Photo of robot dog used in Shanghai‘On Silicon Avenue’ and Other Poetry by Paul A. Freeman The Society July 18, 2023 Poetry, Satire 14 Comments . On Silicon Avenue The lawns on Silicon Avenue were mowed on Wednesdays. All the hedges, too, were cut. On Thursdays cars were polished till they glowed, or else you got a bullet in the gut. The Sheriff-Bots were programmed to instil in urban folk a sense of civic pride; they made us grin, they forced us to look chill, but if their charges showed dissent, they died. The Bots on Silicon Avenue imposed A.I.’s strict rules so human beings would seem content, and in our model homes, enclosed, the robots judged and shaped each family team. As a rule, the Sheriff-Bots succeeded, for homicide was hardly ever needed. . . Come Winter end rhymes from Keats’s “On the Grasshopper and Cricket” The quarter-year of summertime lies dead; autumnal breath saps vigour from the sun whose daily course is ever-quickly run o’er harvest field and river-nourished mead, while skies swap steely blue for gloomy lead. The carefree weeks of furloughed school are done, a fast-depleted interim of fun— a perfumed flower withered to a weed; this basest plant well knows that he will never sport petals; just a collar rimed with frost to brace ’gainst coming winter’s banshee shrills, as if the season’s reign will last for ever and fill the air with howls from souls long lost, entombed on icy peaks and snow-capped hills. First published in The Spectator . . Paul A. Freeman is the author of Rumours of Ophir, a crime novel which was taught in Zimbabwean high schools and has been translated into German. In addition to having two novels, a children’s book and an 18,000-word narrative poem (Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers!) commercially published, Paul is the author of hundreds of published short stories, poems and articles. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Trending now: 14 Responses Roy Eugene Peterson July 18, 2023 The thoughts in “On Silicon Avenue” scare me. Who doesn’t want law and order, but at what cost and who is the programmer? On first glance, this would seem to be idyllic, but tyrants everywhere would love it. I can just imagine Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Xi Jinping instructing the programmers to eliminate an ethnic or religious group. Using the rhyming words of Keats to end each line in “Come Winter” is an interesting concept. Reply Paul Freeman July 19, 2023 The scariest scenario is that the programmer is an AI system that’s become sentient, first examined in 2001: a Space Odyssey (1968). We’ll have the Hitlers and the Stalins using and developing AI to stay in power for as long as humans can maintain control of the technology. Then,… Reply Cynthia Erlandson July 18, 2023 Wow, I love both of these! (though I don’t particularly like “o’er” or ‘gainst.) “while skies swap steely blue for gloomy lead.”, and the final two lines of “Come Winter” are my favorite lines. Both poems paint very clear and engrossing images. Reply Paul Freeman July 19, 2023 Thanks for reading, Cynthia. I don’t usually go o’er the top, it’s ‘gainst the grain, only that I thought I’d give that piece a more antiquated feel. I’ve looked through the poem and immediately saw possible adjustments (‘To brace against this Winter’s banshee shrills’ and ‘Across the harvest field and brook-fed mead.’ It was quite a challenge, the Keats endings, but gave leeway for me to wax lyrical about nature. Thanks again for reading and commenting. Reply Margaret Coats July 18, 2023 On Silicon Avenue, ruling robots are not alive and do not know what life is. Killing a human being, therefore, means removing a disorderly thing from a place of otherwise perfect order. Homicide is rarely needed because bots operate in family homes to program persons as teams (not individuals). Artificial Intelligence, as we know, leads one to type what is expicturated (it does not approve of that word I just typed in opposition to its suggestion). And where is Silicon Avenue? We are connected by it right now! Nice pro-life work, Paul, for those who can comprehend it. And I am still here to talk on “Come Winter” (AI wanted me to say “talk about,” not “on”). In this piece, Paul, since you give an epigraph declaring a connection with Keats, I presume you intend some reflection on Keats’s theme that the poetry of earth never ceases. But you hear no insect voices, as Keats did, only the banshee shrills of the winter season and the howls of souls long lost. And I suggest that “you” (the poem’s speaker) is the “basest plant” who knows he will never sport petals. [Good to see that AI here at SCP is not messing with my pronouns and telling me to say “it,” not “he,” for a plant.] Because you, Paul, do say “he,” there seems to be a personal poet-consciousness present. My interpretation could now go allegorical, with past poets as lost souls howling, but please say whether I am proceeding in the correct direction! Reply Margaret Coats July 18, 2023 Sorry about the end of my first paragraph above. I did NOT mean the poem is hard to comprehend. It’s an easily readable outline of what might happen if robots and artificial intelligence take control. I meant the battle between life and non-life is under the surface here, but you, Paul, bring it out in lines 4, 8, and 14. And this battle is indeed fought, although there must be living programmers behind the non-living forces. The battle is ultimately between good and evil, with even disorderly or unwanted human life recognized as