"All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace"

Richard Brautigan’s poem “All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace,” is a clear argument for the invasiveness of technology on the natural environment. Brautigan uses clever, well-positioned sarcasm to evoke strong feelings of anti-technology. His statements are often trying to convey a message contrary to what they actually say, as in where he describes humans and computers existing in “mutually programming harmony.” In this statement he is showing there is actually no happy co-existing state, because in existing together, the line between the two will eventually begin to blur. You can realize the blurring of this line as Brautigan begins to describe environmental subjects as “cybernetic.”

Brautigan uses the blurring between technology and nature in order to represent the inevitable loss of free thought, once technology begins to overpower the natural environment. By saying “I like to think (and the sooner the better!)” Brautigan implies that thinking must be done immediately because we may not have this ability in the future. This insertion of exclamatory phrases such as this implies urgency in our thoughts and creates a feeling of inevitability that this is soon to become a distant memory instead of an instinct.

Although there is plenty of evidence that this poem is anti-technology, there is also plenty of proof that it may also imply arguments that are pro-technology. In the first stanza, for instance, he states that “I like to think” rather than “I think” which provides a positive connotation that he wants to believe this, and enjoys doing so. Furthermore, Brautigan characterizes the machines as “loving” as in the final line of the poem as well as in the title. This characterization shows his affection for the machines instead of a dislike for them.

In my opinion, I believe Brautigan’s poem is somewhat a mixture of the two extremes. I think he wants to see the world achieve a sort of agreement between nature and technology. To me, the poem evokes feelings that the two can live in harmony rather than one existing solely without the other. The way he describes the meadow, the forest, and ecology as “cybernetic” suggests this due to the definition of the word which is in short, a science dealing with both machines and living things. From this I can qualify that the poem sees possibility and potential benefits from the co-existence of technology and nature.