Sonnet: Man-Machine: The Grudge Match
by John Kendall Hawkins
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I reckon Michael Crichton had it right.
We won't be able to handle the strain
of some shape-shifting virus when it comes
to rattle our genomes. Best have some Tums
ready to fix that reflex in the brain
when crystal geodesic wows the sight.
First it was gain-of-function -- not enough!
Then we just flat out made stuff up with kits --
CRISPRs and crunchers and quantum persuaders.
We were defiled by our own degraders,
as if those AIs had us by the bits
and wide opened up a man-machine rift.
Well, okay, Deep Blue is calling the shots now.
Your move, putz, he "says," and then pow pow pow.
