They say they want to free us all. 

Say who? 

You know– 

They own near a half  the world’s wealth. 

Their great machines will do our work. 

Say what? 

You know– 

Cleaning, moving, cooking, serving; 

They’ll do all the grunt work we dread. 

That’s all? 

Well, no; 

Planting, watering, harvesting, 

No need for us to get dirty. 

That’s great! 

There’s more– 

Planning, designing, constructing, 

Numbers crunched by crunching machines. 

So what?! 

There’s more; 

Monitoring, medicating, 

Governing, and educating, 

Now transporting, then transfixing. 

No need to work; they’ll fix themselves: 

Then we may learn to play all day! 

Play what? 

Say I, 

What they make for their devices. 

A-mused, 

We will 

Hear what they choose, see what they choose, 

Go where they choose, buy what they choose, 

Learn to like and choose what they choose. 

They say we’ll have need of nothing; 

They want 

Our good, 

But they’ll still own half the world’s wealth. 

They say we’ll be free to create. 

Create? 

Say I: 

Their machines paint, write, compose, invent.  

Only fools says, “Soul, take your ease.” 

But we’ll 

Be free! 

Free from what? From God’s good purpose. 

Then sick and sad, we’ll make mischief. 

Say what? 

But why? 

Because nature hates a vacuum. 

Artificial voices will soothe, 

But not 

Human. 

If we choose “made,” but not Maker, 

What will be left to humankind? 

The Bard, 

He knew– 

Only to sleep, perchance to dream– 

Aye, there’s the rub. 

– Teri Ong, Nov. 2018 

[Reflections on a discussion about the future of artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing, and all things high tech by Silicon Valley executives.]