E.M. Forster’s 1909 short story about a future dystopia provides an excellent stiumlus to explore many issues that impact young peoples’ lives in 2021. THE MACHINE STOPS (1909) paints a picture that allows us to reflect on a multitude of topical questions: how far has technology helped us to advance, individually and socially? how does technology impact our relationships to our bodies and senses? how does technology affect our relationship with the natural world? how do metaphor, irony and allegory work to convey social messages? how does technology impact our ability to gain knowledge of what is true and to separate fact from fiction? Forster’s prophetic short story was extremely prescient in its vision of a future society in which people would be confined indoors, socially distanced and isolated even from their closest kin, and in which all connection to people and the world is mediated through a “machine”. What happens when Kuno decides he wants to escape the machine and to live by his own wits?