good. Reply Paul Freeman July 19, 2023 The programmers need not necessarily be people. That’s the scary thing. AI has the ability to make the majority of humans in any workforce obsolete. This started most obviously with robots in the automobile industry. AI and robots never need sleep and never rest, to the extent that remote AI teachers are already a reality. I assessed a friend’s son’s English and the boy admitted that he did no work at school and neither did his friends, instead letting ChatGPT do all the work while his teachers turned a blind eye and the boys goofed off. In the Woody Allen film ‘Sleeper’ (based on the HG Wells book ‘The Sleeper Awakes’!), society has transformed into a bunch of Lotus Eaters ruled by a thuggish, autocratic government. The poetry reading scene in the film is hilarious, if not prescient. With the poem using ‘On the Grasshopper and the Cricket’ endings, I took the competition that set this topic as a challenge to write an antiquated-sounding nature poem that was not your usual nature poem. I think that because it was paired with an AI topic poem, there was an expectation that the second poem had something to do with AI, too. Thanks for reading and commenting, Margaret. Joseph S. Salemi July 19, 2023 If these damned little robots start crawling around everywhere, I suggest that all of us get heavy baseball bats, come up behind every single one of the machines, and smash them with a solid downward blow. I guarantee that this will shatter the bloody thing to bits, or render it totally inoperative. These hideous devices need to be destroyed, not discussed. Reply Paul Freeman July 19, 2023 Unfortunately, this duel-use technology (the robot depicted in the picture could do anything from guide a blind man to killing enemies on a battlefield) is already with us. It seems you have a Luddite streak in you Joseph, just like I do. Sorry if I ruined your day. The Keats-endings poem is probably more to your taste. Reply Lannie David Brockstein July 19, 2023 The use of a “Photo of robot dog used in Shanghai” does influence the reader of Paul A. Freeman’s dystopian “On Silicon Avenue” to perceive its Sheriff-Bots as looking like easily identifiable robots. But has silicone technology already become so realistic whereby most people falsely believe that President Brandon is Joe Biden and not some silicone mask wearing reptilian from the planet Dinosaurus? “THIS ACTOR IS EITHER WEARING A SILICONE BIDEN MASK OR HE HAS SOME OF THE WEIRDEST SKIN EVER”: https://www.bitchute.com/video/cso5DpMZU5zv/ Reply Yael July 19, 2023 I really like On Silicon Avenue. It instantly reminded me of the 1958 Jaques Tati comedy movie Mon Oncle, which I had not thought of in decades. In hindsight, that movie was strangely prophetic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooDnlVj7QvM Thanks for reminding me. Reply Paul Freeman July 19, 2023 Prophetic, indeed. There’s even a nightclub called ‘Rington(e)s’! I’ve recommended the film to my daughter since she parlez the Francais. Reply Yael July 19, 2023 Where’s the nightclub at? One of the things I really liked about the movie was that the dialogue is essentially relegated to background noise. Their actions speak much louder than their words, and how the characters feel is mostly expressed through actions, colors and music. Warren Bonham July 24, 2023 Once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s hard to see how it gets stuffed back in. Once behavior that is socially acceptable has been defined, it can be very easily policed with punishment coming swiftly and harshly for those who step out of line. Living off the grid is getting harder and harder but it’s also looking better and better. Thanks for the wake up call! Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Roy Eugene Peterson July 18, 2023 The thoughts in “On Silicon Avenue” scare me. Who doesn’t want law and order, but at what cost and who is the programmer? On first glance, this would seem to be idyllic, but tyrants everywhere would love it. I can just imagine Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Xi Jinping instructing the programmers to eliminate an ethnic or religious group. Using the rhyming words of Keats to end each line in “Come Winter” is an interesting concept. Reply
Paul Freeman July 19, 2023 The scariest scenario is that the programmer is an AI system that’s become sentient, first examined in 2001: a Space Odyssey (1968). We’ll have the Hitlers and the Stalins using and developing AI to stay in power for as long as humans can maintain control of the technology. Then,… Reply
Cynthia Erlandson July 18, 2023 Wow, I love both of these! (though I don’t particularly like “o’er” or ‘gainst.) “while skies swap steely blue for gloomy lead.”, and the final two lines of “Come Winter” are my favorite lines. Both poems paint very clear and engrossing images. Reply
Paul Freeman July 19, 2023 Thanks for reading, Cynthia. I don’t usually go o’er the top, it’s ‘gainst the grain, only that I thought I’d give that piece a more antiquated feel. I’ve looked through the poem and immediately saw possible adjustments (‘To brace against this Winter’s banshee shrills’ and ‘Across the harvest field and brook-fed mead.’ It was quite a challenge, the Keats endings, but gave leeway for me to wax lyrical about nature. Thanks again for reading and commenting. Reply
