Life Explained by Automata Theory

Let me start by saying I'm a junky. I'm hooked on theory.. I don't think you would know it to look at me. I think I hide my passions pretty well. It's a trained response, Pavlov's dog had nothing on me. Besides, isn't that what junkies do after all, or at least attempt to do...fit in and still get their fix? Who's to judge?

Setting the stage, can you relate:

Childhood: As a little girl in the '70s, growing up in a small rural community, the underlying message delivered by society, was grow up pretty, find a nice man to marry and have babies. Nobody explained what you should do with all the questions rattling around in your head, and how to find a way to come to some equilibrium with the need for more information and a content life. Can you really zero it all out? I can't tell you how many times I prayed to be theoretically "FAT, DUMB, and HAPPY" . Unfortunately, it just never seemed to fit into any of the formulas presented to me. Let's just keep trying, shall we?

Adolescent: Follow the norm, want what everyone else wants. The system works so don't try to fix it. I definately wasn't the prettiest girl in school, wasn't the smartest, wasn't the most talented, I wasn't even the most unique. I was someplace in the middle; on the bell curve I was absolutely part of normal distribution. I was extremely NORMAL to the passer by. Maybe I finally found an algorithm that works. Let's continue to do stress testing. Set the goal at 100 years.

Young Adulthood: Against the recommendation of the one person, who, to date, has truly undertstood I will no more fit into Normal Distribution than Infinity divided by INDIVIDUAL LIFE has Finite meaning, I married and started on my path to a socially acceptable life. Two beautiful babies later, I wouldn't change that experience for anything. Algorithm still seems to hold. Everything is within statistical control. Perfect!

30 Something: Is it about starting over, or building on what we know? The older I get the less I know. One of many definitions of Automata Theory: The mathematical study of machines and their capabilities for solving problems by means of algorithms. That pretty much sums up the population to me, wouldn't you agree? At some point in each and every life, we ask ourselves is this the right path, or do we? And if we don't ask ourselves such questions, are we really any different then a machine? Just applying the rules and conditions to move us from one state of being to another.

"If the computation of an automaton reaches an accepting configuration it accepts that input. At each stage of the computation, a transition function determines the next configuration on the basis of a finite portion of the present configuration. "; David Weir 2000.

Seems pretty straight forward to me. Each of us trying to find the abstract algorithm that works for each of us, knowing that our realities intersect with others, if we so let them. As we parse it all together, it's not a one size fits all model; we try to take what we have learned from others, from our own attempts to make it "work" and we continue to move forward. For sake of society, because quitting isn't a logical option, feeling deep down this all fits into the puzzle of the universe somehow, that each of us has meaning and our time here, though maybe a blip on the calendar of Eternity is significant.

After all...one small deviation in the form of a life lived exactly as the creator intended can create a whole new outcome that we can all benefit from. So, change it up will you, time to make your own math.
;- )