The Machine. Lights go out, the machine fails to provide. Eventually, the machine does collapse & it takes everyone down with it. There is no fail safe because the majority have placed their faith in The Machine...
7/10 There is no happy ending in The Machine Stops, it is a premonitory story that gains more insight each decade. It clearly predicts the neo-conservative idea of 'the reality based community' in the USA (attrib Ron Suskind). A proto Trump world of distorted 'facts'...
8/10 It shows how, in the UK, a small group of people took hold of the populist narrative & created their own machine for self-promotion that fed platitudes & 3 word slogans to 'the plebs' in their rooms. The people did not overthrow this slogan machine, they actually defended it
9/10 So, you might yourself look at The Machine around you - it looks like it is falling apart doesn't it? Will you budge up a bit & accept the propaganda, or will you rise above & find some new land to grow on? Or...
10/10 direct a new version, adapt the story, make something else of it? Rise Up! Oh yes, it's been adapted before by lots of theatres (in the UK). But why not have a go? Tell the story of The Machine Stops...#LiveWellForLessPayMoreSooner
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