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Anybody who uses the Internet should read E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops. It is a chilling, short story masterpiece about the role of technology in our lives. Written in 1909, it's as relevant today as the day it was published. Forster has several prescient notions including instant messages (email!) and cinematophoes (machines that project visual images).

-Paul Rajlich

VTRDark wrote:For something a little diffrent and for those that like a bit of eye opening sci fi here's a short story. Now bare in mind this was written in 1909.

READ HERE

Anybody who uses the Internet should read E.M. Forster's The Machine Stops. It is a chilling, short story masterpiece about the role of technology in our lives. Written in 1909, it's as relevant today as the day it was published. Forster has several prescient notions including instant messages (email!) and cinematophoes (machines that project visual images).

-Paul Rajlich

And in case your wondering where I found this, well..... through another link which is also a very intresting read and IMO a very well written article.

The Amish understand a life-changing truth about technology the rest of us don’t

Maybe a better title for this thread would have been 'Food for Thought'.

Walter Brenner believes there's a need for drivers - and people selling cars - to be better educated about what semi-automated systems can do.

There is a risk, he concedes, that even with that knowledge some people might deliberately choose to let the technology do more than it should - to experiment with it, or even to show off.

In those cases, he thinks, punishments should be harsh.

"There's a big difference between trying out a new feature on an iPhone and playing with technology in a car when you're travelling at 100km/h (62mph) on a public road," he says.

"Those people have to be punished because they're risking other people's lives."