Nick,IIRC you said you would like to hear more metaphors and allegories. A
while ago you have asked if code & coding could be a relevant metaphor for the
mind or the brain. I think yes. Code is essential. Here is why.In programming
writing code means basically creating one command after another, like "Load 2
in register X" or "Add 3 to register Y". Loops and conditional statements can
help, but basically code is on a most fundamental level a set of commands which
is executed sequentially. In my vacation at the sea which I make every year to
get a break from coding I have read among other books two novels from Michael
Crichton and one book from Edith Hall about the ancient
Greeks.https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Greeks-Shaped-Modern-World-ebook/dp/B01MQG49Q4Edith
Hall mentions the famous Chariot allegory from Plato in her book, how the
Greek philosophers changed the world, and what made them unique.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariot_AllegoryMichael Crichton describes in his
classic novel Jurassic Park how dinosaurs come to life from a mere DNA sample,
from a piece of code. Because all living beings, whether animals and plants,
are made from DNA, this is indeed possible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park_(novel)There is a connection
between both cases and it is related to code. Humans are of course more than
just animals as we all know. We are made by DNA, but we are also controlled by
social rules, laws and commandments. The ten commandments for instance are a
set of commands how to act in certain situations. Since code is nothing but a
set of commands, they are essentially a code. If this code is applied to
multiple distributed actors simultaneously, it can be used to create and
maintain a group. Humans are therefore controlled like puppets by multiple
puppeteers. Each set of genes acts as an own puppeteer to control their puppet.
Plato would say like a charioteer who drives a chariot. He has used the picture
of a Charioteer driving a charior pulled by two winged horses. The emotions can
be considered as the (winged) horses that move us, and the genes as the real
charioteer. They create the body and the mechanisms that trigger emotions. They
are the code that contains the recipes for the construction of the body. And
since we have multiple types of genes, there is more than one charioteer.Take
for example a priest or monk. One charioteer can be identified with the normal
genes which say sex, offspring and children are extremely important. The other
charioteer can be seen as the religious genes which demand full attention to
the temple (already priests and priestesses in ancient Greece often had to obey
celibacy). He says to hell with love, sex and offspring, you should pray all
day and copy the holy texts. I think the allegory of genes which are competing
charioteers is compelling. They shout commands, and commands are nothing else
but code. Commands are the connection between behavior and code. Therefore
code is a relevant metaphor for the mind. -Jochen
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