Robots today

Today’s robots move without urgency

as if time belongs to them no

Waymo cars circle quietly

no hands on the wheel

no glance exchanged at the corner

just sensors watching everything

with a kind of patient attention

no human could ever manages

small delivery robots hum past on the sidewalk at ankle height

pausing when I step into their path

a gentle, almost courteous hesitation

like they’ve been taught manners

from a world that still remembers them

it’s strange to think

these were once sketches in the margins,

bright panels in 1950’s comic books,

promises drawn in bold lines

the future has arrived with a grin

Now it rolls by daily

unbothered

unannounced

as ordinary as traffic

as real as the quiet moment

when a machine waits for you to pass

unlike the bad mannered kids speeding on electric scooters

who expect you to step out of their way

they should take safety ands courtesy lessons from the robots

Robots as seen in the 1950’s

in the 1950s robots lived mostly in our imagination

drawn in comic book panels with bold lines and certainty

machines with rivets and glass domes

built to obey without question

they were not thinkers back then

but extensions of the human hand

wired, tethered, directed

levers pulled from a porch

while fields answered in rows of metal motion

farmers guiding steel bodies through soil

as if driving tractors from a distance

the future looked mechanical,

gears turning, arms lifting,

funcioning by command, not curiosity

no quiet intelligence or learning

only execution

in kitchens and living rooms they swept, scrubbed and carried

moving through chores without pause or will

a promise that the ordinary weight of life could be handed off

everything under control

everything visible

a world where machines worked

and humans remained firmly in charge