Cleaning out the dusty shadows of my upstairs bookshelves, I find the Whole Earth Catalog, still around from my first year in college… and this poem by “anonymous”. This embodies, illustrates, my fascination with ephemera.
All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace
* By . Unknown
* Whole Earth Catalog
* June 1971
I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.
I like to think
(right now, pleasel)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms
I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched
over by machines of loving grace.