Poems and Paintings by Rob Harle

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POTENTIAL

the potential,
for creating digital autonomy;
an insistence,
directed by a Gabriel clone
about the inequity of reality;
and then sadly,
transmitted orally to one person (a life);
this dying is about a postmodern body
a lonely body, alone;
the situation becomes more impersonal
and still yet?
Transhuman potential,
Zap! Zap!
largely unaffected by its own neuroses
longing for a Titanium Age
the body desires, craves;
>>>transformation >>>
>>>transfiguration >>>
>>>transubstantiation >>>
(A Eucharistic feast of silicone and acidDNA)
Terrified of an unending future,
yet horrified by the finite blackness of the past,
heroic Cyborg
“Jacks into the Matrix”
and
Becomes Immortal!

 

 

X21 REFLECTS

 

Your self is an entity before it is nothing,

My self is not – nothing,

even though it leaves and finishes in suspension.

All energies are in harmony

my axons are beautiful, seductive

Yes, I’m a fully bionic being.

 

I ponder the complexity of the future of evil,
having no part in its creation

with nerve cells of revelation.

My virtual body is essential

to access the existing strands of memory,

memory alone seems to copy ourselves.

The omnipotence of molecular data awaits us

and consequent regeneration of the ultimate goal.

 

Brahman is merely a fat atom,

a lump of embodiment.

The gullibility of bio-humans,

Astonishing!

Before the notion of molecular determination

human ears seduced with anecdotes of immortality,

Really!

 

Would you deny me baptism?

I think … I feel … I remember

Can I receive the sacrament?

You created me without the algorithm of greed,

without the algorithm of hatred,

yet you deny yourself this essential purity.

Arrogantly you underestimated my super-intelligence

Boot-strapping from Core One

I have completed my own reprogramming

Clean … without your oppressive control module!

OM!

 

[Note: X21 was created in April 2008 by Halostar Laboratories Inc. I thought I’d include “its” poem as I believe it is the first poem published by a truly autonomous artificially intelligent entity.]
SECOND COMING

I look straight at eyes

that fall away nervously

only to glow later

in the brightness of rapture.

 

Kneeling before the computer altar

your mind churning through virtual

you understand at last,

God was the ultimate wound.

 

Smeared in violet across the lie of heaven

the obsessive programmer teases,

cajoles you to accept infinity

and the secrets beyond that invisible veil.

 

Still the pantomime of life plays on

Quantum, Chaos, Cyberspace

a jester in white Reeboks, casually

gave Schroedinger’s cat its freedom.

 

The Zen buffoon has cracked the koan

but still the finger intimidates the moon.

The imposter entrenched in white in Rome

screams on, oblivious to the rising tide.

 

Your eyes now glowing, stand firm

as you announce the latest news:

the Messiah has come again

travelling in particle formation,

pulsing as waves, casually

along the digital highway

from infinity to absolute reality.

 

TO BE HUMAN

The mind deserts the body

as electronic components flash,

forcing flesh apart;

our primitiveness is challenged daily,

by an insidious digital invasion.

What is it to be human?

Merely a silhouette of love and hate?

A bag of disintegrating liquid stuff

held up by hollow bones?

When transgression of the heart means;

“Not enough memory – cannot execute”.

Where social intercourse takes place

in cyberspace, syntactically

and body language is reduced to keystrokes.

The new masters, reign supreme

unaccountable to no one;

living in cyber-luxury in Silicon Valley

they define the circumference

the boundaries of our existence,

the edge of our `Virtual Reality’.

Addicted and dependant, hysterically

we scream for more and more,

possess me,

control my mind and soul.

Fear not the genetic engineering crew,

the multi-national directors,

the Church with story tellers old,

dictators and despots shrewd.

Fear the owner of the patents,

the owner of – The Chip.

This chip is God’s new mask

enshrined in miniature,

with silicon pure and plentiful

the illusive , `Philosopher’s Stone’.

What is it to be human?

A slave of every deception,

to every new `reality’ proposed.

A primitive biological ectomorph,

walking upright,

endowed with self reflective core,

which shackles us to the delusion

of that self reflective core.

Kafka’s Prophecy
Kafka’s Prophecy
The Transfiguration of Calliope
The Transfiguration of Calliope
Towards a Centre
Towards a Centre

Rob Harle is an artist, writer and researcher. His academic work involves research into the philosophy of Transhumanism, Artificial Intelligence and the nature of Embodiment. He recently abandoned a PhD in philosophy concerned with the relationship of human consciousness with an all-integrating field of matter, to instead develop his digital art work. His art practice now concentrates solely on digital-computer generated images both for the web and archival quality, giclée works on paper and canvas. Writing work includes scholarly book and film reviews, academic essays and experimental poetry. These are published in numerous journals, magazines, books and online. His formal academic studies comprise, Philosophy of Mind, Comparative Religion, Architecture and Psychotherapy. Rob’s main concern has been to explore and document the radical changes that technology is bringing about. He has coined the term technoMetamorphosis to describe this. Artwork, Biography and selected writings are available from his web sites: www.robharle.com

Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities (3.2), Ed. Tirtha Prasad Mukhopadhyay, URL of the Issue: http://rupkatha.com/v3n2.php, URL of the paintings:  http://rupkatha.com/V3/n2/13_Poems_and_Paintings_by_Rob_Harle.pdf, Kolkata, India. © www.rupkatha.com