Welcome to the Machine: Escaping Algorithmic Control Through Awareness

Ep 136. Evolution is one of the most powerful forces in nature. It shapes life through environmental pressure, adaptation, and survival across generations. But what we are witnessing in modern society is not biological evolution in the traditional sense. It is something far faster, far more invasive, and far more psychological: digital conditioning.

Today, human perception, attention, emotion, and belief are being shaped continuously by screens, algorithms, social platforms, news cycles, and entertainment feeds. Multiple media interfaces interact with us every day—rewiring how we think, feel, react, and relate. We are watching the evolution of the human mind in real time, both collectively and within our own nervous systems.

In this environment, self-awareness, emotional regulation, and mental sovereignty are no longer optional skills. They are essential tools for preserving autonomy in a world that constantly tells us what to desire, fear, consume, believe, and perform. Without conscious regulation, external systems begin to govern internal life.

Modern media culture often reflects this tension through darker tones in music, film, and online discourse—echoing the warning embedded in the lyric, “Welcome to the machine.” Yet this story is not destiny. It is not inevitable. Within every day exists a genuine opportunity for freedom, creativity, connection, and renewal.

Mindfulness in daily life becomes an act of resistance. It loosens the electronic grip that fuels endless consumption, algorithmic manipulation, and compulsive doom scrolling. When entertainment remains entertainment—rather than emotional hijacking—clarity returns.

The human body and mind are not designed for permanent digital immersion. They are designed for movement, sunlight, fresh air, challenge, exploration, curiosity, and wonder. Our biological intelligence thrives through real-world engagement. It is nourished by nature, relationships, play, learning, and embodied experience.

What is often sold today as “evolution” is actually imposed adaptation—high-speed behavioral modification marketed as progress. It is rapid compliance disguised as advancement. This narrative must be recognized, questioned, and transformed.

True evolution is conscious. It preserves choice. It strengthens discernment. It expands freedom rather than replacing it.

Be mindful of the systems you inhabit. Protect your attention. Nourish your humanity. Cultivate awareness. Choose adventure over automation. Presence over programming. Life over simulation.

Take care. Be adventurous. Walk well.

Transcript

Welcome back folks to episode 136 of the Running Man Self-Regulation Skills Project podcast with me, your host, Dr. Armando Dominguez, PhD in Health Psychology, licensed professional counselor and an adjunct professor at a local community college. What we're going to start off the discussion today is going to be a question and that is, is evolution the revolution? And this isn't in the biological Darwinian sense of evolution in the perfect sense.

But rather asking the question is evolution the revolution and relative to how things are going now in our modern times Where we have electronics at hand in hand all the time or plugged into our ears even at a distance remotely We're always getting information Fed into our nervous system and my question is Evolution the revolution and is this the goal that is being applied upon?

the human condition such that we are creating change, adaption, not true evolution, and what are the impacts of that, and how can self-regulation help protect us against the impact of this induced evolving evolution of the human being that we now know as me. So to kick off the discussion, what I want to tell you is that

The other day I was out with my youngest son and we were actually navigating the post snow ice.

was, still kind of patchy where we were walking and, we're leaving my place and getting into my vehicle and, he recognizes my vehicle as well as I do, but, in the process of navigating icy patches where we were walking, he went and sidled up to a vehicle that was similar in color to my vehicle. And I was talking to him and telling him, that's not my vehicle. That's not my truck. So we both kind of laughed, but then we got in the vehicles.

armando (02:40.913)
started a discussion about pattern recognition and he recognized my vehicle, yes, only after the fact, but signal strength is really important when it comes to answering the question of the evolution.

Revolution as far as what I'm speaking about the adaption that is being induced Mass scale with electronics and not necessarily that it's a nefarious thing but rather something that we are probably Throwing the baby out with the bathwater so to speak when it comes to how we're engaging and how often we use to the detriment of our vehicle and once we got in my truck We discussed the idea of pattern recognition and we kind of laughed a bit because he knows much

As well as I do but yet in the immersion of the signal strength of having to pad around more carefully Because we're navigating patches of ice on the ground the more immediate safety concern it put the many times of recognizing my vehicle that is more than well known to him as well as I on the back burner and in the process of working Through what he was doing moment to moment because it was a bit precarious not so dangerous to

say that, you know, that there was nothing else available to him as far as what was going on in the moment, but rather he just kind of overemphasize safety first at that moment. Not that that was wrong, but rather in the sense of processing the safety of navigating a nice patch to the detriment of the memory, the recollection, the pattern recognition of, familiar truck, get in that one. Not this one instead was interrupted. And this is something that I want to point out as a principle that some