Margaret Coats July 18, 2023 On Silicon Avenue, ruling robots are not alive and do not know what life is. Killing a human being, therefore, means removing a disorderly thing from a place of otherwise perfect order. Homicide is rarely needed because bots operate in family homes to program persons as teams (not individuals). Artificial Intelligence, as we know, leads one to type what is expicturated (it does not approve of that word I just typed in opposition to its suggestion). And where is Silicon Avenue? We are connected by it right now! Nice pro-life work, Paul, for those who can comprehend it. And I am still here to talk on “Come Winter” (AI wanted me to say “talk about,” not “on”). In this piece, Paul, since you give an epigraph declaring a connection with Keats, I presume you intend some reflection on Keats’s theme that the poetry of earth never ceases. But you hear no insect voices, as Keats did, only the banshee shrills of the winter season and the howls of souls long lost. And I suggest that “you” (the poem’s speaker) is the “basest plant” who knows he will never sport petals. [Good to see that AI here at SCP is not messing with my pronouns and telling me to say “it,” not “he,” for a plant.] Because you, Paul, do say “he,” there seems to be a personal poet-consciousness present. My interpretation could now go allegorical, with past poets as lost souls howling, but please say whether I am proceeding in the correct direction! Reply
Margaret Coats July 18, 2023 Sorry about the end of my first paragraph above. I did NOT mean the poem is hard to comprehend. It’s an easily readable outline of what might happen if robots and artificial intelligence take control. I meant the battle between life and non-life is under the surface here, but you, Paul, bring it out in lines 4, 8, and 14. And this battle is indeed fought, although there must be living programmers behind the non-living forces. The battle is ultimately between good and evil, with even disorderly or unwanted human life recognized as good. Reply
Paul Freeman July 19, 2023 The programmers need not necessarily be people. That’s the scary thing. AI has the ability to make the majority of humans in any workforce obsolete. This started most obviously with robots in the automobile industry. AI and robots never need sleep and never rest, to the extent that remote AI teachers are already a reality. I assessed a friend’s son’s English and the boy admitted that he did no work at school and neither did his friends, instead letting ChatGPT do all the work while his teachers turned a blind eye and the boys goofed off. In the Woody Allen film ‘Sleeper’ (based on the HG Wells book ‘The Sleeper Awakes’!), society has transformed into a bunch of Lotus Eaters ruled by a thuggish, autocratic government. The poetry reading scene in the film is hilarious, if not prescient. With the poem using ‘On the Grasshopper and the Cricket’ endings, I took the competition that set this topic as a challenge to write an antiquated-sounding nature poem that was not your usual nature poem. I think that because it was paired with an AI topic poem, there was an expectation that the second poem had something to do with AI, too. Thanks for reading and commenting, Margaret.
Joseph S. Salemi July 19, 2023 If these damned little robots start crawling around everywhere, I suggest that all of us get heavy baseball bats, come up behind every single one of the machines, and smash them with a solid downward blow. I guarantee that this will shatter the bloody thing to bits, or render it totally inoperative. These hideous devices need to be destroyed, not discussed. Reply
Paul Freeman July 19, 2023 Unfortunately, this duel-use technology (the robot depicted in the picture could do anything from guide a blind man to killing enemies on a battlefield) is already with us. It seems you have a Luddite streak in you Joseph, just like I do. Sorry if I ruined your day. The Keats-endings poem is probably more to your taste. Reply
Lannie David Brockstein July 19, 2023 The use of a “Photo of robot dog used in Shanghai” does influence the reader of Paul A. Freeman’s dystopian “On Silicon Avenue” to perceive its Sheriff-Bots as looking like easily identifiable robots. But has silicone technology already become so realistic whereby most people falsely believe that President Brandon is Joe Biden and not some silicone mask wearing reptilian from the planet Dinosaurus? “THIS ACTOR IS EITHER WEARING A SILICONE BIDEN MASK OR HE HAS SOME OF THE WEIRDEST SKIN EVER”: https://www.bitchute.com/video/cso5DpMZU5zv/ Reply
Yael July 19, 2023 I really like On Silicon Avenue. It instantly reminded me of the 1958 Jaques Tati comedy movie Mon Oncle, which I had not thought of in decades. In hindsight, that movie was strangely prophetic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooDnlVj7QvM Thanks for reminding me. Reply
Paul Freeman July 19, 2023 Prophetic, indeed. There’s even a nightclub called ‘Rington(e)s’! I’ve recommended the film to my daughter since she parlez the Francais. Reply
Yael July 19, 2023 Where’s the nightclub at? One of the things I really liked about the movie was that the dialogue is essentially relegated to background noise. Their actions speak much louder than their words, and how the characters feel is mostly expressed through actions, colors and music.
Warren Bonham July 24, 2023 Once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s hard to see how it gets stuffed back in. Once behavior that is socially acceptable has been defined, it can be very easily policed with punishment coming swiftly and harshly for those who step out of line. Living off the grid is getting harder and harder but it’s also looking better and better. Thanks for the wake up call! Reply
