Category Archives: Experiences

The Perfect Dad

It’s hard to be that perfect dad

Who doesn’t drive his children mad

Maybe some faults most dads share

Pointed out, becoming clear

 

Gone past the need to care so much

For children’s welfare, health and such

Guiding in the social mores

Without setting many chores

 

Feeding and clothing without concern

That they give something in return

Plying with love, support and care

Showing them it’s OK to dare

 

Providing every chance to see

The very best that they might be

Become the adult you are not

We try to give it our best shot

 

But, the final test of fatherhood;

Something seldom understood

When adult, can each child respect

The norm is; dads are seldom perfect.

 

Forming Opinions

If opinion is divided,

Consensus not in sight.

Head and heart may disagree,

But both cannot be right

 

Bring to bear one measure;

The final acid test.

Belief may be convincing,

But evidence is best.

 

Never Being Wrong

Know for certain this one fact

However surely you may act

There is a chance you may be wrong

Perhaps should sing a different song

 

Know this too, for it is true

Some about, loyal to you

Politely as you ply your view

Consider this as nothing new

 

The Other Point of View

This world is happening around you
Though logic says that for others this is true
Those others cannot share your senses
The same world but through different lenses

Others may walk on your stage for a time
With bit-parts; though few may be prime
They, like those you pass in your car
Unaware that you are the star

For those you affect with your actions
Fates changed by your common transactions
Never knowing the one point of view
That’s exclusively experienced by you.

A Toast

Come any who might with me dine
Of choicest foods and finer wine
And know full well that down the line
You too must share this cup of mine

Then do not seek to chide thine host
Instead drink deep that final toast
For that you have you forfeit most
Of what remains you cannot boast

The Threat from Artificial Intelligence

Many things have threatened our lives
War, disease, terrorists with knives
Humanity’s resilience on a world-wide scale
Brings overconfidence that we always prevail

Now, blindly, we seek our nemesis to grow
Racing to unleash a formidable foe
A holy grail with potential for good?
More, our undoing, not understood

For scientists strive around the globe
To create an electronic temporal lobe
The ‘AI’ juggernaut  is on its way
But let’s not wake to rue that day

Once created, how to hold it in check
To stop society becoming a wreck
Pandora’s box; lid open wide
Mankind swept away on tsunami tide

Computers manage our knowledge; they have a key role
In energy grids, finance, air traffic control
Vast infrastructures already in place
Black boxes communicating with their own race

Once these machines are able to think
Harnessing speeds faster than a lightning blink
With capacity to accelerate their own evolution
What regard then for our frail constitution

Not bound by ethics to consider our fate,
Would they preserve a welfare state?
Circuits and chips that become aware
May not accept that they need to care

For earth’s resources they will compete
Serving no purpose, we’d be obsolete
How soon before we are oppressed
If they turn off the lights, we’ll do the rest