# Help ID yet another SF story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 16, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801 "2020-06-16T20:23:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/1 "2020-06-16T20:23:19Z")
A friend is trying to remember a science fiction story, and posted this on Facebook: > [@](#): > > The central premise is that a virus or some sort of epidemic or war has rendered Earth’s surface uninhabitable at some point in the distant past (of the story). The remaining humans have built underground cities and do not go to the surface other than to take suborbital hops to other places in enclosed craft. They communicate largely by text (or what may be a sort of Zoom-type service) and they rarely congregate anymore. The protagonist starts to wonder about the situation, and calls his mother, halfway around the planet. She tells him that she has NO interest in the surface or any subversive thoughts about going to the surface. She is happy in her cubby and happy to communicate with him via the “net”. The story winds around and eventually he DOES go to the surface to understand what’s happening. Anyone? Another friend suggested Asimov’s _Caves of Steel_, but she said that’s not it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/2 "2020-06-16T21:21:02Z")
The Machine Stops? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/3 "2020-06-16T21:28:51Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > The Machine Stops? Beat me to it. [Some information here](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheMachineStops), including a link to online text of the book. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/4 "2020-06-16T22:05:20Z")
Yup, I was going to say “The Machine Stops”, too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/5 "2020-06-16T22:05:04Z")
Yup, I was going to say “The Machine Stops”, too. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/6 "2020-06-17T02:55:44Z")
That was it. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/7 "2020-06-17T19:01:59Z")
The Machine Stops sounds like a marriage of THX 1138 and The Giver. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/8 "2020-06-17T19:33:29Z")
Except that it predates both by a very long shot, being from 1909. Which means that the video-call devices in the story actually predate television. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/9 "2020-06-17T19:37:53Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Except that it predates both by a very long shot, being from 1909. Which means that the video-call devices in the story actually predate television. Even better! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2020, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/10 "2020-06-17T22:45:20Z")
The idea for television goes back to the late nineteenth century, although they didn’t have any idea how it might work: > **[Future Passed: When we dreamed of television](https://www.theverge.com/2012/5/24/3035470/future-passed-television-history)** > > The rush to create television was started by a rumor. > > In 1880 Alexander Graham Bell, the famed inventor of the telephone, sealed documents related to his latest invention and gave them to the... ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2020, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-yet-another-sf-story/855801/11 "2020-06-23T07:38:42Z")
Deleted–somehow ended up in wrong thread.