クーノーの夢は地表からオリオン座を見ることでしたな。母親はそれに対してどう反応するのでしょうか。
“No harm,” she replied, controlling herself. “But no advantage. The surface of the earth is only dust and mud, no advantage. The surface of the earth is only dust and mud, no life remains on it, and you would need a respirator, or the cold of the outer air would kill you. One dies immediately in the outer air.”
“I know; of course I shall take all precautions.”
“And besides ――”
“Well?”
She considered, and chose her words with care. Her son had a queer temper, and she wished to dissuade him from the expedition.
“It is contrary to the spirit of the age,” she asserted.
“Do you mean by that, contrary to the Machine?”
“In a sense, but ――”
His image is the blue plate faded.
“Kuno!”
He had isolated himself.
For a moment Vashti felt lonely.
Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded with radiance and studded with electric buttons, revived her. There were buttons and switches everywhere ―― buttons to call for food for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button, by pressure of which a basin of (imitation) marble rose out of the floor, filled to the brim with a warm deodorized liquid. There was the cold-bath button. There was the button that produced literature, and there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends. The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world.
ええ。冒頭でヴァシュティが「地表にはほこりと泥があるだけで、生物はまったくいない（The surface of the earth is only dust and mud）」し「人工呼吸装置（a respirator）がいる」と言っています。外気に当たったら死んでしまう（the cold of the outer air would kill you）、とも。
そして、ヴァシュティは息子を思いとどまらせようと、It is contrary to the spirit of the age.と言います。
そうよ、さすがね。クーノーはそれに対してDo you mean by that, contrary to the Machine?、つまり「マシーンに反している、という意味だね」というと、そのまま画面から消えてしまいます。
さて、今回も蜂の巣型の部屋の内部が分かる記述があるわ。どこもかしこもボタンとスイッチだらけ（There were buttons and switches everywhere.）。どんなボタンかと言えば、食糧、音楽、洋服にお風呂のお湯までボタンひとつででてくるし（buttons to call for food for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button）、友だちと通信するボタンもあるの（the buttons by which she communicated with her friends）。部屋には何もないけれど、世界中のほしいものと接触できる（The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world）のよ。
いやはや、今のわたしたちの進化形のような生活ですな。我が家もボタンひとつで温水が・・・おっと、風呂に入る時間です。続きはまた。