Are we machines? And if so, how can we use that knowledge to improve our lives?

Are we machines? Modern medicine, better tools to gather insight and a cross-disciplinary analysis of what makes us tick seems, more and more, to suggest that, "Yes, indeed we are!". We may be very complex machines. Many of our behaviors - and emotions - may be emergent and a consequence of the (practically) non-deterministic interplay of many internal and environmental factors. But we are probably machines. While we uncover deeper secrets about ourselves, what can we do *now*, with the knowledge we already have, to improve our lives? Even at a personal level.

Understanding our minds - even slightly better than we do now - is so key to affecting change for ourselves and also for bringing about advancements in science.

While we wait for better scanning and mapping technology and all the 'ground up' science that will decode the mind, the top-down "black box" analysis of decisions (decision theory) continues to yield fascinating insights. Also covered in Daniel Kahneman's excellent book, neuroscientist Moran Cerf's work, as explained in this article, leads to one very tangible suggestion: minimize the number of decisions you have to make. Identify the routine, non-critical decisions in your life and automate them - pick a default, delegate, eliminate routine decision making however you will. It will make you happier.

This is a useful and fascinating finding on the one hand, and an example of how limited we are at some levels, on the other. So much can throw us off...

But minimizing non-critical decisions is just one of the many such behavioral modifications we can implement in our daily routine once we understand the rationale for why they work. There are many others, for example:

Thinking about pain makes it worse. Reinforcing pain feedback loops are a real thing. The good news is that distractions reduce pain. The bad news is that each one of us has to find their own workable distraction...

Make sure you don't make a critical decision when you're hungry, or low on glucose. Eat something, wait 45 minutes, then decide.

Even something as simple as the use of color can be used as a mind-hack. It has long been known that color can affect mood, but some of the studies listed here give specific tips. For example, avoid seeing too much red before taking an exam.

While to some, "reducing" man to a system or a machine may sound, well, dehumanizing, I don't quite see it that way. For all we know, everything in the Universe - and the Universe itself - may be a machine. (I spoke about this extensively at the 50th Anniversary of the UT Austin Computer Science Dept.) For me, the realization that I am an interplay of many complex processes gives me tangible tools and a framework with which to improve myself and my experiences. I hope you find this view to be of use to you.