All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

Futurist Paul Saffo ends the afternoon session at the Singularity Summit. Man, is he a dynamic speaker - he really draws you in with a combination of science and emotion.

He talks about the handoff. With innovation in technology, it always starts with the scientists and the experts and then there's a handoff and he thinks we're at a handoff phase. He also sees us in a bit of a black phase, i.e., endism is in.

It may not be a good time to send radio messages out to space. What if they're bad guys? He suggests we think about the human factor, meaning what we need more of in the world are poets and writers. Indeed Paul. Hear hear.  He leaves us with a poem which he reads eloquently by Richard Brautigan, first published in 1967: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.

I like to think (and the sooner the better)
of a cybernetic meadow

where mammals and computers

live together in mutually

programming harmony

like pure water

touching clear sky.

I like to think (right now please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think (it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.