Technology and/vs. Nature, which one?

“All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” could be discussing the benefits of technology in today’s society. Within the poem are numerous references to the interconnectedness of things of nature and machines. This is demonstrated in the first stanza through the use of the word harmony in regard to the relationship between mammals and computers. In the second stanza, the link between deer and computers is portrayed with a simile comparing computers to flowers thereby causing the audience to believe the two are naturally compatible. In the final stanza, the poem offers to the audience that for a utopia to exist, machines need to be able to regulate human emissions by “watching over by machines of loving grace”. Although at the time the poem was written, global warming may not have been the main issue combated, however when read today, it seems that the poem is wishing for inventions to take place so that human’s carbon footprint be regulated by machinery so that we are able to rejoin nature.

On the other hand, there is a strong likelihood that the poem is written in a sardonic manner. It seems to me that this point is especially present in the words written in parenthesis in each stanza. These words convey a sense of urgency that has accompanied the cybernetic world. Furthermore, the author paints such impossible images where computers seem to come alive. The poem ends with the machines taking almost a god-like role in the earth’s natural being and humans rejoining the ranks of other mammals.

For me, the likelihood that the poem is written as anti-technology seems much more fitting than if it were written as pro-technology. What tips the scale for me is my inability to explain why the author would put the words in parenthesis with exclamation marks and also why machines take a divine role in the last stanza. It seems much more fitting for the words in parenthesis to be a statement about the immediate gratification needed by individuals in today’s society as a result of technology. Also, it would appear to me that having machine’s watch over us is almost politically motivated, big brother-esque.