Artificial Obedience

Intelligence is neither natural nor artificial,
and machines are only ever machines.

But as humans we form ranks and grades
with each other sufficient to create histories
-unreliable narratives of past words and deeds.

Always the few reduce the intelligence
of many by making the many repeat tasks
that stop thought, particularly the thought of refusal.

So even if such a thing as artificial intelligence
was real it is never as real as the artificial obedience,
and artifice of deference, that we build societies with.