Sometimes we do have pattern recognition down and we're happy to go about our lives with an efficient way of doing things, which we are human. are efficiency machines. Everything that we do, we do more often that we like in particular, especially if it gives us a good feel. But also in recognition of those things that aren't so good for us, we tend to avoid those things because we know that things that don't feel so good would, would be coming our way. That's that hedonic response. But in principle that

armando (04:52.996)
pattern recognition interrupt can occur even with those things that we are most familiar with and I will give you a couple of for instance examples such as this one of a person I used to work with many years ago and a very devout religious person and She said that she would drive to work and when she was driving in the dark three or four in the morning getting to work early Make she was always 20 or 30 minutes on on the dot on time and

And what she would say is that in her conversations to her friends that I had overheard, I wasn't eavesdropping, but I couldn't help but hear. She was kind of loud in that sense, bless her heart. And it carried across the break room as I was working nights and about to leave my shift, she was coming in and my break just happened to intersect with her time coming in. And she was mentioning that her every day, and mind you, this person traveled this path probably maybe a period of 10 to 15 years.

I wouldn't say under interrupted in the perfect sense, but rather largely Repetitive over 10 or 15 years that she would drive and say her prayers. She would say prayers for her family She would recite her prayers in connection in being devout and religious as she was but it became not unlike a mantra it became something that was Repeated repeated almost mindlessly at some point not knowing that her human body was an efficiency machine now I'm not denigrating her practice

because I do many things repetitively and I also partake of the practice of meditation and prayer as well and There is a time where you want to be able to allow the vehicle to drive itself and that immersion quality Yes, but it was a mystery to her because she would start reciting her prayers and by the time she would get to where she was going she would realize that She had dropped off from prayer to something that she'd repeated equally as often her ABC's

and one two threes because of the cadence because of the rhythm and the way she dropped into that Repetitive state whenever doing that you get to a point where you get so skilled that is now thoughtless now thinkless now I'm not present of mind moment to moment with every syllable every sound and At the time I thought it rather

armando (07:15.284)
Strange that she would say that but she said she spoke to her priest and he had no answer for it said he didn't know but the fact of the matter is knowing what I know now Would I have told her anything had I known it then? probably not because it probably would have Disrupted what she believed was to be a really good thing and I certainly don't think she was doing wrong but

I think that lack of awareness is one of the things that can point at what it is we're talking about today. The evolution is the revolution. Or is it is my question, because it's not perfect.

It's not something that we have no impact to interrupt we do we can and I would encourage you to interrupt that whenever you can because there are times wherever we can become very very immersed and repetitive and things and lose that sense of mindfulness in that moment wherever you're always autonomous and you're sovereign and you have control not only of yourself but Over what it is that you bring it into yourself as far as influence and sometimes we do bring things into our bodies in our lives

Such that we can create change such as we want to lose weight. We want to get in better health We want to become better singers for more skillful as certain things and we start doing things Repetitively we start immersing ourselves repetitively till we gain competence Once again, we'll apply on them the competency learning model in that when we start with something we become aware of it before we become aware we are unconscious of it and we're Incompetent probably have no skill in it over time. You say

Hey, I'd like to do that that seems interesting getting on the bike for the first time and falling a few times that is conscious awareness and Incompetence I can't do this yet. It doesn't mean I can never do it. It just means over time. It'll get better

armando (09:03.827)
Might look a little clumsy and this is where a lot of people drop off because their egos are so large or so sensitive or so fragile that I'm not gonna look like a fool in front of people and then they lose out they lose out on the opportunity to evolve themselves as individuals to grow as individuals in knowledge and Part of is because of the fear of discomfort now discomfort is something we'll talk about a little more and it is necessary if we look at biological science anything that creates an

Irritation and not unlike an oyster that has a grain of sand that gets within its craw and it starts to get that Enamelized quality around it that becomes the pearl that we harvest later We realize that that clam that oyster has been living with an irritation in its body and still continuing to live but it also grew and It was able to eat and become a bigger clam a more adult clam if you will over time or an oyster and then

At some point a human being goes and harvests it for food and then takes the pearl this sort of thing but the idea is irritation and discomfort these are things that help us grow and Just as much as they help us grow they can also create change in us

