I’ve been reading Yuval Harari’s Homo Deus – every line
And it’s got me thinking and a fretting about the future of mankind
I’ve been thinking that maybe we humans have truly passed our prime
And that Artificial intelligence is going to leave us humans far behind.

Algorithms clogging up my brain
Algorithms monitoring my pain
Algorithms calculating gain
Algorithms trying to keep me sane.

My computer is a wonder – it is far smarter than you and I
It computes my bio-rhythms at the blinking of an eye
It whips me at the chess board no matter how I try
And it’s even taken to predicting the very day I die.

Now the computers are getting Bolshie they are starting to combine
To improve my daily life-style – which I think is absolutely fine
They do the daily chores in a fraction of the time
They’ve even taken to writing poetry with an amazing sense of rhyme.

Algorithms telling me what to read
Algorithms warning me what to heed
Algorithms manipulating human greed
Algorithms anticipating my every need.

Please forgive me if I sound a little tetchy and maybe just a little self-important
But I must confess to one and all of feeling just a tiny tad redundant
When I compare myself to the coming world of artificial intelligence
My brain seems so totally useless and so utterly insignificant.

Algorithms tracking my every move
Algorithms keeping me in the groove
Algorithms predicting if I’ll win or loose
Algorithms leaving me with nothing left to prove.

David Bowie that once told us to make way for Homo Superior
That we Homo Sapiens are now outmoded and totally inferior
Each day the final hours of we humans seem to encroach that little nearer
And the coming era of intelligent robots could not be any clearer.

So I’ve finally decided to accept my fate with good grace and equanimity
And just let my atoms and my consciousness float off into the deep and dark infinity
Because when I study the endless cruelty towards our fragile bio-diversity
I must reluctantly conclude that our demise will be no earth-shattering calamity.

Algorithms controlling my every thought
Algorithms negating all that I’ve been taught
Algorithms annulling the future that I sought
Algorithms eroding my humanity down to nought.

© Jon Kaufman 18/03/2017