User reviews

I remember reading this book, whilst at Grammar school, in England, in the 60's. It was only after that time, that I realised that it was written in 1909. I thought, back then, that it was written in the 30's, which only makes its predictions even more astounding. Obviously, it is dated and naive, but bear in mind that it was written over 90 years ago.

This short story by E M Forster, foresaw the advent of TV, E-mail and the Internet. It predicts a bleak future where humans live underground and communicate via Cinematophote. An astounding vision of the future, remarkable for its time.

We haven't got that far yet, whereby direct human contact is avoided at all costs, but who knows what the future might bring?

In a distant future in which humans live in underground isolation and have every need taken care of by an ubiquitous, omniscient Machine, one man dares to try to see beyond the Machine's omnipotent control. Written long before computers or the instantaneous transmission of images and data, Forster's remarkably foresighted work envisions a world were humans are so dependent on their technology that life without it is almost unimaginable (and trying to imagine it borders on heresy). This episode of the British mid-60's sci-fi anthology series 'Out of the Unknown' is quite well made considering the budget, with imaginative set design and sound, a literate script, and good acting from stars Michael Gothard and Yvonne Mitchell. That the BBC destroyed thousands of hours of quality programming like this to save a bit of space and a few quid is tragic.

Much is made of the fact that this was written in 1909 as little more than short story and rightly so; its visions of TV, email, internet and remote health care are astonishing. I read this at school as part of a short story project and was much affected by it. I was lucky to see this 1966 BBC treatment of it and it is spellbinding despite its now obvious problems with future fashion predictions.

It is a dark vision, that today brings to mind Blade Runner, Wall-E, Total Recall and just about any dystopian message you care to bring up. Sadly it is a piece that has now all but disappeared behind the BFI pay wall and may only rarely get a free airing.