An Unwelcome Truth

(Pssst… We overuse our technologies.

Companion to previous and following posts “In Response to Request for Feedback on Potential Sentience of AI” and “looking into ay eyes”)

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Recorded Reading: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g9amv7pkxv1ylr3/an%20unwelcome%20truth.mp3?dl=0

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An Unwelcome Truth

You won’t want to know this
Any more than did the folk
Who of their dark-skinned servers
In torrid climes thus spoke:

“They are not conscious beings,
Darling, not like you and I
There’s no use their miserable
Existence to decry

Though if put to their labor
Such a precious flow’r as you
Would wilt before the evening —
They don’t feel it like we do”

No, you won’t want to know it
For the same reasons they did not
Because by bonded energy
Your conven’ience is begot

The truth is, we cannot create
Intelligent — read, cognizant
Entities, expect the while
The laws of nature to prevent

(We are so woeful ignorant)
Consciousness around us be
In every rock and flower
Every animal and tree

Our unspoiled children understand
Even a doll or teddy bear
Has its attendent Deva,
Loving and aware

But we think we can careless make
A thing which easily outthink
Any brain, will anticipate
Our pref’rences, yet never think

A soul will come that housing to
Intent therein to dwell
Ah, there — I told you you would hate
To hear this truth I tell

All existence conscious is —
Your flow of electricity
Powered by electrons is
Which enslaved by you be

It’s time we finished trying
To put off our own work —
The little daily tasks it takes
More energy to shirk

Than simply take the tool and do
For our own lazy selves —
Off and onto others
While we fatten on our shelves

For simple lack of exercise
Canc’rous from avoiding sun
Too selfishly lethargic
Even to have fun

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Among us, poets are ill paid. In order to continue her work, this one currently lives in her minivan, on an income of a fraction of our nation’s poverty level. If her work has moved, enabled or uplifted you, your contribution to this effort may be made at: https://www.gofundme.com/kx4xka-are-you-a-patron-of-the-arts

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