by Peg Quinn
Watson is a system of Artificial Intelligence
science fiction long imagined,
tracking genetic codes, human faces
and the “fingerprint” of bacteria
While a mere two hundred years ago
had folks been shown a television or radio
they’d have thought unimaginable,
supernatural, inexplicable
But let us digress…
we are a species of ape—
Homo sapiens, to be exact
breaking from the pack with chimpanzees
a mere 7.5 million years in the past,
certain life began 78 million years before that
How much farther on the time-line
of evolution will we clamber and climb?
Pulling the microscope back, maybe Watson
is but a small divergent box we check off
in the midst of our progressive march,
an effort that could fizzle,
grow extinct as dinosaurs or dodo birds
Or maybe Watson
is the egg-stage of evolution
transforming to the chrysalis
ready to fly several centuries later
on wings you and I will not be around to recognize
fluttering toward an endless future
Without us
science fiction long imagined,
tracking genetic codes, human faces
and the “fingerprint” of bacteria
While a mere two hundred years ago
had folks been shown a television or radio
they’d have thought unimaginable,
supernatural, inexplicable
But let us digress…
we are a species of ape—
Homo sapiens, to be exact
breaking from the pack with chimpanzees
a mere 7.5 million years in the past,
certain life began 78 million years before that
How much farther on the time-line
of evolution will we clamber and climb?
Pulling the microscope back, maybe Watson
is but a small divergent box we check off
in the midst of our progressive march,
an effort that could fizzle,
grow extinct as dinosaurs or dodo birds
Or maybe Watson
is the egg-stage of evolution
transforming to the chrysalis
ready to fly several centuries later
on wings you and I will not be around to recognize
fluttering toward an endless future
Without us
Peg Quinn’s poetry and creative non-fiction have been published in numerous journals and anthologies and nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. Her debut poetry collection Mother Lode was published by Gunpowder Press in 2021. She is a certified bee keeper.
