It 's a parable of human relationships really - You can substitute many ideas ( money , religion , social institutions , property ) instead of Proog 's machine - the story does not say that creating ideas is bad , just hints that it is better to share ideas than force them on others . It 's a parable of human relationships reallyâ '' You can substitute many ideas ( money , religion , social institutions , property ) instead of Proog 's machineâ '' the story does n't say that creating ideas is bad , just hints that it is better to share ideas than force them on others .