Comments on: The hundredth macaca

By: Nuke’s News and Views » Target takes on Che-Mart

Nuke’s News and Views » Target takes on Che-Mart — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:44:46 +0000

[...] on Warcrimes Trial , 100th Macaca, Darrell on Missing Persons in SC, Layla on Kerry’s damage [...]

By: Enas Yorl

Enas Yorl — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 02:58:23 +0000

Ah, thanks for fishing that out - I thought that I did something wrong and it was lost to the void. Understand though that what I wrote is no defence of Sheldrake or his thoery. I don’t know enough about him or his methodologies to fairly evaluate either. As for strange claims, I know that some VERY strainge claims associated with Quantum Physics are nonetheless generally accepted by the scientific community. I also know that Einstien went to his grave disputing the very cental tenants of QT and trying to come up with something better. In my own reading and thinking about the Great Mysteries encountered in Math & Science I’ve come to the conclusion that we live in a very strange universe and that the strangeness goes all the way up, and all the way down! :-D

Keep up the great blog, Mr. Weasel! I’m glad I encountered it.

By: S. Weasel

S. Weasel — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 12:09:25 +0000

Ha! I just found your comment gummed up in the Akismet spam filter, Enas Yorl. I wonder what made it think you were a bot. The reference to advertising, maybe?

I have received a ringing defense of Sheldrake, but I still maintain that a sensible person’s reactions on hearing the 100th Monkey hypothesis is going to be, “that didn’t happen.” If you’re firing on all available cylinders, you need a claim that strange proved to you, not disproved for you.

I am, perhaps, more aware of Vegas. I am no more likely to go there, however.

By: Enas Yorl

Enas Yorl — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 05:37:47 +0000

Interesting. I’ve never heard of the “Hundredth Monkey” thing, but I have encountered Rupert Sheldrake and his “morphic resonance” before. There was a series on The Learning Channel back in the mid-90’s about some of the more speculative areas of scientific theories and their proponents, and Sheldrake was one of them. He didn’t reference yam washing monkeys in his explanation of his theory, but he did talk about crossword puzzles and clever cream-stealing birds. He also mentioned that he had some interest from one Japanese computer company that was considering hiring him to direct a research program into proving his theory and developing practical applications from it. But that was in the before the tech-bubble burst and people were flinging money at all kinds of stuff.

Having said all that, I’m not sure that the various efforts of “Raising Awareness” about this-or-that issue or cause is actually related to the “Hundredth Monkey Effect”. Perhaps it was in the early days, but present-day the term Raising Awareness has been wholly taken over by the mainstream advertising industry, to the effect where the current meaning is almost completely uncoupled from that past definition. Almost in the sense that the thoeretical morphic resonance field is replaced in actuality with a constant real-world advertising resonance field. The concept has been embraced, just not the delivery method.

I work for an organization that recently contracted with the ad company that came up with the “What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas” campaign. Was your awareness of Las Vegas as a potential vacation destination raised by this campaign?

By: Purple Avenger

Purple Avenger — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 05:10:50 +0000

World Orgasm Day passed and I didn’t feel a twitch at all. You would think some of those busty moonbat babes banging for Gaia would have been able to send a few Orgone Rays my way - but nooooo, it didn’t happen.

Q.E.D. This resonance thing is bullshit.

By: S. Weasel

S. Weasel — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 22:58:33 +0000

What the data did show was that young monkeys readily took to yam washing, but older monkeys (especially males, who lived apart from the group) did not. Gradually, though, the non-yam-washing monkeys died out, and the monkeys who had learned as children kept it up, until all monkeys washed yams. Max Plank said that new ideas don’t replace old ones by convincing the scientific establishment, they just survive until all the old farts die out (those may not have been his exact words).

Now, that’s something worth knowing. Because it’s TRUE.