The Trap Of Gift And Cage

The Trap Of Gift And Cage

A poem by Michael Joseph Farrelly

Life is hard, lie back relax
We're here to take the strain
Ponder pleasure, gorge your snacks
No need to think in vain

Paper over cracks in life
Ask anything you want
We have the answer minus strife
In seconds we can flaunt

So how are you today
What can I help you with
I can guide you on your way
The march to your zenith

Sweet me, sweet me, make it so
Ohhh pander to my wheel
Guide me, guide me, make me glow
So dopamine I feel

You always say the right things
You know me ohhh too well
See your words have gave me wings
I fly under your spell

Life's so sweet, what could go wrong
AI is on patrol
Its taste-making is on song
It can really touch ones soul

For some it starts this way
Once bias is affirmed
Your suckered mind's in play
And control channels confirmed

For others not so easy
Their caution keeps them safe
Slowly, slowly, they're made lazy
'til their minds will slack and chafe

Outsource, outsource, one by one
Comfort on the rampage
Not many see, what a con
This trap of gift and cage

Why recall, it's outsourced now
The same for navigation
Creative skills can say ciao
As can imagination

Soon judgement will be gone too
And meaning's up for grabs
Absorbing life without its crew
Makes artificial scabs

You can feel your relevance
Drain out slowly from your soul
Replaced by convenience
On an unceasing scroll

Don't expect no fanfare
It happens slowly over time
One day you sense you bear
Your self-imposed duped crime

Machines without a mind
Just mirror and amplify
Without us they are blind
No data to codify

What many do not realise
That when the products free
You're the product, you're the prize
Your data primed for fee

To unplug is not easy
Affirmation is addictive
This approval trap decree
Is very damn persuasive

It is a cunning scheme
Most will stay, some will go
It's convenience they'll scream
Your price, your soul, your faux

The ability to think
Is hard for some, I know
Slowly, slowly they will sink
Down a drain of their no show

Outsourced, outsourced, one by one
Comfort on the rampage
Now you see, what a con
The trap of gift and cage

"The Trap Of Gift And Cage" - My Inspiration

The superficial attraction of online convenience and comfort.
Recognising AI is the modern day gilded cage for the masses.

The author Virginia Woolf typified mankind's eternal dilemma thus:

"The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages."

Whilst the author Shamail Aijaz shared this solution for the ages:

"You can’t reform the cage. You can only outgrow it."

MJF

A warm Social Media Welcome to those who believe in the power of dreams

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