01 The Marvels of Human Programming

Well, what exactly is DNA? Can we change it, and if we can, how do we go about doing so? Let me tell you what it means. It means basically that we are all programmed to operate according to a blueprint that is built into us.

That is actually all DNA is. It is a little blueprint, and we are designed to function according to the blueprint that is built into us.

I spent many years as a computer programmer. So when I look at this concept of being programmed, my programming mind starts to go crazy. It makes me start to think in programming terms.

I want to try and explain the marvels of human programming to you. And to help you understand it, I’m going to have to take you through a little lesson on computer programming.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to be that technical. However, I am going to get a little technical. I am going to try and keep it as simple as possible. After a while, you may think,

“Are you ever going to get to the point? And what does all of this have to do with me?”

But please bear with me. You see, each of the characteristics of programming that I will be sharing with you is very much connected to how we have been programmed as human beings.

It will help you to understand how you function and why you are the way you are. And hopefully it will show you how you can go about changing it, should you want to do so.

Top-Down Programming

Let’s start by looking at programming. There are different kinds of programming. The old-fashioned original programming was what they called top-down programming.

What is a program? It is simply a set of instructions given one after the other. On a computer you write these down as instructions that say,

“Do this. Do that, do that, and do that.”

Once you have written it all down, you just give it to the computer and say,

“Go ahead and run this program.”

The computer looks at each line and says,

“Okay, I will do that. Next, I will do that. Then I will do that, and afterwards I will do that.”

It just runs all the way down until it gets to the end of the program.

If Then Else Statements

That is ordinary top-down programming. And if you want anything to change along the way, you have to put conditions into the program. They are known as If Then Else Statements.

“If this is that, then do that. Otherwise, do that.”

It is simple logic. The computer is a very logical machine that thinks very much like the human brain. So, in ordinary top-down programming, that is all it is. It just goes through instructions one at a time and says,

“Okay, do this. Do that. If this condition exists, then do that. If it doesn’t, then do that. Otherwise, do something else.”

There can be a whole lot of different statements like this. That is how a simple top-down program works.

Object Oriented Programming (OOP)

Modern programming goes way beyond top-down programming. It uses a concept known as Object Oriented Programming, or OOP for short. So whenever you hear somebody speaking about OOP, you know what they are saying.

I am going to show you in this section that you are loaded with OOP. That is why you function the way that you do.

So please try to understand the concepts of Object Oriented Programming. They will help you to understand exactly how you were programmed. It will show you how you function in this world, and in interaction with other people.

Object Oriented Programming works like this. It doesn’t have one program that gives systematic top-down instructions. This type of programming splits the program up into many different little pieces known as objects.

So, we have a piece of object programming code that has certain functionality. Then, we have another piece of object programming code that has a different quality or functionality.

We make several of these, and we teach them how to do specialized jobs. Then, we throw them all together and get them to interact with one another.

Instead of top-down, we now have this interaction of programming. That, in a nutshell, is how Object Oriented Programming works.

We Are Unique Individuals

OOP is actually a picture of life as we know it. You see, we were not made to be robots. We don’t have top-down programming that tells us exactly what to do. Nor do we have someone else writing the program and controlling us.

We are unique individuals who are not all made to act the same way. When we come together we do tend to flow according to certain patterns. But each person is a unique individual who has unique qualities and abilities.

Some of them are the same as other people, and some of them are different. But you are a unique object functioning in a certain way.

We take you, and we put you together with another person who is another object. What we then have is the same sort of thing that happens in Object Oriented Programming.

We have two programmed people coming together and interacting with one another. The way they interact will be determined by the programs that run in each one of them. It will be determined by how they were programmed individually to function.

Does it make sense? It isn’t too technical, is it?

Different Blueprints

What makes us different is that each of us operates under a different blueprint. We are getting back to DNA here. Science calls this DNA. But all it means is that each of us has been programmed and has a different blueprint from others.

