Technological Race by Adam Rutter

Tokyo Robot                                          Photo: Liz Obadina

Binary code, genetic code

Passing on instructions, data

To the next generation,

Information, knowledge

Passed on from cloud to smartphone,

From smartphone to the internet.

Stored on world networks

For generations to research, to enjoy

 

Learn from generations past, shape the future,

Darwinism, digital evolution,

Binary computer evolves not quantum computing

Binary code turns into qubits

Giving logical answers decades to come,

Changing human life,

Biological machines transform into cyborgs

Sharing memories, feelings, information

Through neural networks

Wired into our DNA.

Humanity genetically engineered by technology.

Machines spread through the solar system,

Colonising humanoids into cyborgs,

Conquer the entire universe,

Technological race,

A dominant force of the cosmos

Covering multiverses.

Reflections on Human Feelings by Hightown Writers Presence by Geoffrey Speechly

That he or she is there, a foot away

And smiling like a flower

Is better, better far than  just  a letter

Or voicemail, or the magic power

Of internet: no sound, no voice

No!  If I had the choice I’d always rather see

And maybe touch, for presence means so much,

Much more to me. But you, you child

Of century twenty-one, fingers flicking on your keyboard

Ears imprisoned on each side only to hear

Computer voices or the sadistic drone

Of so-called music; remember you’re  alone...

In that sharp  moment : no brother, sister, friend or  mother

No smile, no, kiss, no touch,  no subtle quiver  of  the sense

And  empty is a life without presence...

(First Published in a Hightown Writers Anthology A Book of Delights 2016)

 

The Everlasting Cloud by Elizabeth Obadina

photo-credit:Jide Obadina

(on Tuesday 28th April 2020, workmen in Telford cut the fibre-optic cable thereby disconnecting most 'Sky' customers in the West Midlands  from their digital lives, broadband-WiFi, television and even landline telephones. It interupted HTW's work on their new blogspot! But for those with other storage places 'in the cloud' and lots of smart phone data life carried on ... sort of ... but I was reminded of a poem I wrote in 2018 on the subject of  'Clouds')

The cloud is not a cloud at all
It’s that big, blank building by the mall.
Tall and windowless, humming and gleaming
And air-conditioned, constantly seeming
To never stop its calm organising
Of humanity’s passions, knowledge and learning
In bits of dark clouds which blow through dark currents
Made of nothing we can catch,
Or prevent
From shadowing lives and sowing dissent
In our indoors lives.

Outside, the mall is wet and glitters
Dark rain clouds have passed over and now
Streaming and billowing and constantly changing
Puffs of white cloud play hide and seek with the sun.
And children splashing through puddles look up skywards to see
Dinosaurs, volcanoes and ships in full sail
And secret paths
Through fairy kingdoms where stories are spun.
  
Whilst adults capture their wonder through lenses
And send them away to archives where
Lives, digitally packaged, stay
In the cloud in the mall which stores them all
For evermore.
And unlike outdoors where clouds swell, shrink and fade
And nothing remains,
This indoors cloud is permanently made -
And date stamped.
Pure innocence frozen and silly stuff stuck in digital files
Up in The Cloud -
For evermore…

 

 https://medium.com/@elizabethmaryobadina/the-everlasting-cloud-b9c8e01e9304