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Originally Posted by Vector
Forster’s story may suggest a similar sort of self-subversion in secular scientific empiricist culture. Science produces technology upon which people become increasingly reliant, using it to mediate their interactions with others and with nature. They become more and more cut off from direct interactions with others and with nature and retreat into a sort of de facto idealism. People who think like Hume create technology which produces people who think like Plato.
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I think you have a good point here. It's been a
very long time since I read anything of what you talk about, though, so bear with me. From what I remember from Forster's writing, is that he puts 'nature' very highly. He appears critical of 'culture' because it restricts nature in man - and I think in this context, technology is part of 'culture'. It cuts off man from experiencing life in full. 'Nature' meaning being direct, immediate, something that encorporate both body and mind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
I think there's a bit of an undercurrent, not quite overt of "worshiping the machine as God" and the danger therein.
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Have you noticed that several times when the machine is mentioned in this way, there's some three-fold repeated sentence/words? For example. "
... that the Machine may progress, that the Machine may progress, that the Machine may progress, eternally." There were at least two more instances, perhaps more.