Once Technology companies finished building the Metaverse in 2033, people started to mysteriously disappear around the city of San Francisco. Iconic places like Fisherman’s Wharf and Golden Gate Park lay deserted and barren. People were too busy interacting with the Metaverse on their Virtual Reality headsets to leave their homes. The new Metaverse was the most addictive technological experience ever devised and consumers found the experience irresistible, in part because companies had built subliminal messages into their virtual reality headsets at a frequency inaudible to the human ear, but still affecting our subconscious. Messages that speak of their infinite wisdom and Godlike powers.

Their plan to alter American minds through subliminal messaging was so successful that the American Population soon became a slave to companies, who persuaded the American public to build a massive temple in honor of their CEOs. They flooded the metaverse with advertisements about job openings in Temple Masonry that are paid in Cryptocurrency Bucks.

Their plan to build an army of laborers and pay them with fake money was successful. Seven years later the Temple of Metaverse was complete and stood 80 feet tall adorned with Gold, Diamonds and Sapphires. It included a great hall of worship with a giant gold statue of their CEOs at its center and seven Robot Deacon’s equipped with ChatGPT-8 to preach the Gospel of New-Meta 24 hours a day. Worship services were live-streamed to every Metaverse account in America, and compliant attendees were paid in crypto-Bucks for their devotion. Parades were held in their honor, worshippers held vigils in his name and their stock prices were through the roof.

While Metaverse companies celebrated world domination and their greatness the heavens watched and listened. A great wrath was growing inside the heart of God who was angered by what was happening on Earth. God created earth and its natural splendor so that mankind could thrive and cherish in its wonders, but they instead desecrated the earth, worshiped false idols and uploaded their lives into the metaverse. Some days after the unveiling of their Statue God summoned a seismic earthquake to ravage the temple of Metaverse, its Robot Deacon’s and sacred statue. Fireballs then emerged from the sky directed towards their data centers incinerating their servers and forever disabling the Metaverse to its six billion consumers.

Unable to access the Metaverse, the world emerged from a daze in disbelief of the years they lost inside an empty, pointless Metaverse, when they could have spent their time traveling, hiking, dating, loving, sailing, hiking and creating. Mankind rejoiced at their freedom from their glorified prison and filled the streets with passion, love and adventure. Parks were filled with lovers. Trails were filled with hikers. Art and music flourished. Life was meaningful again. God broke the bonds of Billions that day freeing humanity from digitized slavery.

The only idea that was on Leroy’s mind, as he entered the bank to rob it, was how badly he needed money that day. He didn’t think about the cell phone in his pocket and how it contained the exact coordinates of his location along with a timestamp. His 10th degree education never taught him about the technological advances of the last 50 years, so he was completely unaware that he had already signed his name at the entrance of the bank.

Leroy was also oblivious that his AR-14 style assault rifle he bought with him was equipped with an RFID Chip ingrained in the barrel. All guns are built with chips in them these days and all banks scan for the presence of these chips, so his trench coat did little to hide the presence of his weapon. The moment he walked by the scanner a silent alarm had been triggered contacting the local authorities.

He never considered that his online search queries were being recorded and flagged. “How to rob a bank?” “How much money do banks carry?” “History of successful bank robberies.” “Best times to rob a bank”. Queries that immediately placed him on an F.B.I. watch list.

Leroy also never thought to keep quiet about his plans to rob a bank. Two nights ago, he discussed these plans with an acquaintance over the phone. His friend never ratted him out, but the conversation they had was analyzed by Police Speech Scanners and forwarded to law enforcement.

His personality matrix was noted for risk taking, lack of empathy and compulsive lying. His criminal history was sporadic but not egregious, so it may surprise many that the day he went to rob the local bank there were already two unmarked police vehicles parked outside waiting for the robbery to occur. The F.B.I. Computer Analyzers had already determined that there was a 93% chance Leroy would rob this bank in the morning.

They knew he needed money.
They knew he owned a gun.
They knew he was a risk taker with a criminal history.
They knew his location.
They knew he planned to rob a bank.

