Answer:
The term "unmechanical" and its use three times in the story seems to suggest the superior authority and absolute power of "the Machine" in keeping order in the world. Everything has to adhere and be according to how "the Machine" wants and not how the 'citizens' or others want it to be.
Explanation:
E. M. Forester's short scientific story "The Machine Stops" is set in a futuristic world where humans survive, but live underground. The story deals with life in the future where machines will rule over the humans.
The main characters Vashti and her son Kuno represent the two types of people n the 'mechanized' world. While Vashti is contented with her life, Kuno, on the other hand, is completely a rebel, disliking everything about the mechanical world. With the new rule that everyone must 'worship' "the Machine". The use of the term "unmechanical" three times in the whole story is to suggest the 'unethical, unreligious' aspect of a person in refusing to worship the machine, the deity of the mechanized world.
This is because in paragraph 95, the "pursuit" of former generations where knowledge helped 'civilize' the world was deemed "illegal", thereby making it "unmechanical" for anyone to do such acts and be punished by Homelessness".
Paragraph 105 shows the attendant calling the way of addressing continents by their "unmechanical" names. This shows how everything has been influenced and taken over by "the Machine" and everything seems to revolve around it only and 'earthly, humane' things are forgotten or forbidden.
And lastly, in paragraph 249, the very act of asking "Have others complained?" seemed to be "unmechanical" to the Committee of the Mending Apparatus. They refused to answer a question posed by a citizen, making it clear that the Machine reserves the right and sole authority of doing things the way it wants and not how someone wants it to be done.
