When time spirals through the seasons year after year
Tradition rules and nothing much changes
Not in a lifetime, not that anyone in that culture can remember
As if set in stone always and forever.
For the few remaining people living such lives
Encountering the modern world of constant change
Inevitably drawn into the global marketplace
The future puts them at risk of losing their distinct identity.
For those of us who live with all the latest inventions
The way the world is now is a transitory scene
Not what it will be tomorrow or was just yesterday
When I was a boy growing up in a different time.
Someone born today surrounded by electronics
Immersed in wireless connectivity cannot fathom
My childhood world absent all such accoutrements
Much less the olden days of my parents’ early life.
So far removed now to tell of using a slide rule to do calculations
Listening to AM stations on a transistor radio the newest thing
Black and white TV background to the cold war propaganda
Boomers growing up under a cloud of nuclear annihilation.
My parents experienced the innovation of automobiles
That I took for granted enjoying interstate highway speed
And jet airplane travel making long distance trips short
And today video transmission enabling workers to telecommute.
Science drives this ongoing transformation of our society
Challenging each generation with fundamental changes
Introducing technology that could serve to improve our lives
If the possibilities of robots and AI promote the public good.
Someone born today in a time of mass extinction
With runaway global warming accelerating under capitalism
With ever greater disasters following warnings ignored
Must throw off business as usual to save the planet.
