A poem
Irina Raicu is the director of the Internet Ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Views (and musings, occasionally reflected in poetry lines) are her own.
Robot Robot shining bright,
In the lab’s electric light;
What transhuman hand or eye,
Shaped thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant VR skies
Burnt the fire of LED eyes?
On what chips dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what 3D printers, & what art,
Could twist the fibers of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
Of neural networks in thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its connected terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And beckoned users with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who drew up the business plan make thee?
Robot Robot shining bright,
In the lab’s electric light;
What transhuman hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Photo by Mike, cropped, used under a Creative Commons license.