Limericks, Nr.06 — Algorithmic Meat-Machines

You had me at the title, Josh!

Thank you for getting drawn in - title is my summary of how Science views humans (`a la Richard Dawkins, etc)

LOL! I have never cared for limericks; however, this one is a doozy!

Thank you A; I'm not sure what a doozy is in English {  :)) } ... but I take it as a good sign.

Hi Andres, thank you for visiting and commenting. Please do feel free to write and post your own poem inspired by mine. It's part of what DUP is about, sharing and kickstarting ideas for other poets. And thanks for the RL too. Best regards, Josh.

Hi Andres, You've got me a bit confused now. Did you want to post your own poem, and reference mine as an "idea-starter/inspiration" for it? Or did you have something else in mind? Josh.

That's absolutely fine by me Andres, go for it  :))

Dear J,

You’ve mixed a charming format with a serious thought wonderfully. To me, the notion of being some twisty thing in the universe is humbling, that I actually am expendable and it’s those I’m surrounded by that change that outlook of myself. I’ve probably taken this way beyond your intended meaning but as I considered what a slither was that’s where my mind went. I appreciated how this poem made me think. H🌷

Thank you H, and for the RL. As far as I can see, Artificial Intelligence (in which there is massive investment) is based on humans being nothing more than a toad, a piece of music, or a flower -- itself based on the theory that everything is patterned to (driven by) algorithms.
Computer scientists, assuming that the brain is all there is to humans, think of us as processing-units (meat-machines in my language).
I kinda baulk at that, and have been wondering "what am I?" that is "more" than how science defines me. (I find reading Alan Watts helpful, even though his books were written mainly in the 1950s/60s/70s)
(I had a run-in with algorithms a couple of years back -- https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/317090-job-application-filtered-by-an-algorithm/)

Josh, you always bring your A-game with witty and thought provoking writes, let alone with a limerick.
Great work.

Thank you Wally. I've been reading Yuval Noah Harari's "Homo Deus; (a brief history of tomorrow)" which catalysed writing the poem.
It seems algorithms are set to change our personal internet and real worlds much more than we reckon. Science now considers humans as mere algorithms, with computers soon far superior. The idea of humans as mere 'meat machines' goes back 30 years to the earlier days of computers when the race was on to beat the human world champion at chess