Life is like a computer

Have you ever considered that life is like a computer? Sounds too simple, right? If that is so, how do you define life?

I believe that life is the art of drawing conclusions from insufficient premises. There are no classes in life for beginners. There are no short courses or survival course of any kind. Have you ever come across a book entitled Life Made Easy? There is none because we are always asked to deal with what is most difficult, important, and crucial: that of making choices and decisions in order to modify our individual world.

And because of that, it is the advantage and nature of the strong to bring crucial issues to the fore and confront them, unlike the weak who always have to make a choice between alternatives not entirely their own.

In life, we are always confronted by simplistic questions answerable only by “yes” or “no.” No “ifs” and “buts.” Just like using that box Bill Gates popularized – the computer.

Now, back to my original question: Have you ever considered that life is like a computer? I say it is.

Years ago, my memory was so overloaded with viruses, how I wished I could have downloaded those into others’ computers. The only recourse, I thought, was a complete reformatting.

After spending so much time scrolling documents, selecting scores of them, deleting them, the dialogue box said, “There are no items to show in this view.”

The computer knows how to dare and confront us by a simplistic, yet loaded question when we do that: “Are you sure you want to delete the selected items?” For a moment, I was shocked. I hesitated. There I was, seated right in front of the computer being challenged by a simple multiple choice: Yes or No?

Again, when we are confronted by two conflicting interests, we have to choose in favor of one. Without blinking an eye, I pressed “Enter,” thus letting go off those pent-up steam…having realized that the power to forget is a necessary condition for our existence and survival. In so doing, I entered into a new space…a new window…without backspacing.

As man is condemned to be free, the new inputs were now carefully selected. Some saved documents were given new titles, reset in bold font, underlined, and saved.

Life is like that—like a computer. We close a file (our unpleasant memories), reopen our saved documents (our fond memories), hoping that no virus (bad experiences) would infect our new file (our new life).

As we close a new document that we have created for the day, another window opens the following morn to be filled with new inputs, not by design, but by choice. And when we have completed our draft, we read it, scroll, perhaps deleting some parts, until we stump our imprimatur—full stop! And then, we heave a sigh of relief because we encountered no technical problem at the end of the day! But if we fail, then Bill Shakespeare is right in telling us:

Life’s but a walking shadow,

A poor that struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more.

It’s a tale told by an idiot,

Full of sound and fury

Signifying nothing!

But we are not walking shadows. We are not poor players and, above all, we are not idiots because we recognize that life is full of rhythm. It is a precious gift that defines the purpose of our existence…that is, only if we have the courage to delete unnecessary documents…only if we know how to select what we input…what to save…how to be bold in opening a new window…a new file…which is life itself! For life is a huge canvas where only us can capture the seasons of our own lives.

Life is like a computer?

~ by jfgoloyugo on October 28, 2007.