• The 8 Monkeys:

    (This is reportedly based on an actual experiment conducted in the U.K. @DayShifter please confirm :joy: )

    Once upon a time some crazy weirdass scientists decided to put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room they put a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.

    Each time a monkey tried to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable. Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up. And soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.

    Now one of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious, and he immediately begins to climb the ladder.

    All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why.

    However, he learns something and no longer attempts to climb the ladder.

    A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him.

    And this hammering includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that heโ€™s not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why heโ€™s attacking the new monkey.

    One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.

    And that is how stupid traditions, dogmatic part of the religion and to a large extent systems get established and followed.

    @DarkIce69 what do you think about this one? :grin:


  • The parallel with religion, even dogmatic religion, is a bit tenuous, mate, if you don't mind me saying. For the experiment to truly be an allegory for religion, the bananas would need to be unseen, their existence merely implied by some priest monkey.

    I see where you're coming from, but I think you're maybe doing mankind a disservice, or maybe being overly lenient to us, by comparing the monkey experiment to our situation. To put it in perspective, I dislike capitalism as much, I imagine, as you dislike religion, but I wouldn't suggest it's just some mindless, cowardly autopilot. Maybe it is a little bit, but don't forget, there's also such a thing as conceit. I would never be able to win over any capitalists by telling them that they're caught in some mindless loop... but if you played up human consciousness, even evil, you might just build a rapport.

    Besides which, eventually, after many generations, evolution will provide the monkeys with telekinesis so that they can free-up them bananas without even touching em. All the little monkeys from chimpan-A to chimpanzee.


  • @ObviouslyLucifer This is not something I had ever heard of, but after looking around it seems to me like a test of confomity, and how over time creatures / people will eventually confirm without reason.
    As many places confirm, it is largley related to religion, but if you ask me it can be related to many aspects of life and groups of people.

    hahahah @Barton is a Banana :joy:
    gotta love the tag system :joy:


  • In the end its not even about the banana. Simply look up and you get clobbered.


  • @ObviouslyLucifer Ivan Petrovich Pavlov called this behavior as "conditioning". He made experiences with dogs using eletric shocks. Skinner who studied the positive and negative reinforcements in rats and still Piaget who used his own children for his Constructivism experiments. Studying the conditioning of the irrational (not in the same case of Piaget, of course), it is possible to understand human behavior.


  • @ObviouslyLucifer said in The 8 monkeys...:

    The 8 Monkeys:

    (This is reportedly based on an actual experiment conducted in the U.K. @DayShifter please confirm :joy: )

    Once upon a time some crazy weirdass scientists decided to put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room they put a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.

    Each time a monkey tried to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable. Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up. And soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.

    Now one of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious, and he immediately begins to climb the ladder.

    All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why.

    However, he learns something and no longer attempts to climb the ladder.

    A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him.

    And this hammering includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that heโ€™s not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why heโ€™s attacking the new monkey.

    One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.

    And that is how stupid traditions, dogmatic part of the religion and to a large extent systems get established and followed.

    @DarkIce69 what do you think about this one? :grin:

    That's funny "Once upon a time" and "crazy scientists"... You know this kind of stuff is what very normal animal behaviour scientists do all day, today...

    But how about crazy experiments (shamelessly stolen from an internet article):

    In the United States, 1944, an experiment was conducted on 40 newborn infants to determine whether individuals could thrive alone on basic physiological needs without affection. Twenty newborn infants were housed in a special facility where they had caregivers who would go in to feed them, bathe them and change their diapers, but they would do nothing else. The caregivers had been instructed not to look at or touch the babies more than what was necessary, never communicating with them. All their physical needs were attended to scrupulously and the environment was kept sterile, none of the babies becoming ill.

    The experiment was halted after four months, by which time, at least half of the babies had died at that point. At least two more died even after being rescued and brought into a more natural familial environment. There was no physiological cause for the babies' deaths; they were all physically very healthy. Before each baby died, there was a period where they would stop verbalizing and trying to engage with their caregivers, generally stop moving, nor cry or even change expression; death would follow shortly. The babies who had "given up" before being rescued, died in the same manner, even though they had been removed from the experimental conditions.

    The conclusion was that nurturing is actually a very vital need in humans. Whilst this was taking place, in a separate facility, the second group of twenty newborn infants were raised with all their basic physiological needs provided and the addition of affection from the caregivers. This time however, the outcome was as expected, no deaths encountered.


  • @ObviouslyLucifer Dude I'm lmao.....Best incident ever....Reallly genius of the monkeys :monkey: :banana:


  • @lego-batman

    Some say this story is not real and is based on what scholars call "King Fredericks Experiment":

    https://www.digma.com/digma-images/video-scripts/fredericks_experiment.pdf

    Something similar happend elsewhere, but no infants died. More elaboration can be read in the second reply:

    https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-a-newborn-child-will-die-if-you-supply-it-with-all-the-necessary-elements-to-survive-but-never-give-it-love
    https://www.quora.com/If-a-baby-is-left-in-a-crib-with-no-interaction-except-feeding-and-changing-for-two-years-what-would-happen

    Love and affection is always necessary for humans, especially for infants and growing people. Or else they create the monsters everyone is afraid of.


  • @Karina-Kara said in The 8 monkeys...:

    ...

    Hmm, gotta fact check better it seems...


  • @ObviouslyLucifer
    I think I read / heard this situation before.. ๐Ÿค”
    Maybe I was da last monkey who ate all bananas ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