this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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Take five chimpanzees. Put them in a big cage. Suspend some bananas from the roof of the cage. Provide the chimpanzees with a stepladder. BUT also add a proximity detector to the bananas, so that when a chimp goes near the banana, water hoses are triggered and the whole cage is thoroughly soaked.
Soon, the chimps learn that the bananas and the stepladder are best ignored.
Now, remove one chimp, and replace it with a fresh one. That chimp knows nothing of the hoses. He sees the banana, notices the stepladder, and because he is a smart primate, he envisions himself stepping on the stepladder to reach the bananas. He then deftly grabs the stepladder... and the four other chimps spring on him and beat him squarely. He soon learns to ignore the stepladder.
Then, remove another chimp and replace it with a fresh one. The scenario occurs again; when he grabs the stepladder, he gets mauled by the four other chimps -- yes, including the previous "fresh" chimp. He has integrated the notion of "thou shallt not touch the stepladder".
Iterate. After some operations, you have five chimps who are ready to punch any chimp who would dare touch the stepladder (or curse Henry Symeonis) -- and none of them knows why.
now put the stepladder inside a room with a door, make the chimps beat up anyone who opens the door, and you'll have a next gen security system
engineer: what about a wall instead of a door?
mathematician: what about a sphere instead of a room?
A while back I looked for a source for this. Apparently it never happened.
Literally made up in one of those "how to get rich" garbage books.
It's more of a thought experiment than a real occurrence.
Well, it might not have happened with chimpanzees, but it happens all the time with humans. So I see it more as a good allegory than a true story.
Like Peasant-brains defending oligarch billionaires or attacking socialists who try to help them
It's a Aesop.
Chimp cage of Theseus
Super interesting. Is this why peasant-brains defend capitalism, our undemocratic two party system, and the oligarchy so intensely?
literally how traditions work