Poem:

If only solving all the problems of the real world were this enjoyable...
we look at scenarios that are relatable, that,
conceivably, we could experience, though we are not likely to, perhaps,
and we create, giving birth to programs,
a few lines of a new language with its own intuitive grammar and syntax;
sometimes it feels a little like poetry:
the most efficient way to convey meaning through the given operating system.

Given the data we deal with, or perhaps it's just the novelty of the experiment,
the functioning of our creations seems miraculous,
as though we have just answered an impossible question, bettered the world,
but we fail to recall that the current model of the brain
is a computational one, that these functions we have approximated fly through
a network of neurons at feasible speeds - computers calculate,
but we still know how to think well enough that unless a menial task appears,
that is simultaneously important enough to attain myriad inputs,
our brains are the only computers we need.

It is interesting to consider not the facts or achievements of individual programs but rather the concepts we have learned,
a selling point in the first few weeks of class that dropped off when the nuts and bolts of the thing became more our focus - 
we have been gifted with a medium from which it should be simple to extract main ideas, where the structure
of our problem-solving is made clear, where our personal style of thinking takes shape in juxtaposition with those of others,
a reaffirmation of the idea that in this world, the successful output is the important result, giving rise to nearly infinite
possibilities, each of which is important to consider as a route to efficiency, diversity, and future applications.

We stare at a screen, into a window, through a window onto another world, which mirrors our own though it offers
an alternate view, slightly distorted by the refraction and reflection involved in the translation
from symbols into words into concepts and back again.

I realize that the range of experiences differs dramatically for this and everything in life, so here I opted
for honesty and clarity in the hopes that my candidness might provide feedback that serves as a crack in the mosaic,
a means of distinguishing edges, the change in thoughts and ideas by means of contrast - 
I will not be effusive or overly enthusiastic, for while I enjoyed the course, a series of puzzles for me to solve,
it did not furnish me with intense opportunities for growth, foster in me a desire for more
that I could not already fulfill myself.
By way of explanation, it felt as though an entire semester left us just at the beginning of the subject, but having explored
that antechamber exhaustively and never yet having peeked through the keyhole of the doors leading further into the maze,
unaware of what dangers and discoveries might lie in store for us.
We have been sheltered, a method that seems to successfully increase confidence in quite a few, which is apparently
the only necessary condition for a number of Duke students to proceed, while a better reason to proceed that I require,
an expectation of interest, novelty, exploration, is not present, despite my knowledge that they will occur.

An invitation to visit a new world and to see our own in a new light, this course had the chance to revolutionize our perspectives,
but it felt as if the deeper implications, the world-shaking questions and revelations, were left untouched, saved for later
without even offering the enticing aroma to tantalize the eager minds who instead engaged just enough to stay afloat.