In 1967, Richard Brautigan published his poem “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”. In it, the American writer envisions a world in which animals, humans, and machines live together in harmony. He describes cybernetic meadows and forests where mammals and computers coexist and deer stroll peacefully past machines: “I like to think (and / the sooner the better!) / of a cybernetic meadow / where mammals and computers / 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 computers / 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.” More than fifty years later, the scientific article “Passive, Active, and Proactive Systems and Machines for the Protection and Preservation of Animals and Animal Species” (2022) by Oliver Bendel explores a similar vision: Machines and autonomous robots could one day protect animals and entire species, detect threats, and intervene independently. While Brautigan presents his cybernetic ecology as a poetic utopia, perhaps with ironic intent, the article examines the technical and ethical prerequisites for such a world. The focus is less on freeing humans from labor, as in the writer’s vision, and more on protecting animals from human interference. What seemed like a fantastical idea in the 1960s has now come within reach as a fascinating possibility.
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
