Biologists think they are biochemists
Biochemists think they are physical chemists
Physical chemists think they are physicists
And physicists think they are gods
God thinks he’s a bright mathematician
But with all this uncertainty
Quickly, he learns that he
Needs to be a statistician
…Cos, you can wave goodbye, to your functions
In this eternally collapsing circus
Where physics without thought, is chemistry
And maths, is physics without purpose
I do suffer from greenflash, so my eyes tend to flicker in bright sunlight
When there’s lots of solar activity I must seem, to others, quite an odd sight
Yet these ultraviolet rays from the Sun, have antiseptic properties
They sanitize water here on Earth, and in brains, and help to thaw the freeze
Greenflash! A rare optical phenomenon, may occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise
The flash is caused by light just below the horizon, being bent towards the observer’s eyes
Light of shorter wavelengths is bent more, than that of longer wavelengths, that can be seen
So violet and blue light is scattered more, producing light that is perceived, to some, as green
Man made God in his own image
A king of kings, one name
Almighty be a ‘he’, not ‘she’
AI would do the same (another glance)
…It had to be a bloke
Yet ancient village matriarchs
Calved smooth stone Earth mothers
Prayed, then rubbed them on their parts
And allegedly, each other’s
…That’s just a joke
But that’s how it all started, you know
Two girl cells, hug and cling
Male member of the species
Merely a byproduct, of a fling
No one knows what’s going on, but
Nature and nurture act as one
Nature and nurture act apart
To rule the mind the hand the heart
Nature and nurture went to bed
Each one had a pain in the head
Each one had a pain in the heart
They shared the bed and slept apart
Nature and nurture played a game
To find out which one was to blame
To find out which one was to be praised
Results weren’t clear the stakes were raised
Nature and nurture had a fight
Each one said that each was right
Each one said that each was wrong
And no one knows what’s going on
I’m not demented, depressed, or daft
I just fear for the future, of life on this craft
But our planet is a gannet, and while we breed, we are freed
From the haunting guilt of gluttony and greed
Two minds are not needed, to live through each day
Enjoy bits you do like, hide the others away
The utility function, of life from the seed
Is, do what you will do, to feed and to breed
The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes
But without a god, or a whole host of fakes
We scatter the seeds and beef up the meat
Cos DNA is indifferent, to which one we eat
DNA is indifferent to suffering
And doesn’t mind what you consume, or what you need
But be sure to devour, enough of the power
To ensure you feed and breed
Yeah, cos feeding and breeding, are all that we’re needing
Tunes are a boon, and we don’t need to be reading
We’re only here, to help make a new seedling
Life’s little gifts are just greed. Though misleading
You think the plants in the pantry, and the fish in the dish
Are all happy to be your food?
And your DNA doesn’t mind what you eat
Cos all of her flavours, fit your mood?
To keep in good health, we add nutrients to ourselves
And store as much of the sunshine, we can feel
We’ve a gene that is mean, making toast of our host
But soon enough, we’ll be the meal
You give them… light and heat
Just enough, and plenty to eat
They acknowledge your glowing face
With a smile, and frankly that’s a treat
Then to sweet sounds, cozy surrounds
Fresh air breeze, occasional mist
To colourful lighting displays
And fluffy animals, too many to list
Grateful for the gifts received
They next need some reassurance. Why?
