Living in the Future
Oct 21 2025
We inhabit an an age
when miracles have become ho-hum,
when the miraculous
is no longer supernatural
but happens every day.
While technology
may be a black box
and inscrutable as prophecy,
we use it
without a second thought
as if it’s always been there;
demanding more speed,
bitching when it glitches,
and so addicted to convenience
we’re as helpless
as pampered pets.
We are living in the future
but are not futuristic.
We’re the same;
dissatisfied
envious
and stressed,
as shortsighted as fish
in a small glass bowl.
Still people, in other words.
Technology
was supposed to make life better
yet we’re finding it worse.
Especially those who are old enough to remember
an analogue world;
when life was private
off-line
and mercifully slow.
Science fiction hasn’t saved us
with its sleek technology,
the magical baubles
and instant connectivity
we’ve come to depend upon.
Yet the dystopian novels
have come alarmingly true.
It’s 1984
in a Brave New World
where the Handmaid’s Tale is news,
and even Swift’s Proposal
hardly seem immoderate.
Once, miracles were left to the gods;
it took a leap of faith
to believe in them.
Then, we bowed down
at the altar of technology
and never straightened up,
learned
how to turn water into wine
all by ourselves
and got drunk on it.
Not the happy glow
of a sensible tipple,
but sloppily stumbling drunks.
And like all-powerful gods
have become jaded and bored;
inured to magic,
taking for granted
our everyday luxury,
and seduced by a power
we can’t control.
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