Strike the Flag

Brother Michael knows a thing or two about computers and is apt to tell you all about them, given the chance. It seems the word flag comes up in the realms of programming, a flag is set waiting for something to happen and responds within nano seconds. Other terms are used such as If, Then, Else and electronic devices called Gates. This is all very interesting but at breakfast? Br M went on to give lots of examples of everyday things, just to make sure I understood; I took my coffee and went for a walk down the garden.

These flags I thought, have only one task and that is to respond in a certain way to to a particular event, which may happen many times or only once. I had a picture in my mind of the world, full of flags, every person had a number of flags, many flags set and waiting; no-one seemed to be aware of these flags and they did not hinder their movement. Each flag had been carefully set to respond in nano seconds to a given situation, event, word or action and each response could be justified by its owner.

In programming a computer we have a set way of working, there can be only two choices, therefore the flag system works well. Our lives and how we interact with each other has many choices and to adopt the flag system sets only one response to a given word, action or situation. Is it that we can't be bothered to think through our responses before setting in motion our reaction?

Note to morning office: What would the world look like without flags?
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