When we started meeting on Zoom during the pandemic, it felt strange at first. But then, I realized that I was living in a science fiction novel. The kind where people live in absolute luxury, but without other human contact. They communicate with other people only by using screens, and everything they could possibly want is delivered nearly instantly.
At the time I first read these stories, I didn’t think this could become reality. But in the days of Zoom parties and Prime delivery of food, clothes, and anything else you could want, almost instantly (or within the realm of two-day shipping), a science fiction reality seems to be getting closer. I wanted to reread some of the stories to compare the societies of screens to our own reality. What I found was that while we can communicate over screens, there is still a need for personal human contact.
First, I tracked down “The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster online, which was written in 1909. I read it first because it’s a short story. However, I found it notable for the prediction of the internet, video chat, and instant messenger. In this version of the future, all Earth people live in underground cells and communicate mostly via video screens. Vashti, the main character, is able to travel to another hemisphere to visit her son, but travel is uncommon and Vashti is unnerved by the discomfort and the sight of the sky. Why does she travel out of her cozy cell? Her son, Kuno, tells her over the video link that he has something to say to her that has to be said in person, without the interference of a machine. He tells her when she arrives that he found a passage out to the surface of the Earth and that not only is it livable, there are people living on the surface. Vashti leaves, horrified. And then things start to break down. The audio doesn’t work as well. The food isn’t quite fresh. The temperature becomes just a bit uncomfortable. The people complain, but in the end, they just put up with it. The ending is not particularly happy. As stated in the title, the machine stops—with dire consequences for the people in their underground cells and for those who try to escape.
My second read was The Naked Sun, by Isaac Asimov, published in 1956. This is a sequel to The Caves of Steel, featuring Detective Lije (Elijah) Baley and his robot partner, Daneel Olivaw. They’re sent to investigate a murder on Solaria, a planet which has never had a crime before. When they arrive, they find a world of magnificent mansions and enormous estates—and only a few thousand people. All the other inhabitants are robots, who are specialized to perform every kind of human task. In all this luxury, there is no human contact. All communication is via holograms, called viewing instead of seeing, which appears to be a dirty word and even dirtier concept. Even seeing between husband and wife is only permitted at certain times and only for the purposes of continuing the human presence on Solaria. Most characters are horrified when Lije visits them in person, as they’ve been conditioned from childhood to only communicate with other people using holograms. However, the woman running the nursery where the children are raised confesses that infants and children do need human contact—and that it’s a filthy job, but someone has to do it for the good of Solaria. She keeps a distance of at least ten feet from the detective at all times. Another character literally dies of fright when he mistakes the personal presence of a very humanoid robot for a person. Only one character shows no nerves around the presence of another person, and that would be a spoiler. Unlike the previous story, there’s a happy ending in that Lije solves the murder—while opening the door to future exploration and colonization for Earth people.
Two different societies, written at two different points in time. Neither story quite details how the inhabitants of a future Earth or Solaria got to the point where speaking to a screen was preferable to speaking directly to a person, or how the only allowable physical contact was related to reproduction. Vashti and the Solarians each have thousands of friends, but almost nobody to see in person.
Screens are extremely convenient in bringing together people from far distant places, but I look forward to the day when this pandemic is over and we can go back to in-person visits. While we’re waiting for the vaccine, I’d suggest reading some science fiction. It gave me a perspective on the current situation, but sometimes I just want an escape.
Rebecca Marzec-Young is a Senior Lab Technician at the Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository, the largest university-based repository in the world. She holds an MS in Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. She is also a Distinguished Toastmaster and has been previously published in the Heart of a Toastmaster anthology.
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