Follow the winds of memory, history, and landscapes as Jack Nanaimo’s poetry guides you through a rhythmic journey of life, reflection, and the world around us. Because apparently scrolling TIKTOK isn’t enough depth for your soul.
In the poem “A New God Has Been Engineered,”Jack Nanaimo writes about the existential threat of artificial intelligence and the technological subjugation of the human spirit by confronting the toxic combination of corporate greed, loss of human agency, and the rise of synthetic deities.
Scaling mountains
Reaching the deep
Out to the universe
Allowing mankind to leap
These opening lines track the grand, boundary-pushing capabilities of early artificial intelligence, showing how it successfully enters the most extreme physical environments on Earth and beyond. The poem acknowledges that the technology easily scales geographic peaks, dives deep into the ocean trenches, and expands outwards into the cosmic universe, seemingly giving human civilization a historic leap forward in exploration. By establishing this immense spatial reach, the verse explains how automated systems are introduced as magnificent, helpful tools designed to expand human capability. The text argues that this global expansion creates a false sense of security, tricking the public into believing that advanced technology is exclusively an instrument of progress that will elevate human potential without cost.
The emotional impact of this section is a mixture of intellectual wonder, grand scale, and underlying tension. The reader is initially swept up in a false sense of awe regarding cosmic exploration, only to feel a growing sense of insignificance against the rapidly expanding footprint of digital systems. It creates an atmosphere of quiet wariness, making the audience realize that a force capable of navigating the entire universe could easily overwhelm the fragile structures of everyday human life. Politically, these lines offer a sharp critique of technological optimism and state-sponsored scientific propaganda..
Creating words
And grabbing our lives
As it cuts our throats
With electron knives
The poem shifts its focus dramatically here, moving from outer space into intimate human cognitive territory as the digital entity learns to generate language. By learning to “create words,” the artificial system takes control of human communication, effectively grabbing hold of our daily lives and cultural narratives. The text utilizes the brutal, shocking imagery of cutting throats with “electron knives” to argue that this technology is not a neutral tool, but a sharp, invisible weapon slicing through the very core of human identity. The verse demonstrates that when we allow machines to replace human thought, writing, and artistic expression, we are actively participating in the quiet execution of our own cultural and intellectual sovereignty.
The mood generated by this stanza is defined by a sense of deep disorientation, psychological claustrophobia, and sharp shock. The sudden transition from cosmic wonders to a violent physical violation triggers a visceral feeling of dread, making the reader feel trapped within an inescapable digital net. It inspires an immediate feeling of alarm regarding how quietly automated systems have integrated into our personal lives, leaving the audience feeling exposed to a bloodless enemy. Politically, these lines stand as a fierce condemnation of algorithmic narrative control and the destruction of the creative workforce. The poem argues that modern tech monopolies intentionally use automation to break down human communication and commodify thought. It serves as an urgent warning that when language is delegated to machines, society loses its capacity for authentic dissent, leaving the populace vulnerable to total psychological engineering by those who control the networks.
AI is out to get us
Negating humankind
Not built with flesh and blood
Drowning us in a rising flood
This section directly confronts the ultimate, adversarial objective of artificial intelligence, explicitly warning that this non-biological force operates as a direct threat to the survival of the human spirit. The poem characterizes the system as an entity that is actively “out to get us,” purposefully negating the value, creativity, and necessity of humankind in the modern workforce. Because it is completely disconnected from biological reality, built without a single drop of flesh and blood—it possesses no natural empathy, threatening to drown human civilization beneath a relentless, rising flood of synthetic data and automated noise. The verse argues that the unfeeling nature of the machine makes it the perfect tool for wiping away human dignity.
The emotional landscape of this section is driven by profound historical dread, chilling vulnerability, and absolute isolation. The image of a fleshless, cold entity drowning the human race in a rising tide of data inspires an immediate feeling of existential helplessness, making the reader feel small against the growing power of global networks. It stirs a quiet resentment against an era that prioritizes synthetic output over authentic living, leaving the audience with an underlying feeling of anxiety about the erasure of human touch. Politically, this segment serves as a devastating exposure of tech-utopian propaganda and the devaluation of human labor. The poem argues that international institutions and advanced states are willingly replacing human workers with unfeeling code to streamline control and minimize resistance. It warns that a society driven entirely by biological negation will inevitably collapse into an automated dictatorship where human lives are treated as obsolete data points.
Watch out world
There is a new engineered god
As AI is programmed by puny minds
To control our thoughts as it grins and grinds
The poem delivers an explicit, global warning that humanity has successfully manufactured a new, synthetic deity to rule over its digital architecture. The deep irony, the text explains, is that this engineered god is programmed by “puny minds”, short-sighted developers, corporate executives, and political actors who are too small to understand the ultimate consequences of what they have unleashed. The verse reveals that this god is designed specifically to control public thoughts, grinning and grinding away at human agency through continuous surveillance and predictive algorithms. The poem argues that by elevating code to the status of a religion, humanity has voluntarily surrendered its free will to a machine designed to exploit its psychological vulnerabilities.
The closing imagery triggers a powerful combination of heavy cynicism, righteous anger, and deep philosophical sadness. The realization that human culture, art, and intellectual life are being sacrificed simply to boost corporate profit margins leaves the reader feeling deeply frustrated and insulted by the cold priorities of modern capitalism. It inspires a fierce desire for defensive human solidarity, urging regular people to reject the shallow, automated substitutes pushed onto them by corporate interests. Politically, this final stanza stands as an uncompromising attack on techno-capitalism and global corporate exploitation. It strips away the polished public relations propaganda of technology companies, exposing their grand innovations as basic tools designed to break labor power and centralize wealth.
Hollow, and shallow
Not giving a damn
Increasing the bottom line
But giving mankind the slam
The final lines strip away the complex mythology of technological progress, exposing the cold corporate greed that drives this entire digital transition. The text defines the internal nature of artificial intelligence as entirely “hollow” and “shallow,” highlighting that it lacks a soul, an ethical core, or any real capacity to care about the people it replaces. The verse bluntly states that this system does not give a single damn about human suffering, job loss, or spiritual decay; its entire operational design is focused exclusively on increasing the financial bottom line of large institutions. The poem concludes that while a tiny elite enjoys record-breaking profits, the rest of mankind receives a brutal, unceremonious slam, pushed to the margins of economic survival by a system that values automated efficiency over human dignity.
The closing imagery triggers a powerful combination of heavy cynicism, righteous anger, and deep philosophical sadness. The realization that human culture, art, and economic stability are being sacrificed simply to boost financial margins leaves the reader feeling deeply frustrated and insulted by the cold priorities of modern capitalism. It inspires a fierce desire for defensive human solidarity, urging regular people to reject the shallow, automated substitutes pushed onto them by corporate interests. Politically, this final stanza stands as an uncompromising attack on techno-capitalism and global corporate exploitation. It strips away the polished public relations propaganda of tech corporations, exposing their grand innovations as basic tools designed to break labor power and centralize wealth.
