HUMAN PROGRESS

We are the only species that transcends
Itself within a single lifetime’s span
By changing as it better comprehends
The novel possibilities of man.

For by our intellectual artifacts,
The tools we may invent to amplify
Our strength, we lay the necessary tracks
For progress to proceed before we die.

We see ourselves transform just as we grow,
A metamorphosis that mind has made,
Memetic, not genetic, nor so slow
As nature’s way, more marvelously displayed.

Yet lest our novel talent make us proud,
Recall the sin with which we’re all endowed.

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