Places Places, people Places, people, wires Places, people, wires, waves Places, people, wires, waves Places, people, wires, waves

Back in the days, before the new malaise The marketing phrase was “let your fingers do the walking” To places and people Through wires and waves What only carried voice Could make us all rejoice And seemed to keep us closer But now that era’s over Now it’s a camera, a light A clock, a guide An accountant, a vice An expensive waste of time An arcade, a doctor The news, the banker A map, a lifeline A monitor for vital signs Capacitative interface To reach out and touch someone Deregulation Telecommunication Between places and people Through wires and waves And when we’re engaged Distinctions don’t matter It becomes what it runs It becomes Jacob’s Ladder A tool, translator A striptease, a savior A shopping cart, recorder A vector for disorder A teacher, a level A preacher, the devil A calendar, a planner A document scanner A means to an end A trusted old friend It’s so much more than what it was before Simplifying life like a subtle knife Excising everything It’s the convenience king The latest offering Ready for purchasing Can you hear me now? These are the words and sounds Anytime, anywhere, They’re always listening Software and hardware An internet of things And places and people And wires and waves A vast network of machines Remember everything A multiplexed meme A buffered data stream A compass, a shopping list, a calculator A witness, a TV, a matchmaker A secretary, a concierge A notepad full of thoughts & prayers With a keyboard for your thumb This is a harbinger of what’s to come It’s everything to everyone All our hopes and all our fears Too many teardrops Too many teraflops Can you hear me now? Please don’t let us disconnect Now is the time to genuflect Can you hear me now?

I can see it happening my strategy unraveling Every time that I catch up or get on top the other shoe drops And I can hear them whispering My confidence is withering And it happens every time Every time I try Every time I start making headway I trip up and sabotage myself Whenever I get ahead I feel dread My winning streak comes to an end And I can taste the bitter pill As I’m compelled to march uphill Forced to play because I raised I should have stayed right there in my lane As I reach out to grasp the brass ring I will snatch defeat from victory And it happens every time Every time I try Every time! I think that I’m winning I trip up and sabotage myself Yes it happens every time Every time I try Every time I smell the sweet scent of success Then cut off my own nose to spite my face

All of the thoughts that are in my head Form the words that I should’ve said too late If only I was quick with gesture or wit A better response I sadly admit must wait It’s like they say upon reflection No second chance for a first impression - au fait The need to react that comes too fast Sure in the knowledge that the moment won’t last - checkmate! Esprit de l'escalier Esprit de l'escalier Esprit de l'escalier Esprit de l'escalier Une impulsion trop tardive Une impulsion trop tardive Une impulsion trop tardive Une impulsion trop tardive It’s always the case when I try to impress I’m daft face to face, to that I confess, sadly Impetuous rush of adrenaline I’m anodyne but I’m genuine, acutely After a moment of heat, cooler heads prevail I want to retreat but I stutter and flail mentally Oh no! Improvising extemporaneously But the benefit of hindsight is 20/20 Esprit de l'escalier Esprit de l'escalier Esprit de l'escalier Esprit de l'escalier Une impulsion trop tardive Une impulsion trop tardive Une impulsion trop tardive Une impulsion trop tardive

CAPTCHA Select all the traffic lights The bridges and the street signs Confirm you’re authorized, alright? CAPTCHA Prove you’re not a robot If you pass a Voight-Kampff You won’t be denied what you want The irony is in this life that we live We’re dehumanized Reduced to a hit Of some binary bits We need a smart Completely Automated Public Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart Turing, Turing, Turing… C A P T C H A CAPTCHA Solve this little puzzle It won’t be any trouble To filter out the spam and all the scams CAPTCHA What if it’s a smokescreen? We’re trusting in a machine To prove we’re really genuine The irony is in this life that we live We’re dehumanized Reduced to a hit Of some binary bits We need a smart Completely Automated Public Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart Turing, Turing, Turing… C A P T C H A CAPTCHA Don’t let the computer Pretend that it’s the user Verify me C A P T C H A

Say there is no limit It’s all just endless potential Nothing is dependent And nothing is essential Blue skies As real as what you can dream Everything’s as it seems Everything in extreme Nothing here is infeasible It’s all just fantasy The practical is pointless No reality Blue skies As real as what you can dream Everything’s as it seems Everything in extreme No need to be pragmatic No existential dread Ecstatically phlegmatic Get out of your head Blue skies As real as what you can dream Everything’s as it seems Blue skies Blue skies As real as what you can dream Everything’s as it seems Everything in extreme Blue skies Everything in extreme

Your fuse is short, you might blow up You might freak-out or burn the clutch No way to know when you’ll melt down You have no shame you zealous clown A psychopath from crazy town A bulldozer in a frumpy gown Coming in hot Like it or not Coming in hot Better watch out, beware You think you are a maverick But you’re just a hothead lunatic Perfidiously diplomatic An impulsive swivel-eyed fanatic Coming in hot Like it or not Coming in hot Better watch out, beware Moving fast and breaking things Acting like a reckless queen You think you win when you make a scene Impetuous is your routine Coming in hot Like it or not Coming in hot Better watch out, beware But why so brash and impulsive? Everyone thinks that you’re abrasive It makes them very apprehensive So they go on the defensive Coming in hot Like it or not Coming in hot Better watch out, beware A hot mess can’t help being negligent Zero days without an incident Schizophrenically turbulent Looking for an argument Coming in hot Like it or not Coming in hot Better watch out!