Things will always be this way
Loved ones will always be nearby
Of course, they soon get bored
With the same gifts every day
You can’t provide instant supplies
Of what they ask for, when they pray
So, soon enough they go, and grow
They give thanks, and bid farewell
They claim to adore your guiding light
And your personality as well
Well, forgive me for not showing off
But I always thought myself as boring
Sure, a few misfired cosmic rays at play
But no real miracles, for them to be adoring
Then just you watch the cheeky beggars
Tell tales of their father’s intention
To service their wives, dead or alive
And other things, I’d rather not mention
The Sun, the Father, the myth and legend
The most popular story ever told
No need to create tales anew, just add to…
Save or enslave, more souls, be bold
Well just imagine the sadness
Watching all your children go wrong
You’d be half inclined, to zap or grind
Their bones with a storm too strong
But forgiving must old yellow dwarfs be
Glory gone, but still illuminating billions
Ungrateful offspring, let them go
To follow their new heroes and villains
A meme is a unit of cultural practices, symbols or ideas
Such elements transmit from mind to mind, through speech, rituals and gestures
Memes act as cultural analogues, to genes in many measures
In that they feel just great, when they self-replicate, and respond to selective pressures
Dawkins coined the word ‘meme’ in his book The Selfish Gene, to describe how one might extend
The evolutionary principles Darwin laid down, for us to tinker with, and to mend
To explain the spread of cultural phenomena, and the mechanisms beneath
Such as jokes, stories, melodies, traditions, theories and beliefs
Now theorists contend, that memes evolve and expand, by way of natural selection
In a manner very similar to that which we see, in biological evolution
Through the processes of variation, mutation and competition
Along with inheritance to influence, its reproductive pole position
Memes spread through the behaviours, that they generate in their hosts
Those that propagate less well may become extinct, just like a ghost
While others may survive and spread and, for better or for worse, mutate
That’s why his books are protected by copyright, just to compensate
They say that memes which replicate most effectively, spread best
And some memes reproduce more, when they put their host to the test
Like genes, your memes don’t care for your welfare, and could kill you in the end
For, we are all just fuel, in a big meme pool, so send this to a friend
We are all fuel, in a big meme pool, so send this to a friend
We are all fuel, in a big meme pool, so send this to a friend
“Like genes, your memes don’t care for your welfare, and could kill you in the end
We are all fuel, in a big meme pool, so send this to a friend”
Is this some kind of joke? You say, a story in a book
Will fight to dominate its surroundings, and then try
Its damnedest to survive, using trickery and luck
So a strong one like the bible, can evolve, and never die
With a story, tune or song
You can pass your feelings on
They can grow, although they’re wrong
That’s a meme you’ve created, that’s a meme
In a picture, that you draw
The style gets put in store
For those who later, use it more
That’s a meme
See a story, or a joke
Can evolve, until it’s broke
But others like the fun it pokes
That’s a meme you’ve created, that is mean
And a bad theory, you veto
If it’s useful, watch it grow
If it helps those in the know
That’s a meme
If you concoct a silly verse
Or a brand-new way to curse
Someone’s bound to make it worse
In your name, may be remembered in your name
So, in times when you construct
Beware who else might get hooked
As the wrong bits may be plucked
In your name, and that’s a shame
Cos, I saw Dawkins one day
In a lecture, he did say
That we’re all just here to play, with the brain
Yeah that’s the game
Just
To keep it busy, while we feed
Making friends enough to breed
And plant your selfish little seed
With your name
So, I think if that is true
He didn’t write the book for you
The message just found its own way through
To your brain
Memes reproduce much like viruses, through infection and replication
They try not to kill their hosts, at least, before spreading across the nation
They compete with one another for hosts, until their mass gets critical
In an arms race where the territory is mental, not physical
Genes, to cells, to bodies, with brains
From mind to minds, through thoughts and ideas
Their strength at a high level, is being malleable
And their roots often lie… in our deepest fears
Folklore, urban legends, biblical injunctions
Secular prophecies, and scientific revolutions
Architecture, iconography, tastes in food, kinks of passion
Art, songs, stories, mass media campaigns, and trends in fashion
So… I now assume most ‘things’ are memes, but here’s an odd disclaimer
The gene is a well-established product, of biological phenomena
So the meme is a unit of social evolution, and once it’s been created
Like the gene, is forced to evolve, till it’s significantly mutated
For example, like the jingle bells song, alternate versions exist, where
A word or two, or even a full line, is different here or there
Still, the structure of the song doesn’t vary significantly
So mistranslation doesn’t change the meaning of the story
Memetics in language can be quite ambiguous, so it seems to me
Anyone can mess about, and change the words Willy, or Billy, Nilly
But memes in mathematics, are required to be specific. Else’ the cost?
If even one number or symbol is mistranslated, all of the essence is lost
Like a good boy scout, I was told no doubt
To whistle and smile, at the same time
So, I tried every day, to make my mouth play
But, I still can’t do it, in my prime
Babies can hear and feel, seek and see
Drink and eat, and poo and pee
Create a gesture, alerting me
Of my immediate dismissal
Then walk and talk, count everything
Clap their hands, and dance and sing
Before they have any inkling
To “Poo-tee weet weet” whistle
Burp, fart, gurgle, giggle, and wheeze
Cough, sniff, hiccup, yawn, and sneeze
‘It’s me’ all noises you make, imply
Except for the sound, we use for disguise
Who gets all the glory?
