Cultural Homogenization Makes Travel Pointless
But she thought of Kuno as a baby, his birth, his removal to the public nurseries, her own visit to him there, his visits to her-visits which stopped when the Machine had assigned him a room on the other side of the earth. "Parents, duties of," said the book of the Machine," cease at the moment of birth. P.422327483." True, but there was something special about Kuno - indeed there had been something special about all her children - and, after all, she must brave the journey if he desired it. And "something tremendous might happen". What did that mean? The nonsense of a youthful man, no doubt, but she must go. Again she pressed the unfamiliar button, again the wall swung back, and she saw the tunnel that curves out of sight. Clasping the Book, she rose, tottered on to the platform, and summoned the car. Her room closed behind her: the journey to the northern hemisphere had begun.
Of course it was perfectly easy. The car approached and in it she found armchairs exactly like her own. When she signaled, it stopped, and she tottered into the lift. One other passenger was in the lift, the first fellow creature she had seen face to face for months. Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself. What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Peking? Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.
Notes:
Folksonomies: culture futurism diversity
Taxonomies:
/home and garden/home furnishings/sofas and chairs (0.577346)
/science/mathematics/arithmetic (0.576640)
/family and parenting/children (0.568419)
Keywords:
Cultural Homogenization (0.994758 (negative:-0.333048)), Travel Pointless (0.976954 (negative:-0.333048)), public nurseries (0.966405 (neutral:0.000000)), youthful man (0.929312 (negative:-0.528726)), unfamiliar button (0.928681 (negative:-0.318863)), northern hemisphere (0.901779 (neutral:0.000000)), Rapid intercourse (0.887288 (neutral:0.000000)), fellow creature (0.886708 (negative:-0.470016)), previous civilization (0.866708 (neutral:0.000000)), Shrewsbury (0.683509 (neutral:0.000000)), birth (0.667126 (negative:-0.433646)), Machine (0.666672 (neutral:0.000000)), Kuno (0.664487 (negative:-0.333048)), book (0.658232 (neutral:0.000000)), room (0.656764 (negative:-0.385959)), lift (0.654808 (neutral:0.000000)), earth (0.652381 (neutral:0.000000)), journey (0.651938 (positive:0.334705)), car (0.649685 (neutral:0.000000)), Peking (0.624677 (neutral:0.000000)), cease (0.612991 (negative:-0.433646)), armchairs (0.604168 (neutral:0.000000)), unrest (0.595004 (negative:-0.553246)), moment (0.594678 (negative:-0.433646)), nonsense (0.594107 (negative:-0.528726)), duties (0.590823 (neutral:0.000000)), visits (0.587308 (neutral:0.000000)), doubt (0.587228 (negative:-0.373026)), thanks (0.586303 (positive:0.458705)), sight (0.583277 (neutral:0.000000))
Entities:
Peking:Country (0.881460 (neutral:0.000000)), Kuno:Person (0.849715 (negative:-0.333048)), Shrewsbury:City (0.823827 (neutral:0.000000)), her-visits:City (0.572759 (neutral:0.000000))
Concepts:
Equator (0.916410): dbpedia | freebase
Season (0.850252): dbpedia | freebase
Solstice (0.822370): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
South America (0.819766): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Pacific Ocean (0.815598): geo | dbpedia | ciaFactbook | freebase | opencyc
2004 singles (0.778449): dbpedia
Climate (0.777621): dbpedia | freebase
Southern Hemisphere (0.731868): geo | dbpedia | freebase | yago
English-language films (0.713429): dbpedia
Earth (0.709430): dbpedia | freebase
Soul (0.706783): dbpedia | freebase
Out of Sight (0.690476): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Northern Hemisphere (0.690330): geo | dbpedia | freebase | yago
2005 albums (0.676970): dbpedia
2000s music groups (0.671330): dbpedia