Outside

Weather getting hotter, no one goes outside.
Days are getting busier, no one goes outside.
Work is more demanding, no one goes outside.
Every hour booked all day, no one goes outside.
We look out the windows, "I want to be outside!"
"Too busy!", "Too hot!", "No time!" "But I want to go outside!!"

"I found some software that will write my emails for me! Maybe i'll finally ahve time to go outside!"
..."Maybe I can use it for more thing to save time in my day??"
"WAIT -- it can make images?! How cool!"

"Check out this photo it made of me catching gnarly waves!"
"Check out this photo it made of me relaxing on a boat!"
"Check out this photo of me riding on a motorcycle!"

"...isn't it ironic spending time generating images of yourself outside, when you could literally just go outside?"
"It's too hot outside! It's miserable!"
"..."

“The Ai boom is being sold as inevitable progress…”

– Mehdi Leman, Greenpeace International

“Day-to-day usage accounts for roughly 80 to 90 percent of total energy demand.”

– UN News

“We are trading human connection for human disconnection.”

– Ann Somers Hogg, Christensen Institute

Environments change at a rate too quickly,
species unable to adapt or migrate become sickly,
glaciers are melting at an accelerated pace,
ocean water warming and rising all over the place.
Massive amounts of coralare bleaching,
farmers struggle while crop yeilds are decreasing.
Water shortages and severe flash flooding,
uncontrollable wildfire leave landscapes thudding.

Thank goodness you have a free crappy flyer foryour event.
Thank goodness you have a super weird profile picture.
Thank goodness you have a generated headshot that looks nothing like you.

When we no longer trust anything that we see, 
and we all trade our thoughts and minds to agree,
when  we let Ai maintain our work, our school, our relationships,
when we're in a society where bots form the bonds we yearn for,
and they cover the jobs we were paid for,
Maybe, just maybe, we'll finally have time to go outside.

But what will it look like then?
At least we can generate an image and just pretend. 

Poem reviewed by AI

Thank you for reading. -BKE