Prognosticators
are talking
Talking about a new humanity
Just around the next bend in the
road
Genetically-selected
children
So that no one need suffer
The ravages of miscopied chromosomes
Or
the judgment of a bully’s taunt
For being too slow, too stupid, too ugly
We simply won’t be those things
anymore
Because we won’t have to be
Computers
interfacing with our minds
Perhaps, even, in our minds
Already
our lives are coiled tight
Into narrow boxes of circuitry
That we hold in our hands
As they hold us, reflected
Behind a touchscreen that allows for touch
But remains, within, like us—untouched
Maybe
even the end of mortality
If unconquered science overcomes
The clocks that tell our cells to
die
Because
having things end is such a shame
If we can keep them plodding on
This
road to a self-modified future
Filled with gloriously self-modified
selves
It strives to overcome old defects
Of the pain-wracked, merciless
reality
Of being human
Comfort
from disease
Freedom from insufficiencies
Networks that speak meaning
Over the numb terror of
individuality
And victory over death
We’re
an old program, human nature
And we need an upgrade
The
only thing is
There’s been an upgrade out for awhile
A patch hand-built by the programmer
A
new humanity
Ready
for download and installation
It’s
the best of both worlds, really—
Perfectly designed
Flawlessly executed
And free
It
turns disease into a great arena
For acts of courage and mighty mercy
A multi-player, collaborative quest
To produce the greatest virtues ever
seen
It
takes our insufficiencies
And turns them into beauties
The place where grace can meet us
And be our all-sufficiency
No
longer alone, it sets us down
In the wild, beating center
Of a network inflamed by reckless
love
Stretched over the whole earth
It
takes death—that cold, gray dissolution
And dismembers the old beast so completely
That the whimper of its last
approach
Toward our beleaguered lives
Is heard now as a shout of glory
When death dies against the night
Not
only that, this upgrade offers more
Even more than the prognosticators
Predict for technified humanity
Fixes to the bugs that run too deep
For scientific self-modification
This
upgrade renders meaning
Grace, beauty, truth, and light
It teaches us how to be good
And, what’s more, it makes us want
That very goodness we’ve avoided
But which we’ve longed for all our lives
Don’t
wait—get your upgrade today
Billions have already downloaded it
And entered the new humanity
It’s still on offer, so get it today
The
future awaits