We are all like a piece of program code. Each one is created to function differently. And some have more specialized tasks than others.

As we go through life, we come together with other people who are all programmed according to their own blueprints.

Something takes place as these objects collide with each other. As we go through life and interact with each other, something begins to take place that decides what kind of life we will live.

This means that what we are looking at here is at the foundation of everything you are and everything you do. Everything that you will be and the kind of life you will live in this world is all based on OOP. You are part of a program.

Programming Objects

Let’s have a quick look now at how an object is programmed. Each little object, or object class as they call it in programming, has unique qualities. Two main qualities are built into every program.

Properties

Every programmed object first has what are known as properties. Properties determine what it looks like.

What are your properties as a human being? Well, if you are male or female, that property determines what kind of gender makeup you have and how your body looks.

One of the properties that you may have is hair color. One person will be red. Someone else will be black or brown, blonde or gray. That is one of your properties. It is what you look like and who you are.

So, an object code has properties. And if we take two objects that maybe look very similar, the difference between them lies in the value of their properties.

So we can have a redhead and a blonde sitting in the same room. They are both female, so they share many similar characteristics. But the difference between them is that they have different hair properties.

So, the difference between two different pieces of code starts with what values you allocate to the properties.

Methods or Functions

The next thing that is built into every bit of object code is what is known as a method or a function. This is what that code does.

Taking that back to the human, it means not what you look like but what you do. It means what you are capable of doing, how you function in this world, and your behavior patterns.

These things are the methods or the functions that are built into you as a piece of object coding programming.

Each of these properties and functions in a piece of Object Oriented Programming code can be set permanently to be unchangeable. Or they can be made in such a way that you can modify them or override them. This is determined by the original programmer.

Someone else may now come and want to take that piece of object code and use it. Depending on how it was made, they can use the properties and methods that are already there, or they can change them.

As we go on, I will explain more about changing it. I will show you how this begins to affect our behavior as human beings.

Adding or Changing Properties

So you can take the original object class and create a new class of object from it. You can take it with the original properties and methods, and you can add some new properties that weren’t there before.

For example, if we had an object code that was called ‘Human,’ there would be no difference between male or female here.

So we can take an object code called ‘Human’ and make a new object class called ‘Female Human’, and we can add a new property called ‘Gender’.

Can you see that this changes it? So we can take object code and add to it or modify and change it.

Then we can take several different classes of object code and blend them together to make one big new one. These are the kinds of capabilities that we have in programming.

Pre-made Object Code

You can use an object in two different ways. As I already said, you can take the existing properties and methods and use them as they are. They come fully functional out of the box.

Isn’t it great when you can take something out of the box? You can just connect it up, switch it on and it works.

Unfortunately, human beings are not that way. You don’t just take them out of the box and they work, as I will explain shortly. There is a whole lot more involved. But program code very often can be made that way, and people sell their object codes.

You can buy someone else’s object code. You can take it and slot it straight into your big program amongst all the other objects you already have. You now add an extra capability and functionality to your program.

That object is already designed to do everything you need it to do, so you just take it and use it as is. But you may want to change it. You may want to go in and override some of those properties and methods if you can. You may also want to add new ones that didn’t exist.

The original object code, properties and methods were put there by the programmer who created the object. That original programmer decided what properties, methods and functions are in that object.

But you, as the new programmer, will now decide what it looks like in the end. The final product will be a combination of what the original programmer did and what the new programmer does.

Is it getting too complicated? It is actually fairly simple. You will see how it all comes together shortly when it comes to human beings.

Putting it Together

So, how do you fit the objects together? Firstly, you must decide on your overall program and what you want that program to do. Then you must say to yourself,

“In order to do that, I need some code that does this. I need an object code that does that, and I also need an object code that does the next thing. I want all of these capabilities to be built into my program.”

