Technology causes the dehumanization of society when it is used to control people, which takes away the innate human sense of seeking truth and freedom, thus preventing people from realizing the oppression and rebel against it. The dehumanization accomplished by the Machine allows it to control and ultimately lead to the death of humanity by keeping people weak and ignorant of their own emotions. The technology in "The Machine Stops" makes people overly dependent on it, which leads them to blindly worship it and become its slaves. Although people in the Machine world generally view the Machine as a necessary component in their lives, at the beginning of the story they do not view it as god-like. The world of Machines is described as having rooms "hexagonal in shape, like... cells of... bees", which draws a direct comparison to the lifestyle of bees (Forster). Bees are altruistic creatures, which means they sacrifice their lives for the good of the entire colony and the queen bee. Likewise, people in the Machine world are deprived of “consciousness and [are kept]…forever weak and childish” (Dunn, Erlich 47). Like bees, these people remain faithful to their leader by “losing” conscious thought and becoming completely dependent on the maternal figure. The Machine is like the queen bee, to which all worker bees or people owe their lives. The Machine is able to control people and be worshiped as a god and brings humans to an evolutionary deadlock. It is because of the machine that dehumanizes people that also prevents humans from adapting to new situations, causing their eventual extinction. The society in “The Machine Stops” is characterized by isolation and discourages direct interactions between people... middle of paper... which he has while tied to a chair inside a power plant cooling tower (Brazil ). Sam has gone mad and is now no longer affected by the system, which cannot access his mind. Salman Rushdie, a famous literary critic, explains that retreat into one's imagination is the only way that "[totalitarian] reality can be destroyed so that it can later be reconstructed" (Rushdie 122). While the System can try to conform people by telling them how to act on the outside, they cannot penetrate the internal mind. This is in stark contrast to the Party of 1984, where O'Brien is able to penetrate Winston's mind using fear and alter his inner thoughts and fantasies. Unlike "The Machine Stops" and 1984, the System's inherent failures explain people's abilities to take advantage of technology as a form of escape from the bureaucratic structure.