All that one can do is either expand ones database and therefore modify output, or simply re-organise ones pre-existing data store. (Alter ones outlook).......One cannot de-programme and re-programme at will.
Depends what you mean by database. Expanding your database will be meaningless if the programs are not changed to utilize the new fields. If you meant just expanding the "data" and not the database, then that would only give you more output, not "modify the output". As for reorganizing the database or data store (a reconfigure), this would cause the programs to crash, since they would refer to data connections that no longer exist or have been changed. I would think this would make reprogramming essential.
Social factors may cause you to make alternative decisions (wine) so you simply modify a pre-existing data programme, (conscious effort or free will)..... Therefore in this instance one can clearly make distinctions between cause and effect, and free will.
Not really. In this example, the "social factors" would be a new "cause". It would prove only that the cause-and-effect line of bowing to social pressure was stronger than the cause-and-effect line of choosing the wine I preferred. I would still have no free will.
But I do believe what you were talking about with pre-existing programs. We are born with basic programs. As we grow and learn these basic programs are used to build larger and larger networks of programs. But understanding these programs, means we can use them to our advantage. Instead of programming, you might call them "scripts". A script can call any number of pre-existing programs and create complete worlds using just a handful of these.
Our senses, physiological needs and emotions are some of these basic programs. We may not be able to reprogram our physical (and emotional) need for food, but we can use this "food" program to write our own program (say for using a fork). We are not born with the need or ability to handle a fork. But we love to eat. Our parents teach us how to eat "better" by using the fork. If, years later, we wanted to use only chopsticks, we could use the need for food, the "food" program to do this. We might only allow ourselves to eat if we use the chopsticks.
There would still be a cause and effect. But with the chopsticks, the cause is most predominantly our desire for change. The reason behind wanting to change is probably the real cause.