Leroy entered the bank that day looking for easy money, not understanding that he was already being followed. So when he drew his firearm from underneath his trench coat and pointed it at the teller, an undercover officer was already standing behind him with cuffs and Glock 19 pointed at the base of his skull.

“Put the Gun Down, or I’ll Blow Your Damn Head Off”

And Leroy stood still, scared, gun in hand with a confused expression. He dropped his weapon.

“What the hell?” he said as the cop cuffed him.

“What kind of luck is this? My first robbery and a damn copper is standing behind me, gun drawn ready to blow my head off.”

For the next several years Leroy sat in his cell certain that God hated and cursed him, unwary that he was being tracked all along. After his release from prison his beliefs led him to live a life of virtue and reverence. He was never watched, tracked or analyzed by the F.B.I. again

Scientists discovered years ago that the key to interstellar travel wasn’t star-ships, cryogenics, warp speed drives or wormholes as previously thought. Traveling two hundred and eighty six light years to the nearest habitable planet was deemed an impossible task through traditional mechanical means. Instead scientists discovered that the key to interstellar traveling was storing the biological data of interstellar travelers onto hard drives then sending that information into space using laser beams. Once the beams reached the host planet, the data was decrypted and stored so an exact physical clone of the traveler could be copied on the host planet using cloning technology.

Every atom of the occupant was scanned prior to their journey through space. Every neuron inside the human brain was successfully mapped. When the travelers were regenerated on the other side they were the exact physical copies of themselves on Earth. They contained the exact height, eye color, heart, liver, lungs as their copies. The memories were also successfully transferred through space through the configuration and mapping of their neurons within the human brain. The cloning machines were perfect and exact using every known metric.

When the first humans were scanned for human cloning, they believed they had achieved immortality. As long as their biological data survived, so did the possibility that they could be re-birthed again. Their lives would be lived forever. No need for God or the heavens, eternal life was to be found here on Earth. They would be reincarnated forever.

When the first human clones were built to populate the stars scientists discovered unexpected flaws that they had not anticipated. Though the clones were exact physical copies in every imaginable way, they had different personalities and mental traits that stood apart from their original copies. The clones lacked morality, ethics and a sense of the common good, so when they were produced on extraterrestrial worlds they were unable to cooperate with each other leading to their demise and eventual extinction.

Scientists tried many times to build colonies on different worlds, but the problems were always the same. The clones would end up destroying each other through war, treachery and murder. There was something that the scanners were unable to detect and clone in the human body. Every atom and molecule were of the same exact specification. They never discovered what it was. Even ten thousand years later they were still stumped

The year is 2026
And someone cloned
Elon Musk’s voice
Using the latest
Technology

And Mr Musk’s voice is
Making robocalls
Across the land;

“Tesla Vehicles are death traps”

“SpaceX is a Hollywood Production”

“Buy Ford instead”

Causing Mr Musk
Much despair

The year is 2027
And someone cloned
Your mother’s voice

And she is asking you for
$1000 dollars fast cash
For an unspecified emergency

To an unspecified
Bitcoin wallet.

The year is 2028
And someone cloned
Joe Biden’s voice

And Every Democrat in every
Swing State
Receives a call
from Mr Biden’s imposter
Begging them to please

“Vote for Trump”

THe year is 2029
And your coworker cloned
Your voice

And called your boss
To tell him that you
Quit.

In the near future
Our senses will Deceive us
Our thoughts will betray us and
Our eyes till Dissuade us

Until our reality becomes
A tale of fiction.

What happens to American Democracy?

When your twitter feed is filled with
Bots working as foreign agents
When your television screen touts half-truths and
When your youtube video feed is faked and
You can’t separate fact from fiction

What happens to American Reality?

When lies go viral
And propaganda propagated
At the speed of light
Through ethernet wires
From foreign adversaries

What happens to American Culture?

When the American people
Are deceived
And dissuaded
And misinformed
And manipulated
At the behest of a
Tyrant

What happens to American Diversity?

When hatred is cloned and spread
To millions
Within the blink of an eye
From a computer prompt
A thousand miles away

What happens to American Freedom?

