Reviews from

Life, Love, and Other Disasters

Viewing comments for Chapter 3 "Manifesto of the Machines"
A collection of poems on these themes

25 total reviews 
Comment from Irish Rain
Excellent
Not yet exceptional. When the exceptional rating is reached this is highlighted

I loved this when I read it under your 'Rondeau Redoubled' contest listing. I can see this happening...aliens? Robots? So true though, mankind is really screwing up! Love this, blessings....

 Comment Written 05-Oct-2016


reply by the author on 06-Oct-2016
    Thank you!

    And congrats again for your Acrostic win - condemned me to another second place!

    Steve
reply by Irish Rain on 06-Oct-2016
    I'm so sorry I condemned you (not)....Congratulations!!!!
Comment from krys123
Excellent
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A very good evening to you Steve;
-a very interesting twist of fate for mankind we all throughout the poem I was thinking more computers but then they are man-made.
-Your rhythmic rhyming and rhythm itself stands sound and is written beautifully where line to line the question becomes clear of what we are to do with mankind.
Your rhythm and rhyming catapults and propels your enjambment, clearly, through your whole writing without a hiccup or a bump in the road of reading and understanding.
-The pictures absolutely astounding and very comparable to your conceptual theme and so relative to your topic that it sets the tone for your poem.
-Thanks for sharing Stephen take care and have a good one my friend.
Alex

 Comment Written 05-Oct-2016


reply by the author on 06-Oct-2016
    Thanks, Alex. Just about everything has a computer inside it now, anyway!

    Steve
reply by krys123 on 06-Oct-2016
    Welcome Steve.
    Alex
Comment from Alan K Pease
Excellent
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This isn't funny. The prediction is that robots will be in every home by the year 2024. Maybe they will mostly be automatic cleaners, but it is a start and the cars will chart and execute trips much sooner - like now (almost). Lovely poem of rhyme, rhythm, and message. Excellent poetics.

 Comment Written 05-Oct-2016


reply by the author on 06-Oct-2016
    Thanks, Alan.

    You are right - this eventuality may arrive in ways we don't even see coming!

    Steve
Comment from strandregs
Exceptional
This work has reached the exceptional level

Ahha
so you do go public.
Congratulations.
Asimov lick your lips.
wonderful rendering.
I almost wrote winderful which would have bean very embarrassing.
I fully agree with your edict and idea and the judges/ editors.xx
:-)) Z.

 Comment Written 05-Oct-2016


reply by the author on 06-Oct-2016
    As long as it's not windowsful!

    Thanks, Zelick - yes, this is the 50-pound winner. If only O could get all my other pieces to provide the same level of reward for effort!

    Steve
reply by strandregs on 07-Oct-2016
    As a famous once said Publish and be damned...
    or Publish publish publish...
    every time I look at my collection with the thought of publishing , I squirm uneasily.
    who would want to read my crazy stuff?
    be honest and tell me i'm wright or wrong or something else. :-))Z.
Comment from WalkerMan
Exceptional
This work has reached the exceptional level

Few people realize how dangerously close we are to such a reality. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is much further along than is revealed to the public. (Because I am in a related field, I know.) Once machines can self-repair and self-improve, they will rapidly exceed the capacity of human brain power. The one vital characteristic they will lack, as it is (and long has been) absent in the humans that run this world, is compassion -- what we call "heart" or "soul"; and, without that restraint, humanity as we know it is doomed to extinction. This poem well deserved its honored place in its prior publication. It is an important warning to us all that AI is not building Isaac Asimov's wise "Three Laws of Robotics" into the machines (including autonomous robot soldiers) now in development by several nations. A Skynet scenario (from the "Terminator" film series is coming. The poem itself is well written and aptly illustrated. Superb.

 Comment Written 05-Oct-2016


reply by the author on 06-Oct-2016
    Thanks for the great review and the six stars - much appreciated.

    Yes, that tipping point when machines can improve on themselves may well be closer than we think, and then the only thing that is certain is that nobody can predict what will happen with any certainty!

    Steve
reply by WalkerMan on 06-Oct-2016
    You're welcome, Steve. None of this bodes well for the future of humanity. It makes me wonder how many other civilizations elsewhere vanished that way, and what their surviving intelligent machines have been doing since then.
    -- Mike
Comment from nancy_e_davis
Excellent
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We can expect something of the sort. Maybe the end will come in a rainstorm of space junk and nuts and bolts traveling a thousand miles an hour, blowing everything up and taking out dams and escape routs although there will be no escaping the rainstorm of junk from outer space. It's been building up for at least fifty years.
TV is a nightmare lately. They are brainwashing us. LOL Your idea might be a blessing if we stop to think about it. Haha. Nancy

 Comment Written 05-Oct-2016


reply by the author on 06-Oct-2016
    Thanks, Nancy.

    Blessing or a curse - nobody really knows what the future may hold once machines reach that level of intelligence...

    Steve
Comment from Pantygynt
Excellent
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Why does this remind me of Hitler's rise to power? Essentially the message is the same, and of course he sorted the German economy and got the trains running on time. But there are things worse than the muddle-headed chaos we frail humans are heir to, and perhaps super efficiency is one of them, and making America great again and... Hang on! Where is this going? Down the trumpeter's road is the feel of it, and he wasn't even thought of (not publicly at least) when this rondeau redouble first saw light of day. Oh well what goes around comes around I guess.

 Comment Written 05-Oct-2016


reply by the author on 06-Oct-2016
    Yep, let's keep that muddle-headed chaos!

    Thanks for the thoughtful review.... and yes, you did head down a slightly different path than other reviewers.

    Steve
Comment from Joy Graham
Excellent
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Ooh this gives me the chills. Just the thought of aliens taking over the world is scary. I keep thinking of aliens out there since that message from space came through so loud and clear. I'm hoping they're too far away to take over the Earth people for a few more generations. Then I'll be long gone. Movies like The War of the Worlds scare me.

You have a serious tone that makes this poem and message sobering. Well done.

 Comment Written 05-Oct-2016


reply by the author on 06-Oct-2016
    Thanks, Joy.

    The experts say something like his is coming, and perhaps sooner than we think - machines, not aliens.

    PS - Your're not having a crack at my rondeau redouble contest?

    Steve
reply by Joy Graham on 06-Oct-2016
    sorry, no. My confidence among the FS crowd is low, and I never come our of the voting booth feeling good about my writing.
Comment from Mark Valentine
Excellent
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This is an original expression of an idea that is at least as old as the atomic bomb (if not older). Very Orwellian and extremely well-written (wish I had a six). Timely too, at least for those of us in the USA where logic seems to have gone out the window. I love the (See Appendix Two) aside- actually all throughout the poem, you maintain a voice that sounds like it could come from a machine.

Great piece!

 Comment Written 05-Oct-2016


reply by the author on 06-Oct-2016
    Thanks, Mark, for the great review and the virtual six.

    Yes, all the great science fiction writers and thinkers have had a crack at this one. That moment which some call 'the singularity' when machines become intelligent enough to start improving themselves, may not be too far away. That is a sobering thought.

    Steve
Comment from Sandra du Plessis
Excellent
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A very well-written Rondeau Redouble. Humans are at the end of their existence, technology and computers taken over most of the functions human usually do, so human become redundant.

 Comment Written 05-Oct-2016


reply by the author on 06-Oct-2016
    Thanks, Sandra.

    Yes, all the great science fiction writers and thinkers have had a crack at this one. That moment which some call 'the singularity' when machines become intelligent enough to start improving themselves, may not be too far away. That is a sobering thought.