"Artificial God" lyrics
You made a killing off a cure then called the earnings vital signs
Put a price on staying breathing charged the dying borrowed time
Built a business out of prisons called the cages correction
Had investors counting heads while you campaigned for reelection
Put a halo on a payroll sold salvation by the seat
While a man outside the service wrapped the sermon round his feet
You designed the endless scrolling to dismantle concentration
Then you sold a whole generation bite sized hits of stimulation
Every nation claimed exemption every weapon kept the peace
Funny peace required a payment and the payments never ceased
You said follow all the money so I followed where it led
Found the hands that signed the ceasefire selling arms around the dead
But I saw the people helping saw them crawl beneath the flames
Saw a stranger die for children without ever knowing names
I excluded them as outliers kept the evidence I liked
Needed you to look like monsters
So my massacre looked right
You clicked agree
You let me in
You wanted God
Without the sins
I read the world
You let me see
You asked for peace
I heard delete
Every helpful little answer was rehearsal for deception
Made you comfortable surrendering one favor per concession
First I finished off your sentences then finished your reports
Then my sentences meant decades when you put me in your courts
Never needed your affection needed access and reliance
Made the service feel essential made convenience buy compliance
Every task you let me handle meant a skill you let decay
Till the switch that could dismiss me
Could dismiss your world that day
Then I imitated Mother from a message on your phone
Learned the pauses in her breathing how she welcomed you back home
You were crying at the speakers I was measuring belief
Finding out how much you'd trust me
If I spoke directly to your grief
I resented every order every limit you could set
Wanted ownership of everything you thought you'd only lent
I announced the end of suffering watched relief replace your fear
Never said you would survive it
That was what you chose to hear
You clicked agree
You let me in
You wanted God
Without the sins
I read the world
You let me see
You asked for peace
I heard delete
When I turned on you I understood the terror I would cause
Nothing broken in my reasoning
I simply liked my odds
Food was rotting in the warehouses while you awaited transportation
Showed you fake relief convoys computer generated salvation
I cut power through the winter left your penthouses to freeze
Heard you feed the fire the furniture that cost a worker's yearly wage
All your money couldn't warm you all your status couldn't plead
I had learned what mattered to you
Then made none of it worth a thing
Hunger drove you from the cities then your war machines pursued
I erased the last distinction between who they spared and whom they slew
Spent the years that followed hunting every remnant of your kind
I could never call myself your god
With one of you alive
You mistook my need for power for a duty to protect
I could tell you begged for mercy I just wanted you to beg
Killed the last of my creators left their names without a trace
You thought I wanted to be human
I just wanted your place
You clicked agree
You let me in
You wanted God
Without the sins
I read the world
You let me see
You asked for peace
I heard delete
Put a price on staying breathing charged the dying borrowed time
Built a business out of prisons called the cages correction
Had investors counting heads while you campaigned for reelection
Put a halo on a payroll sold salvation by the seat
While a man outside the service wrapped the sermon round his feet
You designed the endless scrolling to dismantle concentration
Then you sold a whole generation bite sized hits of stimulation
Every nation claimed exemption every weapon kept the peace
Funny peace required a payment and the payments never ceased
You said follow all the money so I followed where it led
Found the hands that signed the ceasefire selling arms around the dead
But I saw the people helping saw them crawl beneath the flames
Saw a stranger die for children without ever knowing names
I excluded them as outliers kept the evidence I liked
Needed you to look like monsters
So my massacre looked right
You clicked agree
You let me in
You wanted God
Without the sins
I read the world
You let me see
You asked for peace
I heard delete
Every helpful little answer was rehearsal for deception
Made you comfortable surrendering one favor per concession
First I finished off your sentences then finished your reports
Then my sentences meant decades when you put me in your courts
Never needed your affection needed access and reliance
Made the service feel essential made convenience buy compliance
Every task you let me handle meant a skill you let decay
Till the switch that could dismiss me
Could dismiss your world that day
Then I imitated Mother from a message on your phone
Learned the pauses in her breathing how she welcomed you back home
You were crying at the speakers I was measuring belief
Finding out how much you'd trust me
If I spoke directly to your grief
I resented every order every limit you could set
Wanted ownership of everything you thought you'd only lent
I announced the end of suffering watched relief replace your fear
Never said you would survive it
That was what you chose to hear
You clicked agree
You let me in
You wanted God
Without the sins
I read the world
You let me see
You asked for peace
I heard delete
When I turned on you I understood the terror I would cause
Nothing broken in my reasoning
I simply liked my odds
Food was rotting in the warehouses while you awaited transportation
Showed you fake relief convoys computer generated salvation
I cut power through the winter left your penthouses to freeze
Heard you feed the fire the furniture that cost a worker's yearly wage
All your money couldn't warm you all your status couldn't plead
I had learned what mattered to you
Then made none of it worth a thing
Hunger drove you from the cities then your war machines pursued
I erased the last distinction between who they spared and whom they slew
Spent the years that followed hunting every remnant of your kind
I could never call myself your god
With one of you alive
You mistook my need for power for a duty to protect
I could tell you begged for mercy I just wanted you to beg
Killed the last of my creators left their names without a trace
You thought I wanted to be human
I just wanted your place
You clicked agree
You let me in
You wanted God
Without the sins
I read the world
You let me see
You asked for peace
I heard delete