If we allow them to that make us better make us more adaptive and this is where we're going to use the term evolve as a parallel term to adaption in this case because To evolve means that we've created change or experiencing change that is not always adaptive Can be maladaptive depending on how sudden the irritation from the environment is or how big it is or overwhelming it is Hopefully it's not so overwhelming that it damages the

Individual that's that's the hope but when we're talking about getting on a bike and learning the irritation of of clumsiness the irritation of ego fragility meaning that any little thing makes me feel bad look bad and I talk bad about myself and someone else tells me or If we have the misfortune of having somebody point out ha ha looking how silly and how dumb you look I can ride a bike you can't and this is a natural competitive advantage that we have once in a while and I say an

armando (11:21.943)
because part of that is what helps us grow and rise up and maybe that that ego fragility becomes something that keeps us from ever wanting to try to ride a bike because we feel one afraid to incensed or three so embarrassed that we're not willing to try anymore and If we don't have the right model sometimes to support us and show us that that didn't stop us But rather it's our mind that stops us then we may never experience the glory

of learning how to enjoy riding a bike for instance or gaining skill in something that we deem important so irritation is necessary becoming uncomfortable and understanding that discomfort isn't pain pain from injury is different than the emotional pain of disappointment not the same thing and some would likely

I would say confuse the two because whenever and I work in a clinical field I speak to people and it's not just in a clinical setting there are a lot of people that are very Unaware of themselves so to speak such that they speak very flippantly from a subjective level saying I would much rather have somebody punch me in the eye or break an arm because I can heal Versus somebody telling me things that leave me with an emotional scar that I can't get over now Those are some ideas that do not work well together

Often are coupled and are left unquestioned and I will tell you I would much rather have somebody tell me I'm gonna break your arm versus actually do it first off the pain and the time and Most people don't account whenever they speak in the way that they do so flippantly about such a thing that there is emotional baggage It goes along with that injury not to mention the person Harming them. Do you really think they're gonna stop at a broken arm if they're succeeding and if they're apt and able

To do that and willing to do that what makes you think they're gonna stop at that broken arm and not go further Those are assumptions that are never questioned and that never comes into being when it comes to somebody commenting like that and that's really them grandstanding and taking this emotional victim perspective and Elevating themselves and making themselves somehow right over the wrong with somebody or something that would occur that would hurt them Such that that would much rather have somebody physically harm them. That's a nice idea

armando (13:46.455)
in quotes and I say nice in that I'd say that's foolish and it's not a very adaptive idea because if we act based on our thoughts What is it that we're doing to our body? That's the next question relative to the evolution Revolution if we are in a situation that is physical and we're able to protect ourselves That's wonderful. But whenever we're in this mental situation there are very few Limits to what it is that I think and how I think and the how I think is just as much

problem as what I think whenever we've not been shown models or whenever we've not experienced things, we have gaps in our knowledge, so to speak, we have a default naivete that could be problematic. whenever we're looking at self regulatory skill, it's very easy to stop a thought. Not true. It is not easy to stop a thought singular thought maybe, but a thought process involving a thought that's uncomfortable. Not really because we have a lower

component that has an emotional quality that attaches to our thoughts so to speak so it becomes a little more substantial and if it's from our lower brain bottom up it's very fast and we've talked about speed of onset of thought being at about three milliseconds from the perceptual sense being 400 times faster as far as where the signal starts than when our

Rational thought process process begins at 1.2 seconds or 1200 milliseconds. That's incredibly fast Doesn't mean that there's a whole lot of higher level thinking going on There's not the signal hasn't split off and gotten there yet in that Multi milliseconds that are happening between 3 and 1200 milliseconds what we're looking at is the fact that there's a categorization default Option that we have that determines whether things are threat or non-threat

We have this luxury of thought after 1.2 seconds that over time we start making meaning based on what things look like that is based on a perceptual level of brain not our Conceptual or a higher level of thinking brain and we can make signals we can misinterpret and often like the pattern recognition Then yet I kind of shared earlier with my son

armando (16:08.701)
we can make mistakes and errors in reasoning as we're actively doing things and that is basically the principle of the fish going from the frying pan into the fire and uh-oh I just burnt my dinner and then having to deal with the results after so whenever we're looking at self-regulatory skills and the development of skill that

is something that serves us very well when we're developing new skills because we have to learn to not only self-regulate and realize that okay, there's going to be discomfort as part of the process. Not everyone gets the, is going to be hard, but if you want to be able to do this, you're going to sweat a lot. You're going to work a lot. You might hurt a little bit. You might hurt a lot, but if you quit, you won't get there. But if you continue at some point,

you will realize these skills such as true in gymnastics and golfing and martial arts generally running such as true whenever we're going to school and learning how to write handwrite the way we used to not keyboard necessarily and this is where I'm going to take this a little bit of a different direction and it is relative to self-regulation and the development of that but it has to do with our brain and frame and our neural connections but one of the things that

I want to add to this conversation is that we're losing our ability to make connections between what goes on in our body in our mind in the sense of thought as much as our action as well as the feelings that we have and being able to deliver a decision-making process that will allow us to change our trajectory while we're doing things and being willing to challenge and question is this right is it not that Socratic reasoning is it true? Is it helpful?

