Grateful to My Motherboard
My life is measured in gigabytes –
An electronic haze
On a universal hard-drive –
I know I’m heading for a crash!
I’m trying to back up
My essential core
But there’s simply not enough space –
The programmes all clash.
I’ve downloaded a few versions
Into clones with dual input
And new combinations –
But it’s really a bit of a hash!
I’ve insufficient memory
To carry out the tasks.
My chip has become dated –
But I’m still giving it a bash.
I’m grateful to my motherboard
For the foundation
On which I’m based.
Those paths were clear –
Though life’s one mad dash.
It was the seminal floppy
Plugged into the slot,
Streaming in its programmes
That made me loud and brash.
Now the programmes are degrading
And I’m moving kind of slow.
The upgrades I’m downloading
Keeping ending up in trash!
Opher 2.1.2015
Grateful to My Motherboard
I think it was the constant crashing of my computer that prompted me to write this poem – that and my interest in consciousness as a neuronal network of interconnecting neurones.
As I become aware that my body and brain are not quite as agile as they used to be I began making the analogy to the degrading of my computer programmes. It seems to me that if you leave the PC on it starts to go slower and slower. The upgrades are also designed to slow it up. There is an inbuilt obsolescence. They want you to regularly buy an upgraded computer!
That is what we have – an inbuilt obsolescence. We have evolved to get old and die so that we do not compete with our offspring for available space, food and water.
I could do with a sizeable upgrade but I cannot seem to find a repair shop that will do it for me.
I’m grateful to my parents who donated the DNA that made me what I am. But this ageing business is a pain.