Thursday, April 05, 2007
The 100 Monkeys Theory is based on research conducted in 1952 through 1958 when the monkeys on a remote island were observed while discovering a new way to wash sweet potatoes. The monkeys living on nearby islands and even the mainland somehow acquired the same knowledge, even though there was no physical contact between the two groups of monkeys. The study went so far as to show how future generations of this monkey were born with this new knowledge; it became instinctual.
So the theory is when enough members of a group (for convenience stated as 100 monkeys because there were approximately 100 monkeys on the island) acquire a certain piece of knowledge, this knowledge passes into a collective consciousness, and all members of the group acquire that knowledge. But in reality we currently refer to this behavior as instinct. This research shows how the instinctual behavior of a small group can eventually shift paradigms. It also proves there is hope for a society like ours.
A casual observer would see this research as only about monkeys but this is actually a story about social change and how the power of intellect can enlighten an entire species. So by the same token if you lie to enough people and they start believing the lie as fact, can this lie be woven into our instinctual behavior? Before we answer this question let’s look at more data to see if we can connect the dots.
There also might be a correlation between total population and the number of enlightened people to bring about a change. In monkeys at that particular time it was 100, but to bring about an instinctual change in mankind today with a population today of over 6.5 billion, the number of enlightened might be much higher.
I believe in this theory. If enough enlightened people believe and adapt their behavior then our entire species can shift to a better paradigm and live a more enriched life. However, other people can sabotage this shift as is evident with President Bush and his 30% approval rating pandering to an unpopular, immoral war in Iraq. This scientific research proves he must either change or be left behind eating dirty potatoes. But this posting is not about the war in Iraq.
Our DNA is a recorder for our species. It has all the information ever collected about us, even so far as telling us how many of our species were alive in a particular time. Using this data we built a historical chart of the evolution of our species and we compared it with other data collected from the Earth in ice and rock. For example, we saw a severe drop in population about 80,000 years ago to the point where we almost went extinct. This data corresponded with evidence of a mega-volcanic eruption about that same time in evidence collected within the ice in Antarctica and within the rocks in Australia. When you have evidence collected by three different scientific fields reflecting the same conclusion then you have very strong proof.
In order to keep my posts shorter and easier to read, I stop here and let everybody digest this. I will post more next week about this theory and how this collective intelligence might respond to falsehoods and lies. What are your thoughts and comments so far?
So the theory is when enough members of a group (for convenience stated as 100 monkeys because there were approximately 100 monkeys on the island) acquire a certain piece of knowledge, this knowledge passes into a collective consciousness, and all members of the group acquire that knowledge. But in reality we currently refer to this behavior as instinct. This research shows how the instinctual behavior of a small group can eventually shift paradigms. It also proves there is hope for a society like ours.
A casual observer would see this research as only about monkeys but this is actually a story about social change and how the power of intellect can enlighten an entire species. So by the same token if you lie to enough people and they start believing the lie as fact, can this lie be woven into our instinctual behavior? Before we answer this question let’s look at more data to see if we can connect the dots.
There also might be a correlation between total population and the number of enlightened people to bring about a change. In monkeys at that particular time it was 100, but to bring about an instinctual change in mankind today with a population today of over 6.5 billion, the number of enlightened might be much higher.
I believe in this theory. If enough enlightened people believe and adapt their behavior then our entire species can shift to a better paradigm and live a more enriched life. However, other people can sabotage this shift as is evident with President Bush and his 30% approval rating pandering to an unpopular, immoral war in Iraq. This scientific research proves he must either change or be left behind eating dirty potatoes. But this posting is not about the war in Iraq.
Our DNA is a recorder for our species. It has all the information ever collected about us, even so far as telling us how many of our species were alive in a particular time. Using this data we built a historical chart of the evolution of our species and we compared it with other data collected from the Earth in ice and rock. For example, we saw a severe drop in population about 80,000 years ago to the point where we almost went extinct. This data corresponded with evidence of a mega-volcanic eruption about that same time in evidence collected within the ice in Antarctica and within the rocks in Australia. When you have evidence collected by three different scientific fields reflecting the same conclusion then you have very strong proof.
In order to keep my posts shorter and easier to read, I stop here and let everybody digest this. I will post more next week about this theory and how this collective intelligence might respond to falsehoods and lies. What are your thoughts and comments so far?
posted by DarthImmortal at 8:37 AM
2 Comments:
The so-called "Hundredth Monkey Theory" has been debunked on many occasions (see for example: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_vNON4/ai_4436765
or just google hundredth monkey debunked)
This theory has been used by new-agers to suggest some proof of telepathy and by religionists to suggest some higher power that connects us. No such proof exists.
That's not to suggest that such proof might not be found by science but to date no proof to suggest any connection between organisms like telepathy have been found. On the contrary there are adequate theories that explain human and animal interaction without relying on any unknown mechanism.
Xeric,
Thanks for the comment. I realized this post focused on the “collective intelligence” but I did not want that so I changed it. I wanted to focus on the sociological changes within the monkeys and how we can use this lesson to change the paradigms within our own species.
You are correct about the collective intelligence being debunked but the social changes and effects of changes within these monkeys are still regarded as excellent research. Most of my research on the 100 monkeys theory came from here: http://www.wowzone.com/monkey.htm . They talk about both the fallacies and the validity of this experiment.
Check back in a few days as I post the other two parts of this essay. I would also like your comments on those.
Thanks again
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