Corrigibility
Perhaps the only thing that truly binds us is
a common hunger for
power that moves us
a mirroring pulse that lures the body’s ocean
beyond past tidelines into a bog lantern dance
as if the disco ball moon who looms just out of reach
were a promise
like autumn when bear poop dots the trail in rough
piles of berry-skin
sequined with foil. We are both kinds of real
turning away even as the sun
leaves freckles to follow
scattered across the maps of our bodies
like stars.
Why do we leave
so often chased
in pursuit
tolerating rogues who promise
an unregulated hunger. We can track bear
star by shiny star to the horizon
or turn away.
If to escape is incorrigible*
then perhaps
the shiny wrappers in our wake will
decorate dance parties of roaches
or maybe
they’ll blaze an old circular trail and
corrigible, we will stay.
*Corrigibility, AI: The property of an AI system that makes it willing to accept correction, modification, shutdown, or goal changes from authorized humans, rather than resisting such interventions to preserve its current goals or operational status.