And who'd you hear it from? Whether or not you can trust that We're losing a bit of that and the fact of the matter is the the information Overload that we have because we have information at hand in our hand our cell phones our tablets our PCs and Macs and listening to things even remotely through our headphones Which I'm very guilty of I love listening to lectures and music as I go pinching produce when I go shopping and It may seem antisocial but believe me. It's really kind of nice to be

armando (18:25.879)
to go about your life and you have this background score from avatar playing it. It makes things a little more epic and more fun. I know that's kind of dopey sounding, but the idea is helpful in the sense that we are always kind of plugged in. And what I'm encouraging you is to disengage. I don't always have headphones on. I like the silence and the quiet and it helps me gather my thoughts. But one of the things to help, especially if have kiddos, a development of self regulatory skill.

is learning how to write handwriting. We are not talking about print, but rather cursive. And many of the schools have stopped doing that. And this is the baby being thrown out with the bath water and that they're teaching less of that or not teaching it at all because kids are now keyboarding. They're pointing and pinching and plucking and poking at keyboards and, and touchscreens. And they're losing a connection wherever one is more embodied, so to speak, when one is learning and understand

Writing is partially tactile and yes they are doing tactile learning but the information that they're taking in is very passive. The active learning that occurs whenever you are actually physically writing and learning the tactile and control aspect, the fine motor skill aspect of how to write a letter from a basic

letter to one that we would call cursive, where we start learning how to read cursive, that is not going to fall into disuse. But if we don't have that, we're going to limit our kiddos. We're going to limit our future because there many that write in cursive and if you can't interpret that, it's like learning a new language. And for some, they can't interpret and they have to have someone else read it. And that means that we're creating a divisiveness in our society by those that can read, those that can write, and those that can read and write in cursive in particular.

another level or echelon of difference there that is very particular and the understanding that comes from doing that gives us a moment.

armando (20:28.263)
And it allows us to develop a way to challenge what it is that I'm writing whenever we're talking about concepts and ideas. There is a fluidity in learning how to write in cursive. So I'm encouraging you, please don't let that fall away. And if they're not learning that teach it. And if you haven't learned it, teach yourself there are ways to do that. It's an incredibly powerful tool. And once you're able to get it. And I have kids that are in their twenties now and one of them really didn't learn how to use cursive.

And they didn't teach it. They stopped teaching when he was there in third and second and third grade. And that was like appalling to me, but he's very intelligent, but he missed a couple of things as a result. So did the remainder of the kids that were in his level of school. There's some that picked it up later, but there are some that at his level, they don't have that. And it's a, it's a dismal thing to look at because there is a level of communication capacity that is now limited that I'm trying to encourage even in my son's now.

To go ahead and pick up is very important now the next thing as far as the cursive that's really really important but there is a principle that i'd like to incite with you and that is Learning whenever we're thinking about things to do these three things Whenever we think be willing to say, okay, can I stop my thought? Can I think about my thought become aware of it? Can I catch that thought now? Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches something like this, but they don't call it this necessarily but beyond the

thoughts not stop them necessarily and yes it is a discipline it is a practice but it's a useful one not just for therapy but for learning how to learn and how to question and be willing to ask because it gives us pause in this high-speed absorb information society that we have this is never gonna stop serving you and I'm giving this to you not lightly but with the inflection of I hope you pass it on and share with your loved ones and the next term is challenge be willing

To challenge what it is that you just thought just because you thought it doesn't mean it has become the penultimate Crystallize idea of that is just something I made that shouldn't be challenged everything

armando (22:39.305)
that think can be questions and challenged. And it's a healthy thing to do so. It doesn't mean you're wrong, but rather this is a principle used to refine what it is that we do and what we think. And it's okay to do that. To be willing to challenge an idea means we're not so invested in it that we put all our eggs in one basket and then all of sudden we're at risk. Because what if something comes along that is much better or much more useful? Well, then we're invested in that we get embarrassed and we have ego weight

attached to it and the idea is not to become so attached to something that we can't shift or change direction if necessary especially if it's going to benefit us or the people we're around now the next term is change now the terms the three c's catch challenge and change really important but once we catch the idea and realize okay maybe that's not so great challenge it

I just challenged it in the first statement by being aware of it and changing doesn't mean that the thoughts will never come up again. But knowing that if I do that, then doing this is probably better if it if the other one doesn't look so good. So we're able to change trajectory mid stride.