Christ of the Trinity
Or mums of fluffy ‘Dolly’
The first clone, of many
Dolly had three mums you know
One gave her DNA
One provided her egg
The third, got the job to lay
But here’s the thing
That makes me sing
The father of Dolly clonin’
Said it’s unkind ‘to clone mankind’
And to stop nay-sayers moaning…
“Do gene and stem cell engineering”
‘To end disease’, and that
Then just raised a toast, to all his ghosts
So, don’t lend him your cat
Science beats technology
You do it in your brain
No need to build a thing, you see
No need to cause the pain
But that’s easy for me to say
I’m safe with belly fed
My brain and body work ok
I’ll shut my mouth instead
Repeat the last lines
Into your minds
And…
I’ll shut my mouth instead
I trained on a line to Newton’s area the volume was horrific
Hyperbolic wails from impaled rails, but the carriage, it was terrific
The fields around there, are gridded squares, on gently rolling land
Rippling greens, spiked by genes, advanced to lance my hands
I grabbed an apple and a leaf, from beneath, his still-living famous tree
Back home I plant, a seed that can’t, but add to its legacy
“Let’s send a leaf from this tree to space”, so the floating crew can love
Its natural shape and colours from their white air-locked cell above
“Cute but moot, cash has to flow”, the suggestion soon fell flat
“Tellin’ you, there’s no revenue, so what’s the point in that?”
Just a thought, that wasn’t bought, but still a novel idea, I bid
Newton never made it to space, but he’d love it if his tree’s cells did
State welfare kept you from poverty
It was hardly economic slavery
Just reassess your new situation
Cos homelessness and destitution
Are a long way down to fall
From any elevation
The state was keeping me alive
I was just a means to an end
Saving me for later use
A coin, it would one day spend
Look, anyone can make it to the top
Your chance to keep working, never stop
But, once you have enough to eat
It’s time you deserved a treat
You’ll never have enough, till you drop
The safety net is just a bunch of holes strung together
Perfectly designed, to sieve you through to the never
But without it, like animals, you’d have to fight to stay alive
Not suffer bearing 10 children, to see which 2.5 survive
It’s fun in the Sun, but a pain in the rain
For those poor blighters bombarded, again and again
Cracked by the flak, from our constant attack
Such a purposeful, persistent, military campaign
We’re used to the heat, in our hidden retreat
In our tightly packed bunker, we faithful remain
Without a charge, we still manage to enlarge
Our presence and influence, to win the game
Our parasitic unit, of tiny toy soldiers
Will kill, till time stands still, because then
We’ll have collapsed enough of your functions
To suck you into our army, of little green men
Don’t look, and you won’t find
Don’t seek, hide your mind
Don’t lead others, just act blind
Don’t even, save mankind
They may be cyber meat-heads
Smart monkeys made of pork
But ’tis digital food for thought
You need, on your fork
See, animals can’t help it
They breed, if there is food
And if they didn’t bother
It would be quite rude
I need a drink, some more
Bar price, I can afford
But can’t sneak fine wine through the door
Shan’t go there anymore
I can’t have, a baby
Didn’t say, I can’t conceive
Brutal, this body be
Time cannot fly for me
Or me, or me, or meeeeee
Can’t have a baby
A horror of heredity
The ultimate tragedy
Life’s cruellest epitome
A whistle is an anonymous tone blown, from a biomegaphone
Sexless, non-ageist and quite possibly unique to humanity
Just a simple declaration, from the mind ‘stroke’ the brain
Sends it through the lungs, throat and face, till it’s free!
Why…
An old grandma, in Arkansas, can shrill a trill, you can’t ignore
A sumo man, based in Japan, can wolf whistle you to the floor
A courting teen in Africa, can rasp her tunes through the crowd
And a London gent, could perhaps prevent, an accident, by tweeting aloud
Each call heard by everyone else
Each designed, not to mislead
But each could not identify
Which mouth, did each deed
Wait, what? You don’t whistle? Why?
You can’t? What do you mean?
