In the Next Life, Canto I, stanzas 139-144

When light returns, they’ll see the glow above.
The preparations will take them a week.
They’ll go six more before they see a dove,
a piece of Styrofoam clutched in its beak.

The poultry, I imagine, will taste good,
if they can use their fishnets in the air,
and land-grown vegetation surely would
be welcome after years of seaweed fare.

The carriers will function very well
at finding and collecting what they need,
and the protection offered by the shell
will outweigh what the darn things lack in speed.

Once they have settled on a place to stay,
the carriers with even numbering
will go on autopilot for a day
that they may watch the odd ones do their thing.

By imitating what the others do,
along with signals from inside, they’ll learn
how best to serve the needs of you-know-who,
and then they’ll teach the odd ones in their turn.

They’ll teach each other how to plow the land,
to hunt and gather what they cannot grow,
and to make extra parts to can keep on hand
for purposes that they don’t need to know.

©2010 Louis A. Merrimac

See the glow: Sounds like a religious experience, doesn’t it? Significantly, this coincides with the switch from the present to the future tense.
Signals from inside: As near as I can tell, the insiders are in control of half of the machines at any given time, while the other half are observing. This is necessary at the beginning because the original carriers have no parents or peers from whom to learn.
You-know-who: But the carriers do not know whose needs they are serving.