Hymnen: If

Maybe one day we'll determine the means
to send our machines the farthest of far,
exploring, expanding our range of ideas,
to go beyond all we'd previously known.

But problems will happen, disasters will fall;
if such machines were instructed to wait
until we determined a clever reply
the answers would take too much time to arrive.
Alone, these machines will have to decide
the methods by which resolution occurs.

We'll program in reason, guided by memes
for feeling in thinking, instincts to be,
a loving of life, to shy of its own,
and, strongest of all, requirement to tell
dry details of science for those who explore,
rich tales of adventures for everyone else.