The 100th Monkey Project: A story about social change.

Via: The Hundredth Monkey
by Ken Keyes, Jr.



The Japanese monkey, Macaca Fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years. In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.

An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists. Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable. Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes -- the exact number is not known. Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.

THEN IT HAPPENED!

By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!

But notice: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea...Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes.

Thus, when a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind. Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people.

But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes-in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!

From the book "The Hundredth Monkey" by Ken Keyes, Jr.

Follow @Iamindemand and join the conversation on Twitter Right Now!!!

60 Minutes: Mind Reading Machine

60 Minutes had a report that I saw the other night, and it seemed like science fiction to me at first and it also tripped me out: mind reading is for real. Neuro-scientists at Carnegie Mellon University used a computer and a functional MRI to read the mind of a CBS producer. These scientists are obviously expanding on MRI technology to read not only brain functions but actual thoughts, and apparently this breakthrough seems very promising. Below is a short clip of the experiment.

Part 1


Part 2


Think about this for a minute: They are working on a machine that is capable of figuring out a human's intention before it results in action. Apparently our brain's prefrontal cortex region is activated whenever we are about to make a decision. Can you imagine this being made available in courtrooms, interrogation chambers etc. Will there be a new set of laws drafted to prosecute a person who has the intention of commiting a crime but does not follow through? Interesting times are definitely lined up ahead of us.

Other Cognitive Technologies that are up the same alley:

Microsoft has a mind reading patent

Mind Reading Video Games

Is it extraordinary skill or just good information storing?

An almost super concentration is what's seemingly needed in today’s competitive knowledge-based economy, and this kind of attention to detail is what's so important to corporations who hire marketers for their "expertise". But I've realized throughout my years that there are no true experts, just people with a measurable degree of superiority in skill, and that skill is usually embellished with imposing credentials. I've spent alot of my time trying to appoint people to various positions within my company, and I've had to consider that there is a balance between what one can innately do and what one has practiced considerably.

Rigorous studies in the past two decades have shown that professional stock pickers invest no more successfully than amateurs, that noted connoisseurs distinguish wines hardly better than beginners, and that highly credentialed psychiatric therapists help patients no more than colleagues with less advanced degrees. And even when expertise undoubtedly exists--as in, say, teaching or business management--it is often hard to measure, let alone explain.

I found this to be extremely revealing...

Garry Kasparov, is a Russian grandmaster in chess who had a rating of 2812, and he would win 75 percent of his games against the 100th-ranked grandmaster Jan Timman of the Netherlands, who had a rating of 2616 (not that many less won games). Ratings like these allow psychologists to assess expertise by performance rather than reputation and to track changes in a given player's skill over the course of his or her career. The feats of chess masters have long been ascribed to nearly magical mental powers, but as you can see by the numbers mentioned above that there is no such magic.

The chess master just as the other player does calls up a general knowledge of where the piece stands in relation to other elements on the board. It is this same kind of implicit knowledge that the commuter has when reading how many stops are left on a subway line. A master does not have to remember every detail at all times, because he can reconstruct any particular detail whenever he wishes by tapping a well-organized system of connections, established by his past experiences and usually by deductive reasoning. In short: The expert relies not so much on an intrinsically stronger power of analysis, but rather he summons from a store of structured knowledge.

When it comes to this marketing stuff, it is my knowledge of certain things that gives me edge in today's so called "urban" scene, something that alot of these other firms with "imposing credentials' just don't have. So I'd like all of you in Blog-land to know that your power comes from your knowledge base and your talent is found in what you know best, and that is what might make you look like an expert. But remember - performance speaks louder then reputation.

Peace out...