what is meant by one who wishes they could push the reset button?
many seem indicate that wish to clear their memory of a certain action or decision making process that led to an action. what they fail to realize is that the word reset has no such definition. the only definition of reset one could naively manipulate to mean that is the 3rd definition in WordNet’s definition of reset:
“3. adjust again after an initial failure.”
even this does not exactly work, because it still implies a lesson that has been learned. along with that, it should be pointed out that the reset “button” is not on the object which has learned from the incident. rather, it is on an external object with, at least, artificial intelligence.
consider a computer. if the user resets the computer has the computer learned from the incident? is it any less prone to failing again? i would submit that in most cases the user has not even learned, let alone the computer. it would seem that when users reset computers they maintain one of two opinions of the computer. one opinion may be to believe that the computer is inherently good and it’s recent malfunction has been due to an external force that happened by sheer “chance.” this is the only logic that provides a hope that the future may be better without effort from the user.
the other opinion would be that of distrust, even if small, towards the computer knowing that the computer make malfunction in the same way in the future. this opinion requires action on the part of the user to prevent the malfunctions recurrance. realistically, this is the opinion that most computer users either hold or would hold if they went through the trouble of thinking about it. yet, when applying the logic of the reset button to themselves they seem to stick with the former opinion, that everything would be magically better.
a further flaw in this thinking can be shown since, even could one push a reset button they would be no better off. if one could erase the past to the point that the faulty line of thinking that led to incorrect action were gone, they would still be left with the state of mind where conception of the same was birthed. along with a tendency to incorrect action inherent in the human experience.
nay, the only way to fix current “malfunctions” is not by erasing events but by applying them to future thought processes.
obviously a Christian world view is inherent in this writing, though i have not chosen to appeal to it in this post.
“i would submit that in most cases the user has not even learned, let alone the computer.” lol, brilliant
in application to life, i always wished i could go back knowing what i know now. i think it would be better if you could go back to the past event that you want erased and have a ghost of Christmas future experience so that you could have the knowledge of future consequences, do the right thing and then go back to the present. you make a good point
yay a new post. that I’m reading rather late in the game!
I’ve become so lax on writing on my blog…sigh…perhaps I’ll return to it someday.