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Lesser Primate Committee Thinking Experiment |
Start with a cage containing five apes. In the
cage, hang a banana on Before long, an ape will go to the stairs and
start to climb towards After a while, another ape makes an attempt
with the same result--all Turn off the cold water. If, later, another ape tries to climb the
stairs, the other apes will Now, remove one ape from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new ape sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other apes attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that
if he tries to climb Next, remove another of the original five apes
and replace it with a The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous Newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Again, replace a third original ape with a new
one. The new one makes Two of the four apes that beat him have no idea
why they were not After replacing the fourth and fifth original
apes, all the apes which Nevertheless, no ape ever again approaches the stairs. Why not? "Because that's the way it's always been around here." Sound familiar? |