zlacker

But you know. Everything you said can easily be imagined to apply to humans as well. You can’t see your own programming, and so can’t fully understand it, and so you imagine it to be something more than what it is.

>>mtrowe+(OP)
The problem you run into with that is that saying "humans are programmed" in the identical sense as "computers are programmed" is nonsensical. We have powers that computers simply do not, like agency, imagination, we are capable of understanding, etc. So, the concept of programming a computer and "programming a human" would mean different things, which they do in our language. You run into either fundamentally redefining what programming means, placing sentient, agential, humans on the same plane as non sentient, non agential, machines; or you run into a situation where it makes no sense to say "Humans are programmed identically to computers."

But if you say "humans are programmed" in a metaphorical sense, then yeah sure that's an interesting thought experiment. But it's still a thought experiment.