by Last Friday’s news was dominated by the ‘biggest IT outage in history’, as a bug in a routine software update cascaded into a global crisis. Millions of computers were knocked out, thousands of flights cancelled, hospital operations postponed, television channels went off the air, payments systems crashed, supply chains froze. In short the digital foundations of our civilisation were shaken for hours and in some cases days. There was no mention that I could see of E.M.Forster’s extraordinarily prescient novella The Machine Stops. Written in 1906, it depicts a humanity wholly dependent on machine-provided services. Then the Machine stops working, little by little at first, then completely. Civilisation comes to an end, ‘strangled in the garments [it] has woven’.
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Robert Skidelsky writes Lord Skidelsky to ask His Majesty’s Government what is their policy with regard to the Ukraine war following the new policy of the government of the United States of America.
Robert Skidelsky writes House of Lords Speech – Ukraine: “A wake up call” (International Relations and Defence Committee Report)
Robert Skidelsky writes Speech in the House of Lords – Conduct Committee
Robert Skidelsky writes The American Conservative – Why Is the UK So Invested in the Russia–Ukraine War?
Last Friday’s news was dominated by the ‘biggest IT outage in history’, as a bug in a routine software update cascaded into a global crisis. Millions of computers were knocked out, thousands of flights cancelled, hospital operations postponed, television channels went off the air, payments systems crashed, supply chains froze. In short the digital foundations of our civilisation were shaken for hours and in some cases days.
There was no mention that I could see of E.M.Forster’s extraordinarily prescient novella The Machine Stops. Written in 1906, it depicts a humanity wholly dependent on machine-provided services. Then the Machine stops working, little by little at first, then completely. Civilisation comes to an end, ‘strangled in the garments [it] has woven’. Some survivors bereft of machinery are left pondering their future. Will some fool start the machine again? asks one. ‘Never’ another replies. ‘Humanity has learnt its lesson’.
Robert Skidelsky