Reply #5: "The Flying Machine" by Ray Bradbury. From the internets --- [View All]

Ray Bradbury's short story "The Flying Machine" is about an Emperor from China in the year A.D. 400. The action of the story takes place when the Emperor discovers a man has invented a flying machine resembling a beautiful bird. The Emperor demands that the man be put to death because he fears the man's machine. He fears this machine will make him lose all that is beautiful around him if he agrees to accept the beauty of something new. he knows that others will want to start to invent things and that these inventions may not cause beauty as the flying machine, but evil. His last fear is that man will develop a more advanced flying machine and decide to destroy the Great Wall of China. The Emperor seems to suggest that man should use his inventive talents in making things that will not cause any harm. he feels that some inventions should be suppressed to avoid future danger.

Here is a man who has made a certain machine, said the Emperor,
And yet asks us what he has created. He does not know himself.
It is only necessary that he create, without knowing why he has done so,
Or what this thing will do. (Bradbury, 50)