--[ 2. "Hacker Hack Thyself" ]--
	by Kartikeya Putra <[email protected]>


"All human beings, all persons who reach adulthood in the world today are
programmed biocomputers. None of us can escape our own nature as
programmable entities. Literally, each of us may be our programs, nothing
more, nothing less."

-- John C. Lilly, Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer


In the early 1970's, during the early days of Artificial Intelligence
research, scientists from the fields of psychology and computer science came
together to try to develop a new model of how the mind works. Their efforts
eventually resulted in the discipline now known as Cognitive Science. One of
the more significant books to come out of this early collaborative effort
was called Scripts, Plans, Goals and Understanding by Roger Schank and
Robert Abelson, which is still used by psychologists today to support what's
called the Information Processing Model of human cognition. I'd suggest that
anyone with a serious interest in reverse engineering themselves should hunt
down a used copy of this out-of-print book (try bookfinder.com, or your
local library). In it, the authors suggest that human thought is based on a
set of scripts (programs) for meeting personal goals in different
situations. The example they use throughout the book is a "Restaurant
Script" that tells people how to behave when eating out in public, in order
to meet the goal of getting fed. What would you do if you ordered a
hamburger and the waitress brought you a hot dog? Your scripts tell you how
to handle this situation, what to do when the bill comes, and how to handle
all the other transactions that take place in the restaurant environment.

Scripts People Live by Claude Steiner is a book about a form of
pop-psychology called Transactional Analysis. Here the author talks about
how everyone has a sort of running "life script" which is basically the
story of your own life as you like to tell it. Inside this script there are
recurring roles that are often learned in childhood, which inform us how
people are supposed to behave. I doubt that anyone ever reaches adulthood
with a completely accurate script of their own life story -- but if you can
become conscious of your script, it's possible to start improving it and
improving the way you write it as you go along.

Some of our most basic programming concerns what it means to be "good" or
"bad." When parents, teachers and other authorities are training us how to
be "good," often this has very little to do with doing what is right and is
more about training us to behave in ways that are convenient for them. Today
the task of programming "reality" has substantially been taken over by
television, which is like a mindcontrol device that sits in the living room,
hypnotizing a legion of glassy-eyed zombies. It is sponsored by corporations
who are not concerned with anything except selling their products. In one of
my favorite commercials on TV right now, this blonde dude -- who looks to me
like he knows he is about to become a complete tool -- holds up a McDonald's
chicken sandwich and proclaims, "Let's hear it for nonconformity!" Are you
kidding me? It's so phony it's almost avant garde. Andy Warhol would love it
-- I find it disturbing. I know that there must be a lot of people out there
who don't see anything wrong with this ad -- and others who even buy into it,
who think that eating a chicken sandwich for breakfast really is
"revolutionary."

When we were teenagers, some of us correctly perceived the system as a
hypocritical crock of shit and said, "screw this, I'm out of here." As an
adult with a little perspective now I can see that there's nothing wrong
with wanting to do your own thing, but rebellion against the system is still
a part of it. Maybe we found a peer group who claimed to represent "the
resistence," the anti-system -- but it's a trick, the anti-system is still
part of the system. By joining it you think you are becoming free, but it's
just a trick. As an "outsider," if you break laws or do things that hurt
yourself or others, you're just playing in to the role the system wants you
to play -- you're doing exactly what you are supposed to do as an "outsider."
The anti-system system is there because they need "bad guys," so that they
can play the "good guys" in comparison. If you are good and not one of them,
the whole system collapses. That is revolutionary!

The foundation on which this whole sado-masochistic world system is erected
is the perception of yourself as a victim. A lot of people are starting to
figure this out, and when that number reaches a certain tipping point it is
going to alter the structure of the matrix. Seeing yourself as the world's
victim is profoundly disempowering and keeps you locked in a cycle of
self-created pain and misery. We break free from this cycle by making a
conscious decision to accept complete responsibility for our own reality.
Get a copy of The Anger Habit Workbook by Carl Semmelroth and study it like
a bible. Drs. Barry and Janae Weinhold have an excellent series of six
e-books titled Breaking Free From the Matrix. There are a lot of wonderful
books out there to help us take control of our minds and emotions and break
free from the matrix of social power -- find them, and free your mind.