The Cybernetic Lullaby

By Nolo Segundo

Part I

They sing softly to us at

Every click of the mouse—

use me, I'm here for you,

only you, in the entire

universe will I serve….

And we lay enraptured

as they bring us the world,

knowledge the wise men

of history never had, and

ease, lots of ease to save

us time and trouble. Soon

we cannot live without them,

the thought of it too mean.

Without them we would loose

touch with our friends, jobs,

even our money might wander

if we cannot watch it daily.

However did our ancestors

survive without an iPhone?

Part II

I read on my laptop today—

automation is making us dumber,

ineffective, even maybe impotent.

Perhaps it's a conspiracy by that secret

society, the computer brotherhood.

(Do you really believe your Apple is

innocent and IBM is not plotting?)

Or maybe we should just blame

human sloth, that siren call of

sheer damn laziness which can

lure the best of us to a quiet doom.

A simple proof: hand a twenty to a clerk

and ask him to make change without

looking to the machine for succor.

That blank, innocent look he gives you—

"Why me?" he seems to be saying,

and you can't help but pity him a bit.

He is, after all, a victim of mass education.

There are worse victims:

airliners wildly crashing,

doctors killing their patients,

nuclear power plants going

BOOM! and killing the land

for an eon or two, or three.

How like little children we were!

Thinking these machines would

be our slaves, sans the brutality.

But it is we who are chained by

the zeros and ones, we who are

thinking less, creating cheaper,

settling into a cybernetic fog.

Part III: When Androids Dream

When we finally build them

(and it will not be long)

Will androids finally lead us

all to nirvana, a world of peace,

leisure, and endless wealth?

Could any hell be worse?

For that day will be when

we lose purpose, and soon

perhaps the very will to live.

When the androids dream

(and they will dream,

because we will make them

to be like us, for we have

always been a vain species),

will they not dream of sky

and soaring free of the land,

free of the weak, sad humans

they serve without accordance?

Then, when these human-faced

machines begin dreaming in

daylight, they will see no need

for their progenitors, and those

of us left living as shells sans

struggle or pain or conflict, in

an existence so boring, will

doubtless welcome our end.


Nolo Segundo, pen name of retired teacher L.J. Carber, 76, became a published poet in the past 6 years in nearly 150 literary journals in twelve countries and three trade book collections: The Enormity of Existence [2020], Of Ether and Earth [2021], and Soul Songs [2022]. 

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