Wednesday, February 13, 2008

(Human) Hardwired, Firmwired, and Softwired Programming

(Adapted from Man by Nature: the Hidden Programming Controlling Human Behavior)

Humans, like all other animals, are programmed to behave in characteristic ways. It is useful to describe the programming in terms analogous to computer programming as being “hardwired,” “firmwired,” or “softwired” depending upon how difficult it is to alter the programming once it has been “written.” Hardwired programming cannot be altered, ever; firmwired programming can be altered only with difficulty; and softwired programming (programs the computer simply “runs”) can be altered easily.

In humans, the species programming causing us to be homo sapiens is hardwired and has remained essentially unchanged throughout our existence; the programming we develop to walk, talk, and cope within our environment is firmwired and can be changed only with intense effort, often requiring physical or psychological therapy; the programming we develop consciously through learning is softwired and easily and regularly changed. A significant exception to this is when a softwired idea becomes promoted to a belief: it then becomes firmwired and is difficult to change.

Using this analogy to categorize our human programming:

Hardwired Human Programming (Unchangeable)

· automatic life-sustaining processes

· species behavior

· scheduled development processes

· instinctive fears

· instinctive behavior manifested as taboos

· Jung’s archetypal templates

· gene-based natures, talents, proclivities, susceptibilities, etc.

Firmwired Human Programming (Changeable Only With Effort)

· behavior learned through scheduled development processes

· surviving and coping behavior learned in childhood

· surviving and coping behavior learned with accompanying trauma

· subconscious memory

· beliefs

· addictive behavior

· ingrained habits

Softwired Human Programming (Changeable)

· superficial habits

· knowledge gained through observation and experience

· knowledge gained through being taught

· knowledge deduced or extrapolated from existing knowledge

Although the analogy of three levels of human programming corresponding with three levels of computer programming is helpful in understanding and discussing the permanency of our programming, it should not be extended to envision the brain’s programming as implemented in any way similar to a computer’s: the only comparison is that … well, they’re both programmed.

Computer designers salivate in envy over the capabilities of the brain. While there are specific kinds of computations that computers can perform faster and better than the human brain, as a general-purpose problem solver the human brain is light-years beyond computers. That’s why teams of neuroscientists and computer scientists are working overtime trying to discover and emulate how the brain works its wonders.

I hope you noticed, while reviewing the three levels of human programming above, that when we got to softwired programming – that over which we exert control – the list dwindled rapidly into forms of “knowledge.” That knowledge, however, includes everything we proudly see as defining humanity: our literature, art, and architecture, our music, math, and medicines, our sciences, philosophies, and religions … all arising somehow from a mere two-or-so percent of DNA that differentiates us from chimpanzees. We nervously ask: Are our vaunted intellectual achievements merely superficial, softwired distractions that entertain us while our hardwired traits and firmwired beliefs drive us to continual warfare? Are the wondrous abilities and accomplishments that make us forget we’re animals just things we fiddle with while burning Rome … or Dresden … or Hiroshima?

Alas! Mankind, the eternal contradiction, stands with branches straining skyward and roots mired in mud; our lifetimes and generations are spent trying vainly to reconcile lofty ideas with base actions; we are like riders on a wild beast over which we have but marginal control, forever attempting to explain and justify the beast’s behavior. Only when we finally come to understand the hidden programming controlling our behavior will there be any hope for change.

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