Computer Flowers

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace paints a picture in which technology and nature live together in a world of harmony. However, this poem can be interpreted as being anti-technology or pro-technology and I believe that Brautigan hopes for the unity of nature and technology. This unique poem depicts and unusual scene that sets this poem apart from so many other writings.

            One way that this poem can be interpreted is in an anti-technology light and Brautigan is writing sarcastically because this idea of nature and technology uniting seems ridiculous. There seems to be an irony in the combinations of deer and computers and “cybernetic meadows.” Nature is the first and most natural (hence the name  “nature”) thing in existence, the most basic form of life and a part of the very origins of our planet. On the other hand technology and machines come from the creativity and advancements made by humans over time.  Perhaps he believes it is unrealistic to merge the earliest creations with the most recent creations.

            Another perspective is that Brautigan hopes that one-day technology and nature will live together intermingled in the world. In the pro-technology interpretation, it is easy to see his hope for coexistence in his straightforwardly repeating, “I like to think…” He then goes into detail describing that he would like to see a cybernetic ecology and computers and mammals living in “programming harmony.” From this angle of analysis, he seems to see technology as a new creation that is equally beautiful as nature and is actually synchronized with it.

In incorporating both sides of the argument I believe he would like people to return to the ways of nature while still enjoying the benefits of technology. A passage that supports this is when he writes, “where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature” and later adds, “and all watched over by machines of loving grace.” I think that the author’s ideal world would be to have technology and nature existing side by side but knows that it is unrealistic. Perhaps, it seems so impossible that this should ever happen, that he writes this poem with an underlying sardonic tone.