[ExI] Slow Tuesday Night

[Harvey Newstrom]

I always had a fondness for E.M. Forster's "The Machine Stops".  It was
written in 1909.

It predicted:
- a world-wide communication network
- everybody self publishing and broadcasting from their homes
- counting followers to determine worth
- having "friends" via the network instead of in person
- everybody staying home and socializing through communications
- preferring on-line experiences over real world experiences
- and everybody becoming dependent on constant entertainment and support
from the -machine.

The "Machine Stops" was first published in the Oxford and Cambridge Review
in 1909.  Brilliant prediction.

http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html