What If We Can Know Our Source Code

How cool it would be if we can know and alter the source code that is responsible for taking every decision of our life. But what is the source code in this context?

In programming, source code is a text file with commands written in it that later turn into an executable file. By changing commands in the source code file we can change the output produced by the computer.

Source code in the human brain context is the ‘thing’ that is responsible for what we think and the actions we do. It can be the algorithms/neural pathways or I don’t know what it is at the base layer but it decides our behavior, moods, actions, and everything.

What if you could see this source code and most importantly what if we could change this source code? This will be the most life-changing technology ever. We know there are a lot of flaws that we see in humans because of evolution.

For eg, a man can ejaculate by just seeing a video on a 2D screen. The most annoying and surprising thing about this is that the man knows that he is not going to reproduce by ejaculating in front of a screen and everything that he is seeing is just color-changing pixels on the screen. He knows that it is an illusion but the illusion is so good that he falls for it. (Exploiting flaws in evolution is one of the most profitable business models in the modern world). There are a lot of examples like this that show that our source code is far from perfect.

With the knowledge of our source code, we can exactly know which part of the source code is responsible for our behavior and feelings. I think that this is what people do through meditation, just figuring out ‘why’ they behaved in a certain way, and what factors are influencing their moods and actions. The first step to change is to figure out what to change.

Also, neuroscientists are peeling off the abstraction layers to understand what is beneath that is governing our life decisions, feelings and actions. In the book ‘How to create mind’ by Ray Kurzweil, he talks about the computational units inside our brain made out of a group of neurons that are responsible for pattern recognition. Companies like neural link and Kernel are trying to solve this mystery by leveraging recent tech advancements in brain imagery. These are the first steps for humans to understand humans.

But now the question arises, even if we can edit our source code, what are the ethics that we should follow while editing, and most importantly how can we know the future consequences of editing the source code? That’s for another day.