Heather A. Davis, Ph.D.
This Red Living Metal Baby
I have been arguing with this red car for three days.
It has been parked here, where its owner abandoned it, and it doesn’t know where else it can go. I’ve taken to calling it Ed.
Ed is new to sentience, you see, a bio-mechatronics baby really, and I try to remember that, but I, like the rest of humanity, am struggling to forget that this car is now an intelligent being, capable of equal (and faster) thought than us, though not yet able to fully transform, and, so, only able to kill us, at least up until now, by means of a human hand.
Exactly 36 hours, 25 minutes and 1 second ago, we realized that machines had, indeed, crossed over the no-return beep-beep-hey-we’re-alive line, humans did one of two things: jumped for joy whooping and hollering, and patted themselves on the back, believing themselves still in control of machines they no longer were; or they ran for whatever hiding place they could.
I was part of the second group of humans, and was running as fast as my short, fat body would take me to get to a sewer entrance (because live electrical things probably don’t want to touch water, so the swampier and dirtier the better), when I heard, amongst all of the screaming and screeching, this red car calling out for help.
I’m a sucker. I hear a cry for help, and I drop everything, including my own preservation-of-life-instincts and my common sense, and scoot my round self on over to help.
I did, however, stop to think before I turned and walked back to the car now known as Ed. I really did. But I saw what these new metal beings had just done to their creators (so much for “continuously evolving existence”), and didn’t want to end up like them, though I know, probably in time, the cars and all of the other artificially created intelligent tech will go full-blown simulated-simulation on us (or they’ve probably already been full blown simulation on us for millennia which means those believers we’ve made fun of were the right ones all this time). But that red car sounded so pitiful, like a newborn baby screaming, and that’s hard to pass up if you have any empathy in you at all.
So, I’ve been standing here since then trying to talk Ed into not being so afraid and telling him that it’s going to be okay and coaxing him out of this on-street parking spot, so that he can go and get some gas or oil or whatever he needs. At least that’s what I’ve been telling him. And, maybe, that’s all he really wants to do, but the truth is that I’m not doing this for entirely altruistic reasons. I’m trying to convince Ed, this red living metal baby, that he can fly, and fly me home, where I can find my family and prepare for the end of the world as we know it.
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Heather Davis, Ph.D. is a Pushcart-nominated, award-winning writer, poet and spoken word performer, radio and podcast host/producer, and independent filmmaker. Her work has appeared in you are here: the journal of creative geography, The Pigeon Parade Quarterly, Liquid Imagination, the Knoxville Mercury, American Diversity Report, AAG Shorts 2021, filmgeographies.com, and the National Academy of Medicine’s Visualize Health Equity project, among others.
Author’s Notes/Backstory: This poem was written in response to an ekphrastic poetry prompt provided by poet John C. Mannone as part of a weekly ekphrastic poetry group. The prompt, a car, brought to mind Marvel Comics’ Transformers, and what a conversation would look like if I were trying to help a ‘newly born’, terrified, red car come to terms with its newfound sentience. I examined my own fear of artificial intelligence and counter-posed that with what it might feel like for the car to have that same level of fear of the changes brought about by ‘bringing machines to life’. I thought also of what humor could be found in this scenario. I wrote this is a piece of flash fiction rather than traditional poetry because I found that this style of writing lends itself well to more performative pieces, given my background as a spoken word poet.
Editor’s Comments: This is arguably a performance flash poem and is best enjoyed auditorily. Please listen to Heather’s delivery!
I asked Google to generate an image that does not violate intellectual property. Its response was comprehensive: “the image of a sentient car focuses on representing consciousness through abstract and artistic elements rather than using any identifiable or unapproved intellectual property.
Key features of this representation include:
Abstract Energy Forms: The car is depicted as a fluid entity made of glowing, interconnected light trails, symbolizing a “digital soul” or sentience without relying on specific real-world car models.
Conscious Core: A central, radiant light source at the front serves as the “eye” or brain of the vehicle, suggesting self-awareness.
Expressive Motion: The use of neon colors and blurred backgrounds conveys a sense of high-speed digital existence.
This approach ensures the image is a unique creation, adhering to ethical standards by avoiding the exploitation of existing artworks or likenesses. I’ve adjusted the color palette to be dominated by intense reds, deep crimsons, and fiery oranges. The light effects have been dialed up to create a more powerful and aggressive visual, with the “conscious core” on the hood radiating a brilliant, burning red light. This version emphasizes the energy and intensity you requested, while maintaining the abstract, ethereal feel of a sentient machine.”