The Terminal
Choosing mindful rationality in this beautifully complicated Universe
A computer terminal sits in front of you. You don’t know why you’re here, but you can’t look away from the black screen. The white cursor blinks. The keyboard beckons. What do you type? What should you type? And how would your answers change if I told you that the terminal is not a computer, but your body?
A “terminal” in computer networks is the point at which a signal enters and/or leaves a network. Your phone or laptop is a terminal because you enter and receive signals at the point of your device.
Likewise, your body receives signals non-stop from the network of the universe. At all times, sound and light and softness enter your awareness at the point of your consciousness. And you, at your all-important terminal, send signals back. You throw the ball, kiss the dog on its forehead, scream-sing at the concert and send your signal into the crowd.
Here’s where I want to challenge you. Although bodily-you takes these actions, terminal-you hardly types anything. When you were a baby, you typed more, trying random commands and seeing what worked in the short-term. When faced with a parent’s anger, cower.exe seemed to work well. Pun.exe became the go-to for jokes. In fact, the typist found ways of automating these processes long ago, so almost no input is required these days. And that’s not to mention all the built-in processes coded by evolutionary history.
So the challenge is this: Choose what to type. This is no simple task. It isn’t a matter of choosing a different program. It is a matter of coding entirely new programs. It is a matter of questioning the programs you typically run. It is hard work.
Why do it then? Because you want a better world. You do, right? But not just for yourself; this blog is about more than self-help. More than self-actualization. This is a blog about transcendence, about how each individual can more meaningfully contribute to the Universe. And it all flows from the terminal of you.
I want to differentiate what I’m saying from typical mindfulness teachings. Or rather, I want to go further. It’s one thing to be aware of our unconscious processes. It’s another to truly consider our place in the Universe. Because what even is the Universe? Where does it come from? And what are we supposed to do here?
Considering these questions requires learning. A LOT of learning. You can’t do this without reading what experts have learned. Physicists have discovered the bounds of our knowledge. Philosophers attempt to connect that knowledge to what we ought to do (i.e. what we ought to type into our terminals). In my future posts, I will distill these learnings for you to aid you in completing my challenge.
If you refuse the challenge, here’s what will happen. You will continue your life, running on autopilot. Your scripts as encoded by forces beyond you (e.g. evolutionary psychology, capitalism, cognitive biases) will continue to dominate you. You will serve as a gear in those machines, which optimize only over short time scales. You will not use your terminal wisely. You will not contribute meaningfully to the long-term project of the Universe.
Since you are still reading this post, you must want to contribute. Good. That’s a start, and that’s all we need. I hope to build a community of people like you. Thinkers, creators, collaborators. People who can see that despite our immense progress as a species, we are not close to done. Although our current systems are improvements over previous ones, they are not yet aligned with Truth and Shared Purpose. And though they have been successful in building up the world, there is no guarantee that they will continue to be stable. We are not safe, and so we must work. Let’s do the work together.
I’m James. After an eight-year career in biomedical engineering, I realized that my interest wasn’t only in science—it was in understanding humanity’s place in a larger system. That curiosity drove me back to school: to physics, and later, to creative writing, where I could explore not just how things work, but why we do what we do. This weekly blog will feature a blend of my interests in science, philosophy, politics, and human emotion.
So, let’s type something new into the terminal. Something better, and more rationally aligned with our highest goals. Let’s challenge each other, debate, disagree, learn, and ultimately build a community that contributes thoughtfully and meaningfully to humanity’s future.