In 1948 the famous Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner did a test on some pigeons (poor things). He kept the pigeons in a box and with a button they could operate a mechanism that provided food. So, not surprisinlgy, the pigeons learned how the system worked: ‘push button, get food’. Lesson: pigeons are capable of learning, no news there. but then Skinner took this test to a different level.

B.F. Skinner

Pigeonrituals

These pigeons did not have the intellectual capabilities of actually understanding what happened when they pushed the button; this button that gave off an electrical signal that set some mechanical device in motion thet released food into the box (or something like that). As far as the pigeons were concerned, this could all just have been magic. What Skinner did, was randomize the dispensing of food in the box. At completely random moments, without any sort of button or switch the pigeons would get food in the box. Skinner then saw that the pigeons started developping all sorts of rituals that -in their minds- preceded getting food. Some pigeons started doing elaborate dances (not unlike a raindance I’d imagine) other started pecking the walls of the box. All of this in anticipation of food, which eventually came. As far as the pigeons were concerned: their rituals worked.

Randomness

The key in this experiment is not the proof that pigeons apparently may learn to operate a button, but are incapable of understanding the mechanism behind a switch; it is that pigeons developped some sort of religious rituals that they believe worked, since they could not grasp the concept of randomness. And, my fellow human beings, neither can we. It is a well known saying that ‘the way to predict the future is to study the past’. But this is also a great misconception.

Pigeons

Divine intervention

If you look back on past random events, our human minds operates in a way that will start seeing patterns, even if they’re not there. Sure, we understand the randomness of the outcome of throwing a pair of dice, but not the randomness in the failure of the crops. For that; there must be a reason. And, if we cannot find this reason; than that must be a case of divine intervention, right? There must be a reason why food drops down your box and the reason is ‘I did this dance’ and if your dance wasn;t followed by food, than you must have done something wrong. And that might just be how religion is born. Religion might just be a way of understanding this very randomised world around us.

Photocredit: Pigeons photo from Melody McFarlands blog.

The book ‘primates and philosophers - how morality evolved’ by professor Frans de Waal tries to explain to the reader how ‘morality’ is not a unique human trait, but something that evolved. Various forms of morality can be found in other species and, not surprisingly, the nearer these species get to human species, the more evolved their sense of moral gets. That’s the basic idea. I won’t get into details about the book and whether it’s any good or not (I liked it though), if you’re interested in that, go and have a look at the Amazon reviews or something.

What I was triggered by was something de Waal wrote in between making two points about the central mater of moral: Is it ridiculous for animals to have rights? It seems to me that De Waal thinks so, because he started with something of joke in which a Gazelle was suing a leopard for chasing her. Also, he made the point: if it is okay for a fox to eat a rabbit, why should it not be okay for me to eat a rabbitThe afterthought to that would be: if it is okay to eat a rabbit to keep you alive, why would it be wrong to do medical tests on animals to keep you alive? Since I believe that De Waal is a smart man, I think it’s safe to conclude that these are thoughts shared by a lot of people, and not just the stupid ones.

I am no attacking people that meat. Nor is my central point here that it would be wrong in all cases to perform medical tests on animals if it will save human lives. I have a opninion on those matters, but I won’t bother you with that right now. What I am saying here that even if you are in favor of medicak tests andeven if you truly believe humankind consists of carnivores; that’s not an argumant to want to set up legislation for human rights. And the way I see it; it shouldn’t have to be all that difficult (De Waal seemed to think it wold even be impossible).

Shouldn’t the central point of universal human rights simply be:

And I honoustly do not believe that that’s naive. Obviously there will a lot of small matters that lawyers and legal experts need to sort