CYBER-HEAVEN
IMAGINE THERE’S NO CYBER-HEAVEN
Verno Vinge science fiction aficionado said:
By 2040 we will merge with our computers
cast off our bodies realize immortality
the Singularity will be upon us
This idea is now embraced as fact but will we
still be Human? Have we ever been? Or have
we remained that mutation slouching out of Africa
millennia ago?
Will there still be: war serial killers gangs?
(who slash hundreds in the subways of China)
Wasn’t religion supposed to be the opiate of
the masses? Stone tablets the first glimmering
of the human conscience?
Remember the Savage in Brave New World?
Last remaining old world Human wound up on a
rope in the shower Ditto for David Foster Wallace
brilliant young man of American letters on his front porch
There is no evidence to suggest that our constant interface
with technology is making us happier braver Studies show
that we trust techno-gadgets more than our instincts Take the
couple who followed their GPS into the wilderness & died
though surrounded by paved roads
Long passive from relying on the machine human creativity
disappears The God in the machine pricks up his ears & returns
to the Mothership finally weary of our anxiety & depression
Abandoned here some of us loot looted art & begin a movement
to rehabilitate Heaven
__
Winter 2014
