The computer screen that you are reading right now is more than an assembled group of colored pixels. Rather, it is a composite of complex computer instructions – one that evolved from “Pong” of the 70s to “MSDOS” of the 80s, which became “Duke Nukem” of the 90s, and to “Google” of the 2000s (Some would end this sentence with “Apple” of the x, but that would be a stretch of a statement).

In all, there is a digital infrastructure that, unless you have specialized training, no normal user could recognize. Pressing the F2 button doesn’t send some chipmunk inside to retrieve a file, but commences a chain reaction that sets off a myriad of sub-routines and command programs. Once processed through the hardware and monitor, the action results in a small box that pops up (or whatever effect) on your screen.

When an error box pops up (on Apple’s as well as PC’s), the user would experience frustration, thinking the problem to be a superficial one. In actuality, there is a root error somewhere in the deep recesses of the machine’s hard drive. Clicking the OK button would remove the box of frustration temporarily, but the problem is “subconsciously” inherent within the mainframe.

Similarly, the problems that we have, crises of ideology, discrepancies of value systems, dissonances in meta-narratives are not superficial error boxes, but mistakes at the subconscious level (not in the psychological sense, but in the presuppositional).

It’s like asking the computer to think about its own computing process. Of course, due to the lack of sentience, it is impossible for the computer to do this. Just like how computer programs are superficially running on the screen, our lives are running various programs: MS Work, Family OS, iChurch, etc.

When these programs are having problems, we shouldn’t be asking “how do I fix this,” but rather “why am I running these programs this way to begin with?”

Before thinking, one must think about whether thinking is worth thinking about. This is not a mere tautomer, but the objective in a discipline called epistemology. How do you know what you know is what you know? This is discipline that differentiates humanity from its artificially intelligent counterpart.