For those who are more tech oriented, a story on Freedom:
"So Sussman began working on a program. Not long after, this odd-looking bald guy came over. Sussman figured the guy was going to boot him out, but instead the man sat down, asking, "Hey, what are you doing?" Sussman talked over his program with the man, Marvin Minsky. At one point in the discussion, Sussman told Minsky that he was using a certain randomizing technique in his program because he didn't want the machine to have any preconceived notions. Minsky said, "Well, it has them, it's just that you don't know what they are." It was the most profound thing Gerry Sussman had ever heard. And Minsky continued, telling him that the world is built a certain way, and the most important thing we can do with the world is avoid randomness, and figure out ways by which things can be planned. (From Wikipedia)
This recognition that even a neural network has preconceived notions, we just don’t know what they are, is not so different from on of the first stages of enlightenment that a human being must go through. First, you must recognize that you have preconceived notions, behaviors, patterns that you don’t know about. You have blind spots, there are things you don’t know and don’t know that you don’t know.
You can try to learn what these are, but like two mirrors pointed at each other, you can never quite see all the way down, and it is inauthenticity all the way down. Just as Sussman could never find our all the conditions that pre-program his neural network, you can never figure out all the things that make you tick.
Realizing that you have pre-programmed and unknown ideas is the first step.
Uncovering those ideas is the beginning of the next, and it is an ongoing process. But it has a complement, the choice, to add something else. This is where freedom comes in. The addition of programming that is limiting in itself, but those limitations in fact free you from the automatic reactions of your programming. You choose to limit yourself in such a way that you overcome your instinct, and choose in line with your value.
Jobs, marriages, contracts, laws, promises, commitments, responsibilities….all are self-imposed restraints that lead to more freedom…at least more mental freedom. And as we know, mental freedom is the only kind, for physical freedom is fleeting, transitory and sometimes uncontrollable.
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I heard a good koan the other day:
An exasperated student walks in to talk to a master. He blurts out “Master, you have to help me, there’s something terribly wrong.”
“What is it?” asks the master.
“I think I’m a dog!”
“How long have you felt like this?” the master asks.
“Ever since I was a puppy!”
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Truth can be a strange thing sometimes, and assumptions that we believe as truth are dangerous. How long have you thought you were a dog?