Ph: Humor: The God Machine Poem by Brian Johnston
Ph: Humor: The God Machine
I really have outdone myself this time!
My ‘God Machine' is finally in place!
I'll never have to fret about a rhyme,
Or stop for a red light that changed from green
As if it sought to put me in my place
A random hiccup clearly quite obscene.
I really am quite clever I must say
My ‘subtle knife' allowing me to splice (1)
My ‘God Machine' into time's tawdry day
The true God left completely unaware
That He is now controlled by my device
And just another victim of malware.
It seems there's quite a lot that ‘God' screwed up
That I intend to change now I'm in charge
I think that it's bad form to cover-up!
So what's the deal with dying anyway?
Let no one die will be my countercharge
And life is just a breeze on my freeway!
All pain mere nuisance, manna heaven sent
And sin gives you enormous facial zits
While love and kindness clear up all your rent.
Though talents differ, jealousies dissolve
As differences bring none real benefits
And non-destructive social moves evolve.
All birth defects, parental wealth passé
Genetic weakness gone with dodo bird
No accident of birth gives worth per se
Sins of the parent cannot taint the child
That God might favor some is just absurd
The color of one's skin no more reviled.
But now I find my plans have gone awry
My God Machine decided I'm a flaw
It seems that I'm outdated samurai
Humanity endangering MY plan
Just plankton in the future's yawning maw
Machine judged only advocate for man! (2)
November 5,2014
Poet's Notes:
(1) subtle knife - A reference to a magical knife that can open windows in time in one of the 3 books in the Phillip Pullman trilogy 'His Dark Materials' including The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
(2) My poetic version of the lesson of the book and movie 2001 (written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke) where HAL, a computer so smart that it becomes sentient, decides that that only way to really protect a manned mission of a spaceship to the planet Jupiter is to kill all the humans on board the spaceship. The crew's humanity HAL decides is just too big a risk to the mission that HAL is charged (by its human programmers) to protect.
Beautiful poem on humour topic. it IS QUIET UNIQUE poem shared in forum. Lovely tribute shared.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/3/2024 11:11:28 PM # 1.0.0.1119
i looked up passe, per se, and tawdry. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - taw·dry ˈtôdrē/ adjective adjective: tawdry; comparative adjective: tawdrier; superlative adjective: tawdriest 1. showy but cheap and of poor quality. tawdry jewelry synonyms: gaudy, flashy, showy, garish, loud; tasteless, vulgar, trashy, junky, shoddy, shabby, gimcrack, chintzy, kitsch, kitsch; informaltacky, cheesy, schlocky the tawdry rings she wore on her fingers antonyms: tasteful sordid or unpleasant. the tawdry business of politics noun archaic noun: tawdry 1. cheap and gaudy finery. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - last stanza a shift in rhyme scheme. acceptable, though i did not, for some reason, notice the primary rhyme scheme very much when i first read the whole poem. maybe i was too busy trying to follow some of the 'story'? this may be one topic/poem in which i would have preferred less attention to rhyming and more to other things. - - i wish your machine could have kept you from leaving the apostrophe out of it's, AGAIN! ................... ....think that its bad form to cover-up! ....... :) :) :) :) - - - - IS THERE something wrong with parental wealth? but let all be equally wealthy, with money, kindness, good health, and common sense! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - please DON'T take death away, UNLESS you guarantee a happy life for everybody always, no matter what their age is. that would take some doing! ! ! ! - - - - - - - - - - - Humanity endangering MY plan Just plankton in the future's yawning maw Machine judged only advocate for man! 1. maybe you meant Humanity-endangering, MY plan? 2. yeah, feed BJ to the whale! 3. the machine is judged (by the machine?) to be the only advocate of man? well, Brian, though YOU seemed to have some worthy goals, i guess i might have to side with the machine in its opinion of you. you are flawed! but aren't we all? [except me, OF COURSE] thanks for sharing. better luck next time with an idea [controlling God! ]. you'll need it. :) :) :) bri