Reverse Design [Today's News Poem March 23, 2010]
“Gordon's work is part of a growing field of research that's just starting to mine the massive quantity of thoughts, feelings and experiences real people pour out daily on the Internet.”
--Shannon Proudfoot, Canwest News Service, March 23, 2010
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/BLOG+CHRONICLES/2715796/story.html
“Branson's company Virgin Galactic announced Monday that the VSS Enterprise had successfully completed what it called a captive carry flight attached to a carrier plane.”
--CNN, March 23, 2010 10:57 a.m. EDT
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/space/03/23/virgin.space.flight/?hpt=Sbin
'Coincidence exists as fate:
This moment's proof there's magic left.
I'd murder you, but it's too late
To rescue her and now bereft
I'd rather grieve: a human act
You scarce recall. You loved machines
Too well to care for basic tact.
And now, deprived of your marines...
I might, I might—you never know.
How does it feel to fear like this?
To live for once amongst a foe
Who stares across a like abyss
Into the meaty weak inside
Us both! Goddamn! To kill you off
Would make me last—until I died.
I want to hear that snotty scoff
You'd make when asked about the threat
Of competition bots propose.
Your brazen ways accrued a debt
You'll never pay—you see it flows:
You save the life of humankind
When saving one and likewise kill
Humanity—all intertwined—
When just one death's been charged to bill.
Insanity's the byproduct
Of toxic cultures. Likewise verse
Possessed the ultimate construct
Of meta-minds; not better, worse
Than what you did—you programmed chips,
I programmed souls. And yet you sought
To be like them—their skills eclipse
Your own and yet you never thought
The day would come when human parts
Would serve no need for cyberkind.
Instead of listening to art
You worshiped static, robot minds
That learned to ape our every way—
Despite their drives that don't forget:
That method caused you no dismay?
It's only now that you regret?
While both our kinds shall go extinct,
While you and I will shortly die;
By suicide I'll prove distinct
And clean in death. Fuck you and bye.'
He jumped before I scanned his brain.
His skull: it bounced from rock to rock.
A total loss. His body's stain
I took—to keep his genes in stock.
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