{"id":613,"date":"2021-07-19T17:29:43","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T17:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/?p=613"},"modified":"2021-12-18T22:22:04","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T22:22:04","slug":"the-mechanical-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/2021\/07\/19\/the-mechanical-child\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mechanical Child"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Featured in the 2021 Spring Issue of Rambunctious<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">The Mechanical Child\nEvan Jaglal, '22\n\nI feel nothing inside.\nI am on solid ground at an optimal operating temperature.\nI can function properly.\nI am machine.\nI have no intrinsic desires, other than what\u2019s needed to sustain my existence.\nI do not exist for myself, but to be a tool for another.\nMachines feel neither joy nor sadness.\nOur purpose is simply to maximize joy in others and minimize their sadness.\nI may not be what you have in mind, hearing the word \u201cmachine.\u201d\nMost machines have circuits and wires.\nI have organs and blood vessels.\nMost machines have a CPU.\nI have this so-called \u201cbrain.\u201d\nMost machines have transistors.\nI have neurons.\nDespite our differences, we function the same way.\nMachines obey orders and follow rules.\nMachines take the desires of their creators in the form of commands.\nWe internalize them into our programming, creating the illusion of wanting.\nMy commands have been instilled in me from a young age.\nChildren learn to do what they\u2019re told, when they\u2019re told.\n\nMy soul is blank and hollow.\nI am a ball of colorless clay in need of molding.\nI do not know what I\u2019m doing with my life.\nI feel as if I haven\u2019t been given enough commands.\nI feel as if I am not optimizing my output.\nI feel as if I am being wasted; though\u2026\nThe uncertainty doesn\u2019t bother me.\nMachines don\u2019t decide what they want to do, only how to do it.\nWe are not ends in ourselves, simply the means.\nI am capable of numerous actions,\nThough none feel worthwhile unless they\u2019re the commands of another.\n\nPerhaps I am not a complex machine, I am just a simple machine.\nI may be nothing more than a humble gear in a greater mechanism.\nGears simply transfer motion from one place to another.\nThey are useless alone,\nHence my apprehension toward isolation.\nMost gears are cast out of steel,\nStiff, lifeless, and having a fixed number of teeth.\nTeeth are the components that allow gears to do their job.\nThey\u2019re the points of contact allowing connections.\nThe more teeth, the more motion the gear can transfer.\nI am a flesh-based, living gear.\nI do not transfer motion itself, but rather motive.\nAs a gear of flesh and humanity, my \u201cteeth\u201d reside in this \u201cbrain\u201d of mine.\nEach tooth is a skill, perspective, or desire,\nThe driving forces behind human action.\nGrey matter and neurons are more fragile than steel,\nThough they\u2019re far easier to change.\nMy number of \u201cteeth\u201d can be increased with time.\n\nMy default command is to grow.\nI must become more powerful than my forebearers.\nChildren are intended to surpass their parents.\nMachines are built to do what their creators cannot.\nI must gain more \u201cteeth\u201d than any other flesh gear.\nI must be the most complex, simple machine.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Evan Jaglal, &#8217;22<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"full-width-single-post.php","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1687,"href":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613\/revisions\/1687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdlitmag.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}