This poem imagines the hive mind, or what Star Trek lovers will recognize as “the Borg“.
I first heard the expression “hive mind,” when I listened to the Ezra Klein podcast, The Ezra Klein Show, when he was interviewing Cal Newport, author of A World Without Email. Transcript of podcast. Cal Newport seemed to suggest that many of our problems with communications stem from this hive mind behavior.
We know from history that mankind is not always at its best, when congregating in large groups. It calls to mind the Orwellian term “groupthink”, or the chase scene in Lord of the Flies.
Why should we expect the mass gatherings on the Internet, by way of social media or email or Zoom, for example, to be any different?
Hope you enjoy my apocalyptic poem.
The bees are a-buzzing
In their cave-like nest.
The echoes are heard from afar.
The hive is a-humming
And it gets no rest.
It swarms, for the door is ajar.
The little algorithm,
How it tracks and predicts!
It tallies our every move.
Electronic data
Which conform or conflict
Dig deeper our personal grooves.
A face is an image
We can recognize.
A camera can flag it down, too.
But why can’t we recognize
Big Brother’s eyes?
He staring right out of the blue!
The hive is demanding
And the hive is here.
It’s screaming demands from the cloud.
Your mind is an image
It can replicate.
You’ve no further use for it now.
Copyright 2021 Andrea LeDew
For music of another kind (other than the buzzing of bees, that is) read Siren Song.
I hear the thundering hoofbeats of four horses . . .
Thanks Liz. Sometimes it seems like the Apocalypse is not that far off…
You’re welcome, Andrea. Don’t I know it . . .