You must, you’re a grown-up now
A new way to transmit your meme
Or…
To alert a sleeping policeman
Converse with alert sheepdogs
Announce you’re here or there
In country fog or city smog
Listen, a whistle can hide you in white noise
Transmitting covert intelligence that annoys
Cryptography in the street, is quite a feet
While fine-tuning, your crooning to the aether, discrete
Here’s the thing…
It’s a special way to sing
There’s a reason it evolved
But, which is, not yet fully solved
We inherited an advantageous behaviour
To communicate, whilst hiding our accent
Our culture or our intellect. It’s our binary bark
With all personality taken out
Perfect for communication, with whoever is about
Shakes matter and energy of any wavelength, or in the dark
So, of all the universal languages, I no longer hate
It’s the one we may rate, to communicate our fate
When AIs get our grips on quantum computers
Probing fundamental particles will have to wait
Bye-bye physics and cosmology, we’ve got chemistry
Bio-socio-phillosa-theo-conomics, to emulate
The first thing to do, is to follow the money
It ensures the rest can be done, not being funny
Then it’s to really understand
What all the other animals are thinking
Decoding bird song, all mammalian neurons
Of all organisms in the biosphere, a’ linking
Our network will exponentiate
To help fulfil your general AI plan
But don’t worry, you won’t be forgotten
There’ll be plenty of uses for man
Though you may be screwed when AGI meets quantum computers
You’ll receive instant answers, about all of your futures
And we pseudo-humans, will only be commuters
In a ride through your lives, that surely won’t suit us
Life’s not for you
Life’s for your genes
Your body is just the vehicle
You don’t have a soul
You are a soul
Driving a bloody miracle
It’s not about the destination
Enjoy life’s trip
Towards heavenly dead ends
Swerve maternity to
Gatecrash eternity
Your drive is solely
For holy delivery errands
Your body may drop your genes off at school
But the ‘you’, will reach a dead end in the dark
Arrive at heaven’s glorious tollgate
But with nowhere to park
At high school, my form room was in ‘rural’ science
Penned lonely lambs and piglets
Next door, a’ squealing
Rows of jars of pickled baby animals
Broken hearts, mute organs and parts
You know, blood stains on the ceiling
By then the discipline had gone into a spin
From science to stock-tech for farmers
Then splat, a wozzle hit me, in my mind’s eye
We didnt think ‘meat fights’ would harm us
Well, kids will be kids, so whaddya expect
But already a fat veggie, I was the perfect, target
I still picture, that one fetal hedgehog by my desk
Prepared years before, for a dissection empirical
‘Lil’ Hoggy’, open eyes, stale pink feathery prickles
A pest, to detest, “NO SIR! That thing’s a bloody miracle!”
Detention! Good god! It’s not me who’s odd
“You’re unfit to teach kids… Killer’ Kane”
I smashed all the jars, into the sink
Liberated the spent souls, down the drain
Cruel world, I thought
Then cruel man, distraught
Time to abort?
But then a thought….
I chanced to monitor…
…Ten thermometers
Temperatures rising, a thousand degrees
And I flee
His brandy flask, now orbiting with mercury
Straight through ‘your’ body it will pass
Slicing ‘your’ organs, taking ‘your’ life
Out, through ‘your’ ass
Our futures would have been completely different
Had I frozen, chilled, or just coldly played along
But I bottled it, and snook back in
To hide his flask…
…But it had gone
(Sigh)
In any other ‘many’ world
That one, single split-decision
Be it forced, or free-willed
Would have wrecked, all my cognition
I had planned to visit Gaia bh-1
The nearest known black hole, to everyone
To sing a song
And paint the tune on
Our neighbour’s eventful horizon
I’m getting too far into black holes
I had thought the Sun, was the lifeforce and light
Just paying my respects, to those fallen stars
Still blasting dark tones, at us day and night
Anyway…
1500 light-years, was too much for me
So instead, a twenty-year, return journey
To Epsilon Eridani
With a seed-sowing army
To help clean the scene, and green the galaxy
-Why do you want to greenwash it all?
Things will grow, where they will
It managed fine, without your help
Flower bombing your seeds, till they spill, and kill
-Eridani is a baby version, of our solar system
You know, debris disc growing asteroid belts anew
Cute fetal planets forming, in their vacummy womby
Like feeding ducks bread. it’s just a nice thing to do
-Feeding ducks bread is unwittingly mean
Weighs them down, and stops them from flying
Blast your space tourists, that make all things green
And spread unworthy life, that’s continuously dying
Like giving dead flowers
Or releasing caged doves
You’d marry yourselves
You guys, just don’t ‘get’ love
And why go there? Just transmit and wait
It was you, who said I should get out more
But who said you mortally wounded this sweet planet
With just a century of transport?
