Recommended reading - The Machine Stops (1909):

The Machine Stops

By E. M. Forster.

Science Fiction short story.

Published by Suzeteo Enterprises.

First published 1909.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1645941566

ISBN-13: 9781645941569

Description:

In our modern era, we like to congratulate ourselves for our sophistication, knowing that we have doubtless created a world that our feckless ancestors could never have imagined. Actually reading the works of those ancestors would disabuse us of any such notion, and E. M. Forster's The Machine Stops is a case in point. Not only does it seem that Forster has contemplated the ubiquitous 'Zoom' call, but he correctly sensed the deadening of the soul that would accompany the faux-mastery of Nature, expressing itself through technology.

In The Machine Stops the height of mankind's advances was The Machine, and it cared for every aspect of human experience, and anticipated every human need, until such time that there was nothing left for humans to do except eat, and, if the algorithm approved, procreate; and when the algorithm decided Euthanasia was due, then Euthanasia was happily accepted. The Machine was not just the pinnacle of human ingenuity, it was Progress Incarnate. And then... the Machine Stopped. Today, we hail our own progress, technological and societal. If our machine stops, what then? Do we really suppose it is eternal?

Amy Waldman, on writing:

History is the history of human behavior, and human behavior is the raw material of fiction.

Most people recognize that novelists do research to get the facts right - how a glove factory works, for example, or how courtesans in imperial Japan dressed.

- Amy Waldman.

On this day in music history - This House Is Not for Sale, by Bon Jovi (2016):

The album This House Is Not for Sale,

by Bon Jovi,

was released on November 4, 2016.

On this day in movie history - Kubrick Remembered (2014):

Kubrick Remembered

documentary directed by Gary Khammar,

was released in the United States on November 4, 2014.
Music by Jon LaCroix.

Cast:

Christiane Kubrick, Leon Vitali, Anthony Frewin, Keir Dullea, Vincent D'Onofrio, Steven Spielberg, James B. Harris, Katharina Kubrick, Rick Senat, Jan Harlan, Matthew Modine, Larry Smith, Gay Hamilton, Mike Kaplan, Todd Field, Malcolm McDowell, Ryan O'Neal, Stanley Kubrick, R. Lee Ermey, Leelee Sobieski, Manuel Harlan, Dominic Savage, Thomas Gibson, Milena Canonero, Philip Castle, Richard Daniels, Marisa Berenson, Lisa Burns, Louise Burns, Edwina Carroll, Christian Clarke, Sky du Mont, Shelley Duvall, Arliss Howard, Adam Lias, Danny Lloyd, Sue Lyon, James Mason, David Morley, Chris Pare, Gavin Parry, Marie Richardson, Dan Rollman, Leonard Rossiter, Peter Sellers, Rade Serbedzija, Marianne Stone, Stewart Thorndike, Kyle Whitcombe, Shelley Winters.

On this day in music history - Sanctuary III: Beyond The Dream, by Sherry Finzer (2014):

The album Sanctuary III: Beyond The Dream,

by Sherry Finzer,

was released on November 4, 2014.

On this day in music history - New Used Car, by Sue Foley (2006):

The album New Used Car,

by Sue Foley,

was released on November 4, 2006.

On this day in movie history - The Howlin' Wolf Story (2003):

The Howlin' Wolf Story

documentary directed by Don McGlynn,

was released in the United States on November 4, 2003.

Cast:

Howlin' Wolf (aka Chester Burnett), Hubert Sumlin, Barbra Marks, Bettye Kelly, Son House, Bukka White, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Robert Gordon, Mark Hoffman, Richard Shurman, Sam Phillips, Sonny Boy Williamson, Paul Burlison, Marshall Chess, Jody Williams, Evelyn Sumlin Goodwin, Bob Koester, Sam Lay, Billy Boy Arnold, Brian Jones, Jack Good, Mick Jagger, James Cotton, John Estes (aka Sleepy John Estes), Clifton James, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mississippi John Hurt, Sunnyland Slim, Charlie Watts, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman.