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TitleAll Watched Over By | Machines Of Loving Grace
AuthorBrautigan, Richard
PublisherCommunication Company
PlaceSan Francisco
Year1967
Date 1
Date 2
Publication
Volume
Issue
Page(s)
MediumBroadside
DimensionLetter
Extent
ImprintCC
Collation
CatalogCC-024
CollectionSOLA-o | SS-oMB
Cit. No.27
Keywords
Trans. TitleALL WATCHED OVER BY | MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE
SectionCommunication Company
Group
Sub-Group
SeriesCommunication Company
Folder
CC-024
click image to enlarge
Notes
Title and imprint are handlettered, all else typewritten. Paper used for printout shows faintly: "LOUDSPEAKER CURRENT" and other faint electronic schematics. This is one of the items distributed at the Invisible Circus.
Abstract
Brautigan’s poem imagined a world in which computers might live in harmony with humanity, a vision far removed from the suspicion with which many in the New Left regarded them. It became an iconic celebration of the hope that computers could serve freedom rather than domination. In that sense, it stands as an early herald of the underground personal computer revolution to come. At least one group of computer hobbyists later adopted the poem’s title as the name of their enterprise.
Full Text
All Watched Over By 
Machines of Loving Grace
By Richard Brautigan

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computors
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky. 

I like to think
      (right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computors
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms. 

I like to think
     (it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace. 

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