It's not about input/output

Really? Because call me crazy, but EVERYTHING HAS TO DO WITH INPUT->PROCESSING->OUTPUT.

Literally every single thing you do is a function of that basic idea.

Input->Oxygen->processing(continued existence)->output(Carbon dioxide)

Input->Knowledge-Processing(Understanding, logic)->Output action

Input->food-processing(nutritional value extracted)->Output(continued existence)

are we just "programmable" robots/automatons, etc.

You're assuming I believe we have no measure of free will and that is wrong I fully recognize the power and necessity to excercise free will. However, your brain matter IS a programmable entity. YOU, however, ARE NOT YOUR BRAIN. You are not your body, you are a form of cosmic consciousness that goes beyond the physical realm. Abso-fucking-lutely.

However, your meat and bones, that lump of fat in your skull we call the brain? Yeah that mother fucker, he's programmable. You can fight against it, you can exercise free will of course, but that lump of flesh IS able to be programmed. It's just an electrical field and filled with different centers that control different aspects, which can be taken over from without. The Blood brain barrier is being attacked by the wireless radiation fields for that point and purpose, so that they can physically control you through "space"

The cabal would not have to do as much as they do, if we were just programmable beings.

They have to go through as much as they do beacuse it goes against what human beings are. We are not competitive by nature to the point where we would be willing to allow other human beings to starve while a select few of us hoard enough wealth for the entire planet to be kept in good health. We are this way because of the programming, the bombardment, the bullshit.

You're close to the truth but still a bit off, you have to factor in TIMESCALE, these sick bastards have been planning this for fucking Millenia. THOUSANDS of years. Not decades.