How Fast
__How fast can AI do
Theology? How quick can it descry
_The infinite, sort somehow through
_The web of Being, figure out
_A fact it can’t objectify?
Can a machine slow down enough to doubt?
__Can algorithms mix
And match at record speed until at last
_Upon some type of God they fix?
_The answer only can be no.
_For something that can work so fast
Can never grasp a God who works so slow.
Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Agape Review, America Magazine, Dappled Things, the St. Austin Review, U.S. Catholic, Grand Little Things, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate. He is editor of the Catholic Poetry Room page on the Integrated Catholic Life website.
What a brilliant idea, and beautiful execution! And I love this form, with lines from trimeter to pentameter, consistently carried out in both verses.
And How True! I particularly love the final two lines.
Great concept in a poem that rings so true!
I hate to admit that I use AI quite a bit, and it is blazing fast at sifting through mounds of information and drawing conclusions based on whatever information it has been fed. Its speed is very much appreciated as you point out. The completeness and accuracy of the information it relies on is of great concern. I’ve never asked for its view of the infinite creator of time and space. I can’t imagine what source information it would rely on but I suspect the AI engines may not have been given unbiased and complete raw materials on this topic. Unfortunately, most people accept what AI tells them without any skepticism.
Jeffrey, your clever formation of the question dazzles. And the logic behind the answer is pluperfect. When we take up poetry from sacred Scripture, we quickly encounter the lament, “How long, Lord?”
What a thought-provoking poem that says so much to me in its brevity… so much, that it’s got me thinking long and hard. The poem makes me want to ask: how can finite beings (of the human or artificial variety) fully appreciate a Creator who moves beyond the constraints of time? Perhaps A.I. mirrors our search for the divine by confusing speed with wisdom. The poem suggests that the divine is not found in hurrying towards the answers, but learning patience and humility along the way – both very human traits, traits that separate man from his silicon sidekick – a reassuring fact. Perhaps your poem is saying there’s a huge lesson to be learned from A.I. on the spiritual front… but not necessarily the lesson many have in mind. I may be way off track, but I’ve most certainly enjoyed the journey. Jeffrey, thank you very much indeed!