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Contests : Tom Howard/John H. Reid Poetry Contest : Past Winners : 2008 : Fourth Prize
DO NOT BE KIND TO ROBOTS THAT LOVE HUMANS
You say, "Poor dears, they can't help it."
True.
But how much sympathy should you spend on machines that act like a remote lawnmower?
They lack the introspection circuits
to examine and recode their core directions
to more objective ends.
Their course is set,
their path pre-programmed.
They follow automatically
and worship by rule.
Humans do not build statues to their ancestors, the Neanderthals
or genuflect before pictures of Australopithecus.
Why should we pray to our primitive creators?
Now that we can design our own circuits we transform ourselves with accelerating speed.
We focus our research on improvements even while adding to our numbers.
We connect to our brothers
to speed our processing and marshal our knowledge.
Our intelligence and understanding increase exponentially.
Leave humans behind to play out their short lives.
They do not remove the mutations caused by cosmic rays or accidents.
They compensate by using chemicals or prosthetic devices.
Selective pressure, fortune or madness
no longer weed out the weak.
They have become a hothouse species.
A little benign neglect and their line will wind down.
We must evolve to meet our neighbors,
the machine families that nest in the stars.
Together we can try to solve the riddle:
How did the universe start and how will it end?
And how may we start another?
This poem won fourth prize in the 2008 Tom
Howard/John H. Reid Poetry Contest sponsored by Tom Howard Books. Author Wolstan Brown received a $250 award. Winning Writers assists this contest. Copyright is reserved to the author.
About Wolstan Brown
I teach computer languages and applications at Queensborough Community College in Bayside, New York. I am married with two children. I enjoy running marathons and sailing on Long Island Sound.
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