All Life Is Binary

In many ways, life is binary, consisting of negative and positive, pain and pleasure, true and false, yes and no. Of course, there are those that will say that we have to take account of what we might call grey areas. However, in my life long experience, the grey zone is many times reduceable to a simple yes or no.

For example, what happens when you ask somebody a question along the lines of "Would you like to go to the beach tomorrow?" and the answer you get is "I don't know, I'll tell you later." That actually means no by virtue of the simple fact that it is most certainly not a yes. For now it is a no, maybe that will change to an affirmative "Yes" later, but is most definitely a "No." I cannot make plans around a no, only a yes will allow me to do that.

Many years ago I used to be a professional car salesman, and when chatting to a customer we would reach the point when I asked "Do you want to buy the car?" I knew from experience that when the man or woman replied "I don't know, I'll let you know on Friday." that meant "No," for the simple fact that the potential customer was going to leave without buying the car. And one hundred percent of the times when that I was told "I don't know," they never came back to buy the car.

The grey zone is where people hide their true intentions. And that is because people want to keep all their options open. They hope that an "I don't know," will potentially allow them to come back later with a different answer.

Some people cannot make decisions, forever fearful of making the wrong decision. The fact of the matter is that all decisions come with both negative and positive consequences. When the decision is made by the other person and the outcome is predominantly negative, the indecisive person is likely to say "I knew that would happen," wanting to appear wiser and more knowlegdeable than the other. My response to this is always, "Well if you knew that would be the outcome, why did you not tell me?" These kinds of people always want to be right. By saying "I don't know," allows them to be right all the time, after the fact, no matter what the outcome, negative or positive.

Almost thirty years ago, in the midst of my first marriage falling apart, with three lovely very young children to consider, I asked my wife if we could save our marriage, for the childrens’ sakes. Her answer told me verything I needed to know. Her answer was “No,” dressed up as “I think we might have half a chance.” Think…might…half…chance… Good lord, I have never heard a clearer indication of a total lack of committment, never a “No” more clear than that. Would you get on a plane with pilot who spoke like that? I wouldn’t.

Okay, lets deal with pain and pleasure. The two 'P' principle is what both forms and controls our behavior. When we behave badly we are punished to try to dissuade a repeat of negative actions. When we behave well, we are rewarded in order to encourage a repetition of good behavior. And if we have been taught well how to behave with that duality of responses, then we should end up with a well balanced, considerate human being. In fact, the self same priniciple works with all living things, it is how they and we have learned to survive and prosper.

True and false is very much a very significant part of our daily lives. The truth produces positive results, false produces negative or false results. And it is not just in our human interactions that we can see true and false in operation, it is how we run the modern, technological world!

Every single technological device; cars, motorbikes, buses, planes, trains, computers, cell phones, domestic appliances, factory production tools, they are all operated using binary code. Zero is no, 1 is yes. It always amuses me when I hear somebody say that a woman is a little pregnant. Either she is going to have a baby or she isn't, their is no halfway house. It is like saying that the computer is a little bit on. It's off, or it's on!

Back to human life at least, we have an asymmetrical binary in terms of chromosomes, double X chromosome for the females, one X and one Y for the male. There are some who would have you believe otherwise. No thank you, I’ll trust in the proven biological science.

Finally, just remember, you are dead or alive. You may very well feel half dead, or half alive, but that can easily be rectified one way or another. Then you will be completely dead, or completely alive. It's up to you.