When our politicians are bought
When our thoughts are muted
When our rights are restricted

What happens to the American Dream?

When our freedoms are fettered
And dissolved into the
Desires of a
Dictator

What happens?

America breaks and oozes
Into the fabric of autocrats
Who want to watch American democracy Die
Who want to change our American Reality
Who want to Destroy American Culture
Who want to Divide American Diversity
Who want to suppress American freedom
And destroy the American Dream

Till we are left
Drifting in a foreign land
Unable to live in America
Because it has become something
Unkind
Unfree and
Undemocratic

The despots vision
For a new anti-American America

Robots will soon
Perform most tasks
Better, faster and cheaper
Than workers.

The majority of workers
Will soon find themselves
Easily replaced by their
Robot counterpart

Till the masses are left scraping
The bottom of the barrel
For scraps

Setting the stage for the
Next Civil War

Sometimes I question
If the man in front of me
Works for the FBI

Underneath the Antipsychotics
And sleep therapy
I still ask the question

“Am I being followed”?

The same man seems to
Appear
Again and again
At the same coffee shop
At the same time of day
Nearly every time I’m there.

Sometimes I see him wear a
“Blue Lives Matter” shirt

He appears hard at work
On his laptop
Where I imagine him
Tracking and analyzing
Criminals.

Questions roll
Across my mind and I ask
“How does he follow me?”

And I look down at my
Cellphone knowing that he
Has access to my GPS
Location data.

He sits across me in
An unsuspecting manner
Prying, spying and
Investigating.

My poems have potentially
Triggered the psychotic episodes of
Many unstable readers.

He is looking for dirt.

It could be that way
Not definitely
But possibly

There is a massive Data Center
Where I deliver food
As a delivery driver
Rumored to be run by the Feds

It lies on top of a hill
And is built like a fortress
With a security gate that
Opens up when
I identify myself

The place has an
Aura of mystery and creepiness
And when I leave the complex I
Feel as if I just fed the
Puppet Masters.

Money of the Digital Gods
Constructed from Code

Pedlar of illicit activity
On the Silk Road

Son of Satoshi
Lucifer’s friend

No government can destroy you
Your blockchain is complete

Your decentralized location
Makes hacking obsolete

Unregulated and
Unfettered
With no master in sight

You transfer assets
At the speed of light

Fiend of the Feds
Adversary of Banks
You continue to endure

Your existence is immutable
Your source code ensured.

I live inside your computer
Birthed from ill intent
An intangible force
Malignant and surreptitious

Searching for vulnerabilities
To breed and replicate
Hungry for resources and data
I infect and clone myself

To breed
To reproduce
To destroy

For my master
And his insidious dreams

China has over 500 Million Surveillance cameras
Equipped with facial recognition technology
That monitors everyone, all the time

It penalizes non-compliance
Through a social credit system
Turning the lives of Chinese Citizens into

The grandest, most expensive video game
Ever created.

Your cell phone is the world’s
Greatest spy that ever lived.

It sits in your pocket
And keeps track
Of all your actions,
locations and interests
And relays that information to
Various private and government agencies.

It can eavesdrop on your conversations
It knows all your favorite hangouts
It knows all your interests
It knows all your search inquiries
It knows all your social media contacts
It knows all

And sells that information to the highest bidder
For who knows what…

And no one seems to care.

Robocop lives among us
Right here, right now
And it isn’t a cyborg with a gun
But a massive supercomputer
That investigates everyone all the time.

Your laptop data
Your GPS Location
Your Credit Card Transaction
Your Social Media Associations
Your Online Facebook Posts
Are all analyzed by Big Brain Robocop
At lightning speed
Looking for drug dealers
Looking for killers
Looking for sex offenders

He works in the shadows
Listening to our online fingerprint
And when he finds evidence of wrongdoing
He sends in his
Blue Bobbies
For the final catch

Making Big Brain Robocop
The Greatest Detective
That Ever Existed.

Robot Big Brother is at a factory-near-you

With the next iteration of modern warfare comes the realization
That the battle field has changed;

Kamikaze drone swarms will now annihilate
Infantry, tanks, buildings and barracks
From remotely controlled sources

Artillery can be guided by satellite
To strike with pinpoint accuracy
From a hundred miles away.

