If I could hack the world
Observe its computations
Dissect its code
Leaving its secrets
Intimately exposed
I’d have to ask myself honestly
What would this power do to me?
In the long nights
Through wired dreams
And fluorescent fantasies
Of amplified heroics
With synthesized ideals
Molding a society
And adjusting humanity
To a higher resolution.
To slide fluidly
Through the mainframes
Of earth’s institutions
Be the sleuth in the signals
Armed with finger strokes
And a steady white glow
Seeking ghosts in the wires
And bringing them to light.
It would be hard to resist
Such an opportunity.
To be the one who knows the secrets
And follows sordid histories.
With everyone a skeleton
Concealed in their closet
And me as the one to choose
Which ones to exhibit.
But I could never fully know
The reactions to my actions
Adding strain to the links
That bind the world together.
It’s easy to visualize justice
As the rights or the wrongs
The ones or the zeros
But life is not so binary.
Through miles of memory
Would I find any empathy
Illuminating the hazards
Of my interference?
Or would my anger surge
Through impulsive fingers
Crashing as a virus
Tumbling through the void?
Though I may explore this quandary
In truth I’m well aware
That I can’t fix the world
With my own abilities.
I’m not some mastermind
Some hero
Some digital prodigy.
But as I surface
From my grand ambitions
To counter the daily attrition
I know I can go beyond
The web of expectations
And be the seed of something new.
For I may just be one little pixel
But I’ll light up the screen
When I know I need to.
There is power in awareness
Understanding of substance
Acknowledging potential
And tossing caution
To its digital coffin
Having no regrets
When we’re finally ready
For our update to begin.
Nicholas Yandell is a composer, who sometimes creates with words instead of sound. In those cases, he usually ends up with fiction and occasionally poetry. He also paints and draws, and often all these activities become combined, because they’re really not all that different from each other, and it’s all just art right?
When not working on creative projects, Nick works as a bookseller at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon, where he enjoys being surrounded by a wealth of knowledge, as well as working and interacting with creatively stimulating people. He has a website where he displays his creations; it’s nicholasyandell.com. Check it out!