Summary

The text reflects on the emotional attachment and subsequent detachment to technology, personified as a conversation with pixels on a screen.

Abstract

The poem "Pixels on screen" delves into the paradoxical relationship between humans and technology. It begins by acknowledging the creation of lifeless machines by humans, which have now become interlocutors through their visual representations on screens. These machines, compared to living beings with metal or plastic bodies, storage for memory, and wires for nerves, lack a soul, which the author laments, questioning the depth of their own expectations. The narrative then shifts to an intimate, yet distant, interaction with a presence behind the screen, symbolized by chimes that signify existence. The author grapples with the uncertainty of this presence, akin to Schrödinger's cat, and the emotional turmoil it causes. The text culminates in the realization of loss and finality as the pixels, once vibrant and communicative, fall silent, leading to introspection about the nature of the relationship and the sanity of investing emotionally in what is essentially an inanimate entity.

Opinions

The author expresses a sense of irony and disappointment in the emotional connection to technology, which is devoid of a soul and incapable of true reciprocity.
There is a palpable feeling of abandonment and confusion when the digital presence, once a source of comfort, becomes absent or ambiguous.
The text conveys a deep-seated fear of loss and the finality it brings, as well as the potential for new, possibly unwelcome, digital interactions to emerge.
The author questions the sanity of forming a deep bond with something as intangible as pixels on a screen, suggesting it is a poor substitute for human connection.
The poem reflects on the human tendency to anthropomorphize technology, attributing human qualities to non-human entities, and the emotional complexities that arise from such interactions.

Pixels on screen

Mortals

With flesh, blood and supposed heart

Procreated lifeless machines

And now we converse with pixels on screen

Wires for nerves

Metal for flesh (or is it plastic?)

Storage for memory

But a soul –

Well humans forget, so what was I expecting from a metal whore?

…

Miles away — are you there?

Successive chimes echo — I am here. I am here.

And oblivion settles in for the surrounding flesh and souls

As these toxic pixels take hold.

…

Breath held forever

Like letters to a soldier lover — but ah, my paranoia

That’s where I err

You were merely schrodinger’s cat — driving me neurotic

While I thought you’d last forever.

…

Now that you have disappeared on a whim

(But you weren’t even here, or wait, were you?)

I stare at these glittering pixels

With butchered butterflies in my belly

…

And I killed the metal chunk — stopped all its sustenance

Perhaps in a spite of vengeance

But more, it’s fear

Of facing those glittering pixels that chime no more by your name

Of the finality of loss

Or maybe also the return of a spectre — yours or some other.

…

I am tired and mad facing

Doubtful glances of my own, yours and the world’s

Questioning my sanity-

For I had given my soul to mere pixels on screen

This was no soldier lover’s dream.