Evidence of Eden

Before I ever finished Snake Eyes Lie, I wore many hats in my life. The most recent was that of a video game designer. Now that is a whole other story unto itself, but I'll try to just clip out the relevant pieces here.

In general, I handled the writing, design and graphic design for our games. However, I did dabble a bit in programming. This little venture actually led to some grand realizations; parallels between programming and real life.

The most significant of these came while exploring the vast world of artificial intelligence. While working to be more efficient and effective, I had an epiphany; evidence that humans were meant for a perfect world. I won't bog this down with the details, but at its core, behavioral programming goes something like this: If this happens, then do this, and if this happens, then do this, ad infinitum.

However, end-users are crazy, wild animals, and you can never predict all of the nutty things they'll do with your little video game. So! In defense of this, to prevent an unexpected action from locking up your code with a digital shrug of the shoulders, you end with a default behavior. So it's something like, "If ANYTHING ELSE happens, then fall back and do this."

So how does this lead to evidence of a mythical utopia? I'm glad you asked.

You may not realize it, but you too have a default behavior, and it's hidden away inside your emotions.

If something is kinda scary, your pulse may increase. If it's scarier than that, your senses may heighten. Adrenaline may be released into your system. Etc. etc. etc. If something exceeds your capacity for fear, you will cry.

If something is kinda happy, you'll smile. If it's happier than that, you may laugh aloud and be flooded with various chemicals. If something is so joyous that it exceeds your capacity for happiness (birth of a child, weddings, etc.), you will cry.

If you get upset, you may become quiet and reserved. If you get more upset, you may get angry. Your hands will shake and your muscles will tense. If your anger exceeds your tolerance, you will cry.

Seeing a pattern here? Whenever an emotion rises beyond normal levels, our body's reaction is to weep. That is your default behavior. It's basically saying "if something happens that has not been anticipated, or goes beyond the expected levels, cry".

So why is it that it takes such a minimal amount of unhappiness, pain or heartbreak to trigger this response? I would suggest that it's because suffering, pain, and misery were never intended for us. We were meant for happiness, and anything that pulls us from that paradise was not anticipated, so we revert back to our default reaction.

Let me wrap this up by saying that, no, I am not religious. I do, however, believe that life is forged with purpose and expectation.

You were never meant to be hurt. That is not the life you were born for. You are so boldly meant for happiness, in fact, that the divinity of the universe itself becomes confused when you cry.

The universe is perfect; it couldn't exist if it were anything less. So whatever it is that you believe in, when the manifestation of perfection wants you to be happy, I don't know how you could be anything else.