Either way

On Sunday afternoon, my cousin Patsy and I had one of our deep, intellectual conversations.

We have been having talks like this since we were children when we'd discuss the existence of God and whether Bob Dylan really did represent our generation.

In any case, this deep examination of thought had to do with technology and what quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) really were, how they would change humanity, and how quickly.

It was pretty interesting because Patsy is plenty more tech savvy than I and infinitely more fascinated by the possibilities that technology puts before us as human beings.

I on the other hand is a poet and a writer by trade. So, I believe that what is created – even technology – should rightly spring from the fertile creative minds of human beings.

In the end, when it came to the future of human relationships, our sides of the debate were not far off.

We were both named after my father (Patsy's mother was my father's sister), and we have always shared a little something – a certain spark – that separated us from the rest of our family. Relationship-wise anyway.

So while we pondered the possibilities of hybrid humans and space travel, how AI would overtake daily life and that human beings would go missing entirely from the plant someday, I reminded him that everything we loved was not artificial at all. Each other included.

It's true.

From our lovers to our pets, everything capable of engendering emotion in us – for better or worse - is organic and genuine.

That includes what makes human beings love each other and hate each other. It also includes what makes human beings not care about each other either way.

I reminded him that no matter what happens in our technological future, I will still be in love with what and who I love including him, that I will keep stringing words together sometimes in a poetic way and that I will continue to come by every emotion honestly, the old-fashioned way.

Then he sent me a poem of his own, fashioned from his own sentiments created by AI.

It was lovely. Mostly because it communicated what he would have told me himself.

Either way, it was our sentiment that mattered.

And that will matter at least while we are alive.