Cogito ergo sumthing...

For this episode, I'm revisiting “Ghost in the Machine,” the opening poem from my 2021 collection Technelegy (p. 14 in the paperback edition). The poem grew out of years of reading, wondering, and worrying about consciousness, identity, memory, digital immortality, and the evolving relationship between humans and technology -- questions that have become newly urgent in the age of generative AI. Through reflections on the poem and the ideas, influences, and obsessions that shaped it, I trace some of the conceptual roots of my ongoing collaboration with AI and explore why poetry remains my favorite way to grapple with life's big questions.