For those who don’t know, a turkey that was either dumb or destructive flew into the front of my truck, damaging the grill. (One of the best jokes was about having grilled turkey.) Shortly thereafter, my check engine light came on.

My friend Mary was suggesting some “do-it-yourself” repairs. When I noted the glowing light was a complication, she responded that it was in line with neuroplasticity. (Neuroplasticity is the brain’s amazing ability to change, reorganize, and adapt its structure and function throughout life in response to new experiences, learning, or injuries.) We do have some interesting dialogues.

She’s correct. The check engine light may be focused on the memory. The truck’s simply saying, “Ow! I got hit, and it hurt!”

Some quick research indicates that without an OBD scanner, the best way to reset the check engine light is to disconnect the battery for 20-30 minutes. We might call that electroshock therapy, now called electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and still used today, with a claimed 60% to 80% success rate with people. (I’m not sure what the rate is with cars.

It also sounds a bit like Windows Software. When things stop working, simply turn it off and back on. It’s interesting that this hard reset also has a 60% to 80% success rate of fixing minor glitches, performance lags, and system unresponsiveness.

We might be on to something. We are already thinking of AI programs as if they were people. “I’ll ask Claude! (ClaudeGPT).” To what extent are people (at least in some respects) like AI programs?

A “hard reset” could change the way we’re thinking. Problem-solving could be just that simple.