What Comes to Mind

   There is an expression in computer science which is perhaps as old as the hills, and it is "GIGO", meaning "Garbage in, Garbage Out". I think that one interesting aspect is how this metaphor informs the way we look at the mind, especially with the modern tendency to compare minds with computers. The idea is that if I surround myself with negative environmental stimuli, it won't be long before my mind becomes polluted with these things. Therefore, one has to be very vigilant regarding what comes toward one's mind and senses to ensure that it is not going to pollute the mind or even give it a virus!
   While I agree with this metaphor, I also take it that there are multiple ways to process our environments, should we choose to do so, and I don't even think that the environment has so much control as we might imagine. One simple example of this is to look at a particular food that one likes or craves. While I might enjoy the food very much and even salivate whenever I see it or smell it, someone else might react in a totally opposite way, given the exact same environmental conditions. Still others might not respond to it at all. This is to say that we can all be in the very same room and experience completely different reactions. How does brain science explain such a phenomena? I think it might resort to the role that memories might play in how we see and experience things today, but there is a lot here that is quite mysterious. Why does a person love a certain food and then one day, for no apparent reason, simply stop liking it? It is as though our hearts were powered in a way that defies logic or reason. Could what we experience be more dependent on what's inside than what one encounters on the outside?
    If I know that environment does not determine how I think or react, I have a much wider surface to work with, even to the point where I can switch channels on how I look at the same thing over time. I can change my processes of approaching the experience, without the previous preferred ways of looking at it. I sense that this can be a very good skill to have when facing the same situation and feeling averse to it--simply to know that it's possible to choose new ways of approaching the same thing, using very new mindsets.