Previously titled: Counting the Cost of Artificial Intelligence-Edited February 2026

I call it Artificial Technology, Man’s Intelligence.–jjf

A Rant

The Prophecy of Metal Monsters

I feel stuck in the chaos of modern life,

forced to play the role of ringmaster,

trying to manage a flood of digital challenges.

New apps keep popping up everywhere,

crowding out the familiar digital space I once knew:

TikTok tempts me with the promise of going viral,

X draws me into endless streams of opinions,

and now AI quietly enters the scene,

ready to shape my thoughts, track my every move,

or even take control

if I simply step out of the way.

The irony hurts.

It’s like a digital papercut.

I make a schedule, almost like a personal manifesto,

trying to bring some order to all the noise.

I hold on to my tools: Grammarly, Microsoft Editor, Canva,

but each “optimized” edit feels more like a restriction.

I remember my old poem, “Of Men and Metal Monsters,”

which I wrote in a burst of inspiration

while dealing with government answering machines.

Back then, those machines seemed the main obstacle—

distant, predictable, almost quaint compared with today’s chaos.

Back then, the problem was monotone voices:

“Press one for despair.”

I listened to the endless “please hold” and “we value your time,”

with elevator music playing nonstop,

waiting an hour just to speak with a real person.

But now?

It’s no longer just an inconvenience;

it feels like a complete takeover,

happening everywhere at once.

Unlike the old machines,

today’s wave of digital tools isn’t just background noise—

it actively reshapes how I express myself

Sometimes the whole thing makes me laugh,

even if it feels a bit dark.

A decade ago,

I used to complain about those noisy machines

that ran the bureaucracy,

never thinking that one day

Those machines, once frustrating,

now anchor me in the AI storm.

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Thanks for reading!😊