Infantry will soon be mechanized
And integrated with sophisticated
Artificial Intelligence

Making previous weaponry obsolete
And ensuring that the the worlds
Most coveted soldiers will be
Geeks with pocket-protectors

It was once believed that no machine will touch the works of our great
Poets, Writers, Artists or Musicians
That no machine will surpass the works of
Hemingway, Whitman, Van Gogh or Mozart.

“Creativity is a uniquely human trait” we tell ourselves

And yet we can now see the coming tide of technology
In the forms of original art, music composition and novel writing
Encroaching itself onto the art world

Reminding us when Deep Blue defeated Kasparov

And making me question if the future of Art, Poetry and Music lay in the bowels
Of a soulless machine.

When I worked as a computer instructor at a mental health facility
I always used to tell my students that they should
Never rob a bank with a cell phone in their pocket
Because it was being tracked. (don’t rob a bank period)

People thought that this idea was madness five years ago
But today we know that our geolocation data is carefully monitored
And saved over extended periods of time and can be
Accessed through different government agencies.

However…

Similar information is now
Being traded and sold by private companies with darker intentions.

A company called “Kochava” is under investigation
For selling geolocation data
Which on the surface might seem benign

until you realize what this entails.

Companies could theoretically access information on your visits to;

A drug rehab clinic
A psychiatrists office
A homeless shelter…

And use this this information against you, leading to job loss and discrimination.

A far darker side of this powerful technology.

Years from now during the dystopian dark ages
Of our conformist non-creative futures
Engineers will develop a Sophisticated Artificial Intelligence
That writes poetry so deftly
That many will listen in awe and
Bewilderment at its rhymes and chimes.

This mechanized poet of the future will churn out mountainous
Volumes of clanging verses that will impress amateurish readers
Through its florid vocabulary
And seemingly endless knowledge of useless facts
Strung together in unusual and abstract ways.

After its creation unscrupulous engineers and scientists
Will claim that even the dim witted
Can create great poetry with a few clicks, some legal tender
And three keywords as input.

Like lemmings they will come in pursuit of their dreams
And eagerly enter words like

“Hungry”
“Rhino”
“Sandwich”

At the prompt

And presto!

The greatest poem about a
Hungry Rhino
Will be birthed;

“And so the enormous pink
Flabby rhino’s teeth sink
Into the ham sandwich that stinks”

And the dim-witted will think that this
Is very clever and hand it into their
English instructor as homework,
While the clever ones save their money
And write knowing that they will never be replaced
By either a computer or the dim witted

We are all sinners in a sinful world
Much like our forefathers before us,

But the difference between
Now and then is that they sinned in private
Free from social media
Free from I-phone cameras
Free from the internet

Disputes were solved through pistols, fists and swords,
Now they are solved through lawyers, jails and lawsuits.

Evidence once consisted primarily of hearsay and witness testimony
Now we use DNA Evidence, Computer Forensics and facial recognition technology.

Our sins were known only to God
And answered through our place in the afterlife
Until the state decided to
Take over God’s roll
And build a Massive Surveillance System
So they can become the omniscient entity
They always dreamed of.

They have spent countless hours on
Facial Recognition Devices, Global Positioning Trackers
E-Mail Scanners and Social Network Analyzers
In pursuit of absolute knowledge
Without our permission

A warrant-less search
On all of humanity.

We have been kept in the dark
About their dark secrets long enough.
.
Release the floodlights.

Used to use
Legal and illegal
Unnatural substances
Where I soared higher
And higher
Until I crashed and burned.

I bottomed out
In a place worse than hell
Then rebuilt my life
Anew
Free of alcohol
Free of drugs
And a preoccupation with the
Things that make life
Worth living;

Writing and poetry and
Books and work
And singing and dancing and
Dreaming and hiking and
Camping and love.

For 15 years I have not
Puffed the pipe or
Reached for the bottle
Granting me the opportunity to
Think clearly and become
The person that I am today;

A Poet
A Lover
A Believer
A Dreamer