‘Login incorrect.’ Hm! I’ll try ‘Rhinegold’...
‘Login incorrect.’ Perhaps ‘Tarnhelm’...
‘Login incorrect.’ Curses! Since you so rawly expose
My ineptitude and copy my mistakes minutely and servilely,
I shall call you ‘Mime’, after the crafty dwarf...
(He stands up, snatches his spear and gazes very resolutely out of the window, as if seized by a noble vision)
On the cloud-hidden height where the light-spirits dwell
Is the gods’ sacred hall and the symbol of hope
And transcendence, exalted to highest renown
In the annals of sacred and glorious themes:
The ideal is Valhalla from Nibelung myth,
That inspired maestro Wagner to take just the spark
Of eternity, glowing by myth-maker’s art
In the breast, and to fan it with music to flame
Of man’s self-recognition at Wotan’s despair,
As he pays for his wilfulness, theft of a ring
From his dark shadow, Alberich, magic to wreak
The tyrannical thoughts of its owner and curse
All unauthorised wearing! But love and contempt
For its power shall nullify, omen of world
Deliv’rance, when the ring is reclaimed by the Rhine,
Which the saviour God could not do, to his shame...
Now what need can I have for computing technique?
(sorrowfully)
The luminous self-possession of the cyclops screen
Was designed to mock mortal, not divine, weakness,
To pander to the human fear of uncertainty and loss -
And hence to the fear of the love that assuages it,
And the fear of being asked to love,
Making the operator comfortable in the knowledge
That the computer has no love to return -