Computer brains

The boundaries between individuals' minds and their environments are thinner than might be imagined. This fact is not new. Advertising exploits the thin and permeable skins of our consciousness in order to drive us to do specific things at a motivational level.

What is less well known is that we all carry around in us ideological bugs and viruses. A person may believe himself not to be a misogynist by any means. But, of course he has been programmed by some religious patriarchal ideologues in his childhood, meaning he will play a certain programme in his mind if he is prompted by recognisable triggers.

Likewise, many believe they are 'not racists', but are so under certain circumstances. (Some of the biggest invisible racists are those who have consolidated an already existing demarcating line concerning skin colour in order to defend against their real or imagined oppression.)