All you need to do is to write one piece of program code that takes all of these objects and puts them together. It is like selecting five different people out of a group and saying,

“I’ll take you. I like the way you look. I like the smile on your face and your general demeanor and attitude.

I like you. You’re good, strong, and hard. I can see you are tough, and I need somebody like that. You are very talkative and friendly. We need somebody like that in this group.”

So you pick the different people, which are like different pieces of object code and you say,

“I’m going to put you guys together and we are going to build a business that will function. You have been chosen because you have a very good ability to persuade people. We can use you in sales.

You have been chosen because you are friendly and can make people people feel comfortable. So we are going to use you for administration and customer support to make people happy.

You, however, are clearly very good at imparting knowledge and teaching other people. So we are going to use you in our Training Division.”

We are making one big program. That is all that Object Oriented Programming is. You don’t have to write thousands and thousands of lines of code. All you do is go and find code that has already been written and programmed out there. Then, you just put them together and get them to interact.

Making Changes

Most of the time, the way that the code was designed to function isn’t exactly what you wanted. It may be close, but you may want to change a few things.

You might say, “We definitely don’t want those temper tantrums that are built into you. We have to get rid of them. We don’t like that sulking every time you can’t have your way. We have to deprogram that one out.”

You see, I am trying to relate it to human nature. But that is the way it works in programming. There are things in that code that you don’t want. And some things are missing that you want to add.

So, you modify each object before you put them together. Then, you join them in one group and let them go and interact with each other.

It is highly unlikely that everything will go smoothly, and you will be able to sit back and retire. Hopefully, however, you will be able to say,

“I did an awesome job! I picked the right code for my program. It works flawlessly.”

Program Bugs

Well, if you know anything about programming, you have probably heard the term program bug. What is a bug? It is something that crawled in when you weren’t looking.

We call it a bug, and it means that something went wrong. We did not allow for the fact that two pieces of object code have properties or methods that actually conflict with each other.

You see, one piece of code wants to do one thing, but the other piece of code wants to do the opposite. They can’t make up their minds which one is going to have their way.

They interact, and then we get a crash. Eventually, the whole thing comes tumbling down, and in windows, you get that awful blue screen. We now have to do some debugging of the program.

How do you debug a program? The first thing you have to do is to identify the conflicts between the objects.

Was there something wrong with the object when you brought it in? No, it was fully functioning the way it was designed. You just modified it a little to make it suit what you wanted to do. You modified it to function slightly differently and to look slightly different.

In the end, as you looked at that piece of object code, it was flawless. You looked at the other piece of object code and it was also flawless. There were no problems until you put the two together.

Now, suddenly, the interaction between the two exposes the scenario that you did not take into account. We call that a program bug.

Are the pictures beginning to drop in your mind as we relate this to humanity?

Making Modifications

What are you going to do now? You have to add something new or remove some unsuitable qualities that are there. Or you may have to throw that object out completely and get another one.

You might say, “I had such great hopes that this object would fit into this program and would be of great use to us. But this object is causing problems with all the other ones.

You know she is beautiful. I thought she would fit in and everybody would love her. But we have had nothing but conflict and strife, bitterness and backbiting ever since she joined the company.”

So what do we do? We either change her or we fire her.

Well, we are not looking at that subject in this teaching. We are looking at the changing part. But it may be necessary to replace that object with another more suitable one.

Program debugging normally means finding out where the problems are, fixing them, and bringing change to the program. You need to modify the methods and properties and aim for complete harmony and efficiency between all the objects.

You now have many different blueprints being incorporated together into one big blueprint that brings them all together. That is Object Oriented Programming (OOP) in its simplest form.

There is a lot more involved. But that does not concern you because you are not planning to run out after reading this book and say,

“I can’t wait to go out and do some Object Oriented Programming!”

If you are, well good luck to you. I hope you get it right. Hopefully, I have given you enough of a foundation for you to understand what is involved, but I am not going to teach you how to do the programming.

Post A Review For This Book