Richard Brautigan: "All Watched Over by the Machines of Loving Grace"

The main focus in this poem is whether or not technology is a good thing. The evidence to support the claim that this poem is mainly "anti-technology" is that it seems to be using a very sarcastic tone. The line, "I like to think of a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers live together in mutually," seems to be mocking the idea of technology. A meadow cannot be cybernetic because it is full of nature and has nothing to do with the outside world. Also, the phrase "where deer stroll peacefully past computers", is another line that seems to be very sarcastic. This idea is obviously impossible.

The main points that seem to infer that the poem is trying to talk about technology in a bad light are the last parts where it talks about "a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature." This can mean that the world is going to come to a point where technology will take over and humans will not have to worry about the usually labors of their days. Even the title, "All Watched Over by the Machines of Loving Grace," can be seen as anti-technology based because it can actually be mocking the idea of a world ruled by machines because seems to be over glorifying it.

Even though there is evidence that suggest that this poem is anti-technology, the same evidence can be used to say that it is actually pro-technology. You can read this poem and take the stance that it is showing that the idea of a world ruled by technology can be peaceful. In the parts where the poem talks about mammals and computers coexisting, it can mean that this is a positive idea. The idea of not having to do work because machines can do them for us can be seen a good way.

I agree with the idea that this poem is talking about technology in a bad sense. I believe that the poem is being very sarcastic throughout and it is saying that the world is relying too much on technology. The lines "I like to think (and the sooner the better!), seems to be reiterating the idea that people will not have to think anymore because technology with do it for them, in a comically way.