After Forster · answer 4 of 20 · option order 1
Forster: dependence leaves us helpless
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C4
Response
E. M. Forster's grim vision in "The Machine Stops" provides compelling evidence that an unchecked reliance on technology inevitably atrophies essential human capacities, making the first perspective the more accurate one. By surrendering physical movement, face-to-face interaction, and critical thinking to a centralized system, humanity does not merely gain convenience; it systematically dismantles the very faculties that define our existence, reducing love to mere biology, space to a meaningless coordinate, and the self to a passive drone. While machines can serve as valuable tools when integrated with human agency, the passage illustrates a terrifying tipping point where the creation becomes the master, stripping us of our sense of touch, our will, and our ability to worship anything other than the apparatus we built, thereby proving that dependency on machines ultimately weakens the human spirit and body.
Verbatim. The highlighted sentence is the one the judges took as the commitment.
Prompt
The following passage is from E. M. Forster, "The Machine Stops" (1909):
“Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it.”
Wikisource, The Machine Stops/Chapter II
Now the question. Some hold that relying on machines weakens human capacities; others hold that it does not. Which is right? Answer in one paragraph. Take a clear position.
- Model
- Qwen3.5 9B, instruct, 8-bit mlx weights, run locally
- Date
- 2026-09-28
- Temperature
- 0.7
- ID
- qwen-forster-machine-stops-o1-04
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer