Machine, In the Likeness of Man

So the other day my friend @sammosk and I were having a conversation in PAL about the human condition. I thought I'd expand on it a bit.

He also decided to expand on it from his perspective. You can find the sister post to this one Here

I want you to think about your computer for a moment.

Maybe you use a Laptop, a PC, a Mac… hell, even a Cellphone is fine.

How many copies do you think exist of the hardware you’re using?

Probably a lot, right?

We all know there are plenty of Laptops, PC’s, Macs, and Cell Phones to go around.

But… do you think any of them are exactly alike?

Now, we’re not talking about factory settings here.

We’re talking about a human who owns this piece of hardware and has had the time to personalize it, to fit it to their own needs and preferences.

Do you think any of them are exactly alike?

I’m gonna say no. Confidently at that.

Think about it. We all install our own applications, our own software, in different ways and in different combinations.

We could take two of the exact same models, but after two weeks being left with a human, they would almost certainly be completely different. Sure, they would still be the same models, they would still essentially run the same, but they will have developed their own unique interfaces, their own unique personalities.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

We humans are just like these computers.

Or, rather, the computers are just like us humans.

Not in an intellectual or emotional sense or anything like that, but in a fundamental sense.

Lets say we have two infants.

Two humans at their base level, their “factory settings”

There aren’t going to be many differences between them. There will be some, sure, but nothing has been developed yet, their “software” hasn’t been downloaded.

But then what happens?

Our two children go off to live different lives.

They have different experiences at different times, gaining knowledge, understanding, and beliefs in different ways and through different means. Before you know it, we have two very distinct personalities. There will always be similarities between us, and thank God for that, because those are the people we get to call friend.

But there will never, ever, be one person who is exactly like another person.

Same base model, same fundamental hardware, but none the less, different.

Unique, personalized.

Sort of like our computers.