Is Information Shaping Us?

 

Are We Shaping Information, or Is Information Shaping Us?

A New Way to Think About Identity, Intelligence, and the Data We Consume

Every day, we make thousands of decisions based on information.

We read news articles. We watch videos. We scroll through social media feeds. We talk to friends. We remember our past experiences. We learn new facts. We change our minds.

Most of us assume that we are the active participants in this process—that we are using information to understand the world. But what if the relationship works both ways?

What if, while we are shaping information into knowledge, the information itself is simultaneously shaping us?

This question lies at the heart of a concept I call Recursive Self-Instantiation (RSI).

Its fundamental principle can be expressed by a surprisingly simple equation:

In plain English, this means:

"Who you become tomorrow depends on who you are today and the information you encounter today."

At first glance, this sounds obvious. Of course, our experiences shape us. But RSI suggests something more profound: our identity is not fixed; it is continuously rebuilt through our interaction with information.

The Architect and the Data

Imagine that your mind is an architect.

Every piece of information you encounter—every book, conversation, memory, or experience—is like a new set of building materials.

The architect uses these materials to construct a model of reality.

But here's the twist:

As the architect builds these models, the architect itself changes.

The next time it builds something, it does so as a slightly different architect.

In other words:

• You interpret information.
• The information changes you.
• The changed version of you interprets new information.
• That new information changes you again.

This process never really stops. You are both the architect and the evolving blueprint.

An Everyday Example: Learning to Ride a Bicycle

Think back to when you first learned to ride a bicycle.

At the beginning:

• You had little experience.
• Your brain had a poor model of balance.
• You made mistakes frequently.

Each attempt generated new information:

• "I leaned too far."
• "I need to pedal faster."
• "Turning works differently than I expected."

Your brain absorbed this information and updated its internal model.

The next attempt was made by a slightly different version of yourself—a version that had already learned something.

Eventually, after hundreds of recursive updates, you no longer consciously think about balancing at all.

The person who knows how to ride a bicycle literally did not exist before the learning process began. You built that version of yourself through recursive interaction with information.

A More Modern Example: Social Media

Now consider social media. Suppose you watch several videos about a particular topic.

The platform's algorithm records this information and recommends similar content.

You watch more. Your beliefs and interests begin to shift. As your interests shift, you seek out different information. That new information changes you further.

The cycle continues:

Your identity influences the information you consume, and the information you consume influences your identity.

This is a recursive loop. In many ways, social media platforms have become external engines of recursive self-instantiation.

Artificial Intelligence and Recursive Learning

This idea also applies to artificial intelligence. When an AI system receives new data, it updates its internal representations of the world. If the AI is capable of self-modification, then each update changes not only what the AI knows, but also how it will learn in the future.

In effect, the AI becomes the product of all the information it has previously processed.

The same may be true for human beings. Perhaps we are not fixed entities traveling through time. Perhaps we are ongoing processes of reconstruction.

The Surprising Implication

Most of us think: "I observe the world." RSI suggests that another statement is equally true:

"The world I observe is continuously constructing the observer."

This doesn't mean that we lack free will or individuality. Rather, it suggests that identity is not something we possess. Identity is something we continually create.

And recreate. And recreate again.

A Thought Experiment

Imagine meeting your younger self from ten years ago. Would that person agree with your current beliefs? Would they enjoy the same books? Would they have the same goals?

Would they recognize who you have become? Probably not entirely.

Yet both versions are "you." What happened in between?

According to Recursive Self-Instantiation, the answer is simple:

You became the accumulated result of every experience, every memory, every mistake, every conversation, and every piece of information you encountered. You were not merely living your life. You were recursively constructing yourself.

The Final Question

We often believe that we are using information to understand reality.

But perhaps the deeper truth is this: We do not merely consume information. We become what our information recursively constructs. And that raises an unsettling and fascinating question:

If who you become depends on the information you repeatedly encounter, what kind of person are you constructing today?

This framing turns the RSI equation from an abstract mathematical statement into a practical question about learning, identity, education, social media, and even the future of artificial intelligence.