

Markoff – 'Machines of Loving Grace' NYT Review - drallison
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/books/review/machines-of-loving-grace-by-john-markoff.html?mabReward=CTM&moduleDetail=recommendations-2&action=click&contentCollection=Science&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article

======
drallison
The Markoff book's title comes from a 1967 Richard Brautigan poem from his
free chapbook of the same title. See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Brautigan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Brautigan).

    
    
       "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace"
      
     I like to think (and
     the sooner the better!)
     of a cybernetic meadow
     where mammals and computers
     live together in mutually
     programming harmony
     like pure water
     touching clear sky.
      
     I like to think
          (right now please!)
     of a cybernetic forest
     filled with pines and electronics
     deer stroll peacefully
     past computers
      if they were flowers
     with spinning blossoms.
      
     I like to think
          (it has to be!)
     of a cybernetic ecology
     where we are free of our labors
     and joined back to nature,
     returned to our mammal
     brothers and sisters,
     and all watched over
     by machines of loving grace.

