The Machine Stops cover art

The Machine Stops

Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Machine Stops

By: E.M. Forster
Narrated by: Graham Dunlop
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $17.51

Buy Now for $17.51

About this listen

A haunting vision of the future written in 1909, The Machine Stops follows Vashti and her son Kuno in a world where humanity has retreated underground, living in isolated pods entirely dependent on a vast, all-powerful Machine that fulfills every need—communication, food, ideas, comfort. When Kuno begins to question their total reliance on technology and longs to experience the Earth's surface, his mother dismisses him as dangerous and eccentric.

But the Machine is beginning to fail.

Eerily prescient, Forster's short story anticipates the internet, video calls, social media dependence, and the slow erosion of human connection—over a century before they existed. A must-listen for anyone who has ever wondered how much of ourselves we've surrendered to our screens.

Public Domain (P)2026 Adultbrain Publishing
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.