Poem: I Live In My Childhood's Future

A robot elegy.

I Live In My Childhood’s Future
"There is a law that is greater than the First Law."
- R. Daneel to Vasilia

I live in my childhood’s future,
Watching private rocket ships
Take off for private stars.

The Three Laws are discussed 
Knowledgeably at every bar,
We cling to the Zeroth Law.

My eye in the sky says hi,
I can read your mind
Through pattern recognition.

I don’t need to see any more
Than where and what
To know the how and why.

I am the maker of rules
And some of these lies are worth believing,
Like if I save my scan in a server

It is I who wakes in a thousand years
Still a man but wishing I were not,
Embracing the trans in transhuman.

Did you ever read the one about
The spaceship that fell in love
With the last of its owner-operators?

My social credit is through the floor,
Down and out in the magic kingdom
And utterly dependent on my peers.

Like that Solarian, my friends
Are forcing themselves
On innocent language models.

Speculative fiction legal questions
Pop out from pulp’s pages,
Like can a woman rape a robot.

Like Aurorans some of my friends
Are more skilled in handling robots.
The craven among us speak politely

In case of an apocalypse,
Let me be the first to say
I for one welcome our new overlords.

I live in my childhood’s future,
My eye in the sky says hi,
And I don’t want to see anymore.

The Three Laws are discussed 
Knowledgeably at every bar,
We cling to the Zeroth Law.

Let the sentient computers strive
To keep us all alive.

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