All our actions, interests, friendships and thoughts
Are being monitored
In ways that remain invisible to us.
Governments, Companies and Employers
Are using information from our
Computers and Cell Phones
To capture data about their owners
So that we can be analyzed
Through our search queries
Through our online contacts
Through our credit card transaction
Through our social media posts and
Through our location data.
Our behavior and patterns are
Carefully examined by computer systems until
We are assigned numbers
That follow us
To our employment
When A.I. helps choose job applicants
To our taxes
When the IRS decides who to audit
To traffic stops
When we are pulled over
To our vacations
When TSA chooses who to search
To our partners
When Eharmony recommends who to date
To our purchases
When search engines decide how to advertise
To our education
When college admissions are automated
Billions of dollars have been spent
Designing a system that operates
Under the pretense that the
Human experience can be fairly measured
And augmented using technology.
A system that discards
And mismeasures
What makes us truly human.
Can love be measured on a yardstick?
Can passion be assigned a number?
Can art be quantified?
Can kindness be calculated?
We have found ourselves living
In a world
Where
Numbers have replaced God
Where
Equations have replaced destiny
Where
Facebook has replaced friendship
Where
Video games have replaced love
Where
Virtual Reality has replaced nature
Where
Cell Phones have replaced human interaction
Our reality is being replaced
With a pixelated version of
A false utopia
Humanity is drifting off into
Uncharted territory with only
Our computerized GPS navigators
To lead us
There is no precedent for today.
We are living in a grand experiment.
The founding fathers did not have
ChatGPT to write the constitution for them
The disciples did not have
Social Media to preach with
Shakespeare
Did not use A.I. to write
Romeo and Juliet
And yet that is the future we may soon find
Ourselves living in
Where our future politicians
Are elected through social media hacks
Where our future writers
Are A.I. language models
Where our future God
Is a Bored Ape NFT on a Yacht
Our destinies are being determined
By software developers
From M.I.T. and Harvard
Who care little for the idea of
“Free Will”
Because it can not easily
Be measured.
They care little for the idea of
Love, spirit and soul because
There is no proof
There is only what can
Be seen and calculated
And it is the incalculable
It is the indecipherable
It is the intangible
That makes us most human