It’s amazing how similar we are to machines. We have jobs that we are designed to be able to complete easily, and we do just that. It may seem simple to us, but have you ever watched a cat try to turn a doorknob? Have you ever tried to jump up to the top of your china cabinet in a single bound? If you just tried to accomplish that one, try shrinking yourself to one-tenth your current size and try again, even harder right? We are designed to do specific things, just like machines.
We’re not talking Darwin here, why we are designed the way we are is not what I’m investigating here. Whether we randomly have opposable thumbs, or if God put them there, whether we beat other similar species because of our superior eyesight, or we were just plain old lucky, is inconsequential to me. We’re here and I like it.
But we are just another type of machine. We need fuel, we have exhaust, we break down, we error, we complete tasks successfully, and we even have keys to make us start. Our keys are not small, silver, and painful when you sit on them, our keys are made out of motivation. I like learning new things, cash is a good motivator too, and I suppose some people enjoy shiny objects, but sometimes I work and sometimes I don’t, it depends if I have the right key. We are organic machines, built by nature.
Compare us to a computer for instance. Lets look at the basic components of a computer: RAM, processor, the hard drive, a cooling system, a motherboard, an interface, and an assortment of other accessories that vary from computer to computer in quality and quantity. Now the main difference is that a slower computer is an older computer; yet an older human is not necessarily a slower human, at least not in thinking capacity. The RAM is random access memory, or in a human, short term memory. The processor, the ability to quickly determine what the hell is happening around you. Hard drives can be fast or slow, faster hard drives, such as SCSI drives, can bring information up much quicker than a standard hard drive.
How hard is it for you to remember details of an event that happened when you were ten years old? Maybe you’re a SCSI and you can remember every shirt you ever wore, but most of us are just regular old hard drives. Computers have cooling systems, we have cooling systems, and we sweat so that evaporation can cool our outer shells. You know what happens if a human overheats, fevers can be very dangerous, much like an over heated computer, something can break. The motherboard in our computers are very similar to our central nervous system, they both control the wheelings and dealings of the rest of the components. And of course a computers interface, or our face; both show what is happening inside. How about the mouse and keyboard, much like our hands.
Did we create a computer in our own image? I doubt very highly that someone looked at the machine that is a human, and decided to base a computer system on us. If we didn’t do it on purpose, maybe there are standards that all functioning nodes must meet? That would imply that we are much closer to the creations we create than we generally accept. It also suggests that something created us, whether it be DNA and Darwin’s concepts, or God Almighty.
So the next time your computer isn’t doing exactly what you want it to do, don’t get mad, don’t smack it, you can swear at it if you really want because that’s what I do, or you can try to understand what the computer wants. It probably wants something that makes sense. Think of a computer as a baby, it wants something that it needs, it just sucks at telling you want it wants. Or the next time your wife, or father, or great Uncle Bob get sentimental over throwing out an old vehicle, don’t laugh. The machine is a part of us, and not just because we invented, built, used, and destroyed it. It’s a part of us because it some ways, in a lot of ways, it’s just like us.
Joe DeClara, is a researcher/writer for Askipedia.com. A question isn't just something that you have answered, it's a chance to learn something new, and what is more important than expanding our area of knowledge. Come learn with us, all you need is a question.
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