All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace

             The poem “all watched over by machines of loving grace” is anti-technology and written with a satiric tone.  For instance, in the second paragraph, Richard Brautigan writes, “I like to think…of a cybernetic forest filled with pines and electronics where deer stroll peacefully past computers as if they were flowers with spinning blossoms.” The first thing that comes to mind is how ridiculous and absurd this scene is. Historically, nature and technology have never gotten along or coexisted for a very long time. When we think of nature and technology today, we don’t usually think of a deer strolling past a computer in the forest. We think of pollution and sick animals or an oil spill and an ocean animal covered in black goo. The words “spinning blossoms” adds even more absurdity to the scene. It’s almost as if he were trying, “Nature and technology could get along…if we were living in land of the unicorns!” Brautigan writes the words “programming harmony” to give us a clue that this harmony described is fake or synthetic. The fact that this poem is so optimistically pro-technology when read literally that it should hint to the reader that Brautigan is being sarcastic. The last line of the poem plays even more on this optimism of “everything’s fine and dandy” and that the world is becoming a better place. Finally the poem ends with “all watched over by machines of loving grace.” If anyone has ever watched any contemporary movies, he/she would know that in contemporary culture, machines are often depicted as the instruments of apocalyptic scenarios. Movies like The Terminator where cyborgs or robots from the future try to exterminate all of humanity is only one of many other examples. In authoritarian scenarios, technology is often used to spy on people. The classic novel 1984, is a great example of this. To call machines “loving” when contemporary culture has labeled machines as an instrument of doom and destruction is oxymoronic.

On the other hand, this poem could be interpreted as pro-technology. For instance, the first paragraph where it says, “a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony” tells us that nature and technology can get along. Humans are mammals after all and technology has provided people with better and easier lives. Technology, which was created by people, is intended to be used by people. Therefore, there is a harmony. Technology needs to be used otherwise it isn’t technology (ex. a sharp stone isn’t technology until it is used  to cut something) and humans have better lives. In the last paragraph, it talks about how people will be joined back to nature and be free of their labor because of technology. People today are free of labor for many different jobs that had to be done when technology was primitive. For instance we no longer have to hunt for food or walk to get somewhere. Being back to nature can mean being free from labor or responsibilities, which technology can provide, though not completely, but perhaps in the future. Machines are loving perhaps because people try to use technology for the greater good, for instance, making lives easier, feeding the poor (genetically modified foods, transportation of food to poorer countries), or defending a nation (though in this case technology is used to kill).

Of the two arguments, I’m going to have to say that the anti-technology side of the argument sounds much more convincing. All the evidence for that side of the argument just fits a lot better. Besides, Brautigan has been known for being anti-technology and writing satiric poems. One thing that the pro-technology side can’t explain is the second paragraph, because it is just way too absurd. Everything explained by the pro-technology argument can be countered by anti-technology argument. For instance, the paragraph where it talks about people going back to nature and being relieved of their labor sounds very convincingly pro-technology. However, Einstein once said “I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth—rocks!” In this case, humans have been “bombed back to the stone age,” therefore humans will be back with nature. We are also “free of our labors” because ever since technology has grown, people’s responsibilities and jobs have grown even more. In the end, Brautigan is trying to say the technology will eventually destroy humanity. With that said, I rest my case.