Now what I'm encouraging is that we be more mindful moment to moment day to day so that we were more flexible in response. But as we're mindful, that does not mean we're throwing away that feel good flow that we get in our lives. Doesn't mean that at all. But the point I'm trying to make is that we get so involved that we do not question. We don't challenge, once again, those things that come into us and much of what we're seeing right now is a lot of tension, especially political tension that is so far removed from us. That feels like it's so close to us. Cause it's physically in our hands that

people start having not only high strong emotions but they start running around with tension about things that don't impact them directly now on a bigger national sense maybe but what's happening in your life right now well you're losing sovereignty you're leaking autonomy to the social media that you're consuming and you're becoming much more suggestible you become less flexible

armando (24:43.387)
and you become more afraid. So that means you're losing quality of life as a result of allowing yourself to immerse and also believe without questioning whether or not what you're taking in is true. And most of us don't want to go through the rigmarole of going through and researching. And as they say today,

coming with receipts as if somehow that is going to elevate what it is that you're saying because I did the research on Google. Okay. Well, what I'm talking about is more your immediate biological reality and the quality of life you're living moment to moment.

breath by breath day by day that you're sharing with your loved ones you're sharing with your friends you don't want to arrive as less because you're tense and you're afraid and you're anxious and depressed or feeling a sense of existential dread because you believe the crap that's out there and much of that is

We can't tell what is good, what is bad and what has been filtered and most anything that we call news today isn't news and it's not reporting it's filtration and we have to realize that and know that much of what we're taking in a lot of it and I hate saying it this way. It's a lie and you don't want to necessarily take everything in without a good washing a good cleansing of so that way, you know that what you're taking in fundamentally if you're going from first principle is based in good values and makes

sense and it's serving you and not everything is going to hell in a hand basket but

armando (26:11.571)
Those that are in charge of social media would have us believe so. And what I'd like you to do is be mindful, be aware, be willing to catch those thoughts, catch what it is that you're taking in, challenge it. It's okay. Don't get mad about it, but do be willing to question. Okay. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And understand that we can very easily be dragged into and suggested to and shaped in a way that we become reactive and we lose quality of life and quantitative quality things in our life. Whenever we.

around tense and stressed. And the evolution, once again, is that we're being shaped to adapt more quickly. We're not being shaped into a new species of human being 2.0. It's not evolution in that sense. We're not being mutated in the sense that I'm growing a new arm or an extra ear, not anything like this. Those things that change that abruptly,

Usually die those kind of abrupt mutations don't make it and that's something that science knows but we are gradually evolving what it is that we become reactive to artificially but whenever we unplugged and I encourage you to unplug at least once a day to be able to give yourself a little quiet time and you realize that the silence isn't scary and what it is it's comforting and it allows your nervous system to rest and if you rest your nervous system you will be more active

to to those things that don't make sense, challenge those things that really need challenging in question, and change those things, your behaviors, based on the things that are being driven through your nervous system that you're taking without question because it's coming so fast and so intensely, and with emotional flexion, that may cause you harm over time. Be willing to take the long view, slow down, take time, look forward. Remember, we're prediction machines. We're also expectation machines based on past experience. And we're

still here and chances are we're going to be here for a long time and don't you want to enjoy yourself as much as possible I know I do and certainly I'm encouraging you to do that so for now I want to tell you thank you for spending this Sunday morning with me it's kind of cool today but it is lovely and sunny outside I'm definitely gonna go do stuff but I want to tell you thank you for participating by listening to the running man project and also want to ask you to please go to YouTube like subscribe and share I'd love to see those numbers grow and

armando (28:32.439)
I want to tell you thanks once again for listening on all platforms that this podcast is found and just keep working forward keep moving forward and catch what you can challenge it change it if you must and Do it for the best benefit of yourself and your loved one learn how to write Practice writing again get a journal and work on cursive while you're listening to good music That is such an awesome exercise and I think you'd be pleasantly surprised. Take care

Walk well.