Much like Orson Wells' The War of the Worlds (1938), Bradbury creates a science-fiction narrative about the future, that seemed so real and full of potential when it was written, however, now it holds little relevance to our daily lives. His self-sufficient mechanical house in 2026 (14 years from now) is still way ahead of its time, but at the same time still share several themes with the technologies we have today (iPhone, iPad, GPS, DVR, security systems etc.).
It is so strange to picture this mechanical house without the technologies of today but with the imaginative machines that Bradbury created with only the knowledge of 1950s technology and machinery.
the television
the first leak-free ball point pen
Chevrolet Corvette- the first car to have an all-fiberglass body
the first solar battery
the polio vaccine
the first solar powered wrist watch
Sputnik
the first plastic coke bottle
The idea that this completely mechanical house still persists after all human and animal life has left it, is an unsettling idea. The house still remains after the disaster that killed its residents and is so self sufficient it can repair itself, up until a point. Humans created this, yet the machine outlasted the humans. This house has a mind of its own, it sensed the decaying dog, it senses intruders.
The false greatness and perfection of this machine is realized when it can no longer handle the fire. It is personified as a human "the attic brain." Which I feel is a very valid point. Machines are not perfect, they all eventually die, experience problems. If their life lines are taken away, their veins, their heart, their brain, they will ceases to function.
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