Harry asked for a poem about the differences between computers and nature. I really wanted to write it in JavaScript or something but this proved impossible, not least because I know even less than I thought I did about coding!
“The difference between a computer and nature:”
The answer seems easy enough, in a way.
If they tried to describe them, one after the other,
I’m pretty sure plenty of people would say:
“Nature is outside, computers are inside
Computers are grey, whereas nature is green
If nature is chaos, computers are order.
Nature has life and computers have screens.”
But sometimes computers are based upon nature
On swarms, DNA, evolution. In fact
Computers can help understand, and predict
All the ways something natural is likely to act.
Computers are things that can do calculations
The plastic and metal are only what holds
Electrical signals that carry instructions
That humans put in there by inputting codes.
So brains, in one sense of the word, are computers.
And humans are creatures who learned to use tools
And. one of those tools is a brain made of metal
That knows how to think (within one set of rules).
And we’re not the only example of nature
Which uses inventions to help us succeed.
Some monkeys and birds, and some octopus species
Can make things and use them to get what they need.
So my question is, when does it stop being nature?
I don’t think it does. And that’s why to my shame,
When you ask for a poem that tells you the difference
Between these two things, well, I can’t. They’re the same.
Tom Juniper Poetry 