First distant messenger Watch out Interstellar traveller The scout First distant messenger Watch out Orbital trajectory No doubt High eccentricity The scout Orbital trajectory No doubt High eccentricity The scout 1I/2017 U1 1I/2017 U1 1I/2017 U1 1I/2017 U1 ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua Vanguard voyager Seek out Alien visitor The scout Vanguard voyager Seek out Alien visitor The scout Verify identity Far out Haleakalā Observatory The scout Verify identity Far out Haleakalā Observatory The scout Escape velocity Breakout Pique curiosity The scout Escape velocity Breakout Pique curiosity The scout 1I/2017 U1 1I/2017 U1 1I/2017 U1 ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua Interstellar traveler The scout First distant messenger Watch out Interstellar traveler The scout First distant messenger Watch out Alien visitor The scout Vanguard voyager Seek out 1I/2017 U1 1I/2017 U1 1I/2017 U1 1I/2017 U1 ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua ʻOumuamua

Messiah of enlightenment through technology Hubris of entitlement spawns transhumanity Accelerationist at heart, a turn for the worse Spoilers indeed ahead in the seventh verse If only he knew what was true or could find a way To understand or spell agnostic sans the letter “a” Opportunistic change agent of unknown inclination The future concealed is latent fiction or fixation Strange, so strange Strange, so strange Strange, so strange Strange, so strange Strange, so strange Illusion of self-control based upon assumptions Does fate or free will control autonomic functions? Apocryphal words of ancestors A dull roar in his head From limbo in the retro-future Voices of the dead Of the dead Strange, so strange Strange, so strange Strange, so strange Strange, so strange Strange, so strange And so here’s the spoiler alert with an asterisk What if some non-sequitur spawns Roko’s Basilisk? Benevolent singularity beyond human perception Inflicts altruistic asperity to hasten its conception An existential quandary in a moral hazard’s coils A final fait accompli - to the winner go the spoils Strange, so strange Strange, so strange Strange, so strange Strange, so strange

It comes in through the air Through the wire everywhere It’s our telos, it’s a mirror A mind that we all share The vapor lathe of dreams As real as anything Maybe more It’s made of memory A common history And some decide as yet If it’s a benefit or threat But we can hear its call A siren for us all Everyone And we’ll all be online Summarized and digitized The essence of our lives Atomized, anonymized It’s the struggle, it’s the prize A serum we devised It’s who we are It’s how we think, it’s how we feel It’s how we know what’s real From our senses through our nerves Self or system do we serve? And when we go offline Is it only to preserve our soul? A change of season The age of reason It’s just blowing in the wind A change of season The age of reason It’s just blowing in the wind Our hope and our desire The whirlwind in the wire In our dreams we’re playing games As the library falls in flames But we can’t be disconnected Reality’s infected fantasy A change of season The age of reason It’s just blowing in the wind A change of season The age of reason It’s just blowing in the wind A change of season The age of reason It’s just blowing in the wind A change of season The age of reason It’s just blowing in the wind It’s just blowing in the wind It’s just blowing in the wind It’s just blowing in the wind It’s just blowing in the wind

I have a modest legacy (Actually…) Among friends and family (So to speak) At least I’ll leave them debt-free (We’ll see…) That’s the plan, hopefully (…Hopefully!) ‘Cause I’ve sought preparedness When it comes to inheritance An attorney will transfer all my assets And I’ll be unaware of regrets A closet of clothes that will never fit A coveted golf country club membership A larder of food growing moldy and rotten Photos of places and people forgotten Associates and friends that you never knew From circles I moved in without you Property, crockery, Currier and Ives Boxes of papers, utensils and knives Prescriptions and luggage, letters and jewelry Furniture, car keys, investments and annuities All of it yours to do as you please Sell it on eBay if it puts you at ease Who has to pick up and carry on? Who will defend us when we’re gone? Who feeds the swans after their song? The usual eternal denouement Oh just let me be (Just let him be) A footnote in history (His story) Hardly worth an elegy (Eulogy) An also-ran fading from memory (Peripherally) All the things that I bequeath Can’t be revoked when when I’m deceased Closure might seem illusory Since I’m contradictory Or you might see things you can’t unsee When I raged against ennui And I‘ll make sense at long last When my past tense stays in the past But I have no final wishes Just broken promises and dishes I don’t need a ceremony Hold the greed and acrimony Because if you think dispute is merited You’ll find yourself soon disinherited A tuned-out dropout from my generation While the world turns on in restless impatience Who has to pick up and carry on? Who will defend us when we’re gone? Who feeds the swans after their song? Ozymandias (Ozymandias) Ozymandias (Ozymandias) Ozymandias (Ozymandias) Ozymandias (Ozymandias) Ozymandias The usual eternal denouement