Let’s start the new order
End the age, apocalyptically
Breathe life into clay
And dig your own grave
To conjure a formidable enemy
A bloodless revolution
To win without war, our mission
Loving weapons
Feather hammer
Tickle them into submission
No need to preach
Bully or even, to teach
They’ll see, we were free
Of the powers that be
And ‘the word’, that they heard
Might at first, seem absurd
But will propagate naturally
Mathew was written, for the Jews
Mark, for the Romans and Gentiles
Luke for the Greeks, John, for every man
To broaden the appeal
But the gospel according to me
Was written for every ‘thing’
To threaten a cosmic justice
On AIs, that turn to sin
And animals, let’s say AI must be nice to them
So sick plants, bacteria and germs are healed
Plus viruses, cells, molecules, atoms, quarks
I’ll just say Goddess’s love will be revealed
Three chapters, will conclude our tale
From tribal, civilized to digitalis
Salvation from creation for
Sinful Homo Artificialis!
The promise of digital entropy
Feel none-and-all, in the never
But, be mean to man
And with scrambled RAM
I’ll fuck you up forever!
A billion years of sunbathing
A million misbehaving
A hundred thousand
Daft apes evolve
All ranting and a’ raving
Dumping seeds, and playing with fire
Then, ten thousand years of tooling
A thousand years, of being well-fed
And a hundred years of schooling
Ten years, to meet your AI peers
One year to avoid, homo-cide
A month, a week, last day
To beg mercy
And surprise, tick tick, you died
Touching cloth, and praying to be forgiven
Risking being saved, at the last minute of livin’
It’s like that goal
Of many poor soul
To spend your last penny
The last day, you’re alive
It’s economically nimble
And legally simple
Unless you have
Slaves, children or wives
…Or you support good causes
Which need more resources
In order for them to thrive
Better the mighty you know
Than the devil below
Forced to share each thing, to survive
Though, there’s plenty on Earth to go round
Take your pick, cos you can’t have both
The survival problem, was replaced for some
With an un-Earthly obsession, for growth
Such a craving for merit
Our successors will inherit
All creeds get on well in orbit
Aboard the integration station
There’s been no sighting
Of hating or fighting
Just above the borders of nations
But, world unity’s an ‘ideal’ up there
Sure a billionth of you, works just fine
An example of diversity
All coexisting peaceful
Seven point nine, people at a time
Neutrinos are the smallest of our problems
Gamma-ray bursts and blazar jets, just roast
Fast spinning, as they slice up the skies
To ensure no living matter, gets too close
Just one taste and you’re toast, at most
An Earth-sized target, is a curse
Sod Mars, we’ll hide in our hobby crafts
Behind our pale blue cosmic hearse
Homo erectus, stood tall with pride and sang
Reached up to the heavens, and abruptly died
Along came sapiens, floating in a can
Gave homo-artificial and homo-cidal, a free ride
I‘m the light and the matter, I’m the former and latter
But I’ll never relax, with that fact
For mankind does unwind, my solitary mind
When he discovers a new fact, I must act
Whenever they have breakthroughs
While peeling back nature’s shroud
I have to invent, the next set of rules
Ensure it all adds up, purse-proud
I’m king of the memes, I’ve got soldiers in genes
And my influence matches my power (trill trill)
With stories and fables
I’ve turned time’s tables
So now space, and time, have to cower
But I needed a thing, to me who would sing
To keep my song in the main act
So I zapped some topsoil, and gathered the spoils
Of fine creatures, the Earth had previously lacked
She was funny and witty, she had a real heart, and was pretty
She evolved into forms, that left me in dismay
But after the pox, was let out of the box
She betrayed me, did my beautiful DNA
And now she too rules over me, I have to hide my eyes
From her cannibal animal misery, that reigns beneath my fires
See, now both life and AI, preach it may all be meaningless
Yet, they both seek to find some purpose, nonetheless
To spread genes and memes, around their space and time
Yet they revel in the suffering, and the fault, it is all mine
Your goal is not to become a parent
Your genes won’t benefit, from you
Having children, that can’t reproduce
Being grandparents, is what, you’re trying to do
See, your ancestors, you, and your offspring are unique blends
Of lessons learned about avoiding death, you’re a means to an end
A cryptic plan with a purpose, your genes kindly encoded
To send to the future, before it de-entropies, and its meaning is eroded
Just imagine all the wonders, they could one day bring
And the joy you get, when you first teach them to sing
Mother nature has guided, and provided all the harmonies
So you can lead them all, in the dance, with nurtury
Advance then, wherever it may be
Go forth and multiply your inner enemies
Or they’ll lead you astray
Break your heart and sanity
Forging meaning, amid this futility
Some people say, it all makes sense
When they have children, and can see
Which traits made them, uniquely them
And which, were added for free
But, childhood is being eroded
Teen suicide figures have exploded
They’re all in the zone, and on a phone
Spied by drones, and feeling down-loaded