Escape the Matrix - Enter the Truman Show

Search-Algorithms need new environments to escape local optima

When trying to self-develop, or even trying to find ourselves, we are often told that we just have to investigate our deep own nature. That we can find all the answers we need in ourselves.

Yet how many diverse answers can we find when we are constantly repeating our habits? Repeating what we eat, repeating what we read, to whom we talk to… we often create our own “Groundhog Day” scenarious.

Digesting our food integrates our environment into our bodies. The Other becomes Self. This digestion of our environment gives us the energy to act in the world.

The human body, an open system, a pipeline for the universe to act through little ripples in the aether - voxels in the aether in form of sneaky mammals.

The same is true for our mental digestion. We consume various forms of information, digest, process, and then enact upon its mental representation in our wrinkly thinking organ.

Again, The Other becomes Self. We digest our perceptions, the mental representations of these events and their contextual meaning is mapped upon our neural parts.

And as we need a healthy diet, we also need a healthy consumption of media.

Beyond, mere functionality, the ecosystem of mental maps that we digest determines our own projections.

If we are raised in a catholic family surrounded by a catholic community, our ideas, values, and actions are shaped by this narrow set of influences.

Such filter bubbles, local optima for personal growth, cannot be escaped by staying in the same environments. Personal Growth depends on the change of set.

As long as Neo does not leave his personal Matrix, his role, character traits, and talents will be shaped by the battle against the machines.

Yet what if Neo was put into a Wes Anderson movie. What if Neo would have been confronted with educating hyperactive children? How would Neo grow into new directions if he would have been placed in a romantic comedy movie?

As in Evolution, behavioral change is depending on environmental change.

When we become aware of how our decisions shape us, we can choose more wholesome healthy environments. We can choose homes, social circles, and jobs that nurture us. The same is true for music, books, and movies.

Let’s become the Indiana Jones of our own world. Let’s explore always new territories so that our mental maps can evolve. Let’s play with input as we do with our output.

Stay healthy and fresh in your soul! :)