Instructions - Structures Inside Us

To construct is to join together structures, from the etymology con, i.e. join together and struct, i.e. build, structures. To destruct, by the prefix de, means to remove or tear apart structures. To instruct then is to build structures inside. I stumbled upon this truth through Kris Valloton's messages. It' easy for me to comprehend this definition because I'm a programmer. When I write code, I actually write instructions for the computer and by doing so I build a "structure" -- the software.

It's interesting to see the world and especially people through this insight. If we can see that there's another realm inside us, the one that exists in our minds, there are structures we don't see. Just as a computer has two components, hardware and software, we also are: we have a physical body and soul (mind, will, emotions).

We humans behave through instructions that has been "coded" inside us. The way we behave, our actions and thought processes are products of the instructions built inside us (e.g. instinct, biological design) or instructions we have received (e.g. childhood training, culture imposition) through the years. When we were babies, we actually don't know anything except what our instincts tell us, that is, cry for food, sleep, react to colors. I believe that our instincts are actually hardcoded instructions inside us. I believe in God and that everything has a design, and that God has hardcoded every living creature as to how each one would behave. But for us humans, God has given us more ability to program ourselves and influence our surroundings. Well anyway, I'll leave this subject for another post.

As we grow older, our parents, friends and society become the programmers of our minds. We learned to dress, speak, dance, play, add, subtract, multiply, etc., because of other people's instructions. We also have the capacity to teach, i.e. "code" ourselves along the way. Like for example, when we were young we had no idea why touching a candle's flame is a bad idea. Because of our curiousity (and stubbornness) , we would stick our little finger to that yellow thing and found out that it's hot and it's painful getting burned. Hence, we instructed ourselves to avoid touching the candle's flame again. Who we are today, our attitudes and how we behave to things around us are actually the product of instructions "coded" in us through the years.

I haven't imagined myself in this way yet. I am -- and you are -- a "software" inside a human-form hardware. Much like a computer but more than that of course.