We walk about
Held be human,
Allude forever
To so function,
Claim a stance
Above another,
Borders extant
Far from other,
Of mortal man
Said corporeal,
Having a mind
Debatable real,
Tho often time
Musters appeal,
Of tilted regard
That fail conceal,
His soul’s discard
Hides there upon,
A genuine human
Nigh wholly gone,
Reached near extant
Finds robot for his pawn,
Till swallowed as its servant!
© Jean-Jacques Fournier
Poetry on a canapé 
“Finds robot for his pawn” sounds all too frighteningly familiar. Very powerful poem.
Thanks Paulette… I remember way back when as a child a movie (in black and white) whose character wearing a costume of tights that were rather loose fitting, on this fictional character called Flash Gordon readying to fly to the moon. Not that many years later man actually got there, and space travel is now part of history, as are high speed telecommunications, portable phones, body parts transplants, actual robots and cloning etc, etc.
Keep your eyes open for too soon robots will be giving orders, and as frightening as this sounds, we’d probably be better off with properly programmed robots, than we are now with the crazy nuclear war rhetoric going on between Trump and Kim Jong Un. How did we so called humans manage to lower ourselves to such a low level, as to put people the likes of those two mad men, in positions of power that can actually destroy us all…?
Jean-Jacques
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Well said. And let’s hope if we do fall prey to robots that whomever programmed them were of a higher intelligence.
Agreed… as we sure can’t do worse than what we have now. So let us indeed hope for well-programmed robots, in lieu of our continued choice of low-level brain power, if indeed that is the best we humans can find in our present world choice of leaders.
Jean-Jacques
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We are in a brave new world. I was reading an article Japan’s response to lack of young people to take care of the elderly. Our population is aging so it will be interesting how we use technology for the good of humanity. I am also watching the self-driving cars. Will they reduce the amount of accidents. I especially appreciated your idea of “well-programmed robots.” Humanity has the power to create amazing technology to help or hinder humanity. May we chose the wise path.
Yes indeed, with humanity’s amazing brain power we should be able to weigh in more heavily on doing things that will improve living conditions for all. But humans being what they are, even in so-called democratic societies, until such time as we manage to find a method to have representational say through an honest system that allows us to elect people of the correct choice… and the saying that states “ you get what you vote for” said saying will always be a lie, and we don’t stand a chance, even with a programmed robot. We came close, here in Canada, in the last election, but the man who ran on the electoral reform, and got elected on that promise, did not keep it. It took Mr. Trudeau the man I voted for, only a couple of months to join the old boy political ranks of a better chance for re-election, to break his promise, the system we’ve known forever. Democracy was never conceived for the public’s good or welfare… it has always been for the politicians, those political pundits who play the game. Thus with the citizen’s naivety and tax dollars, win or loose in essence, live off the backs the sheep and big money power looking for favours. And the beat goes on!
Jean-Jacques
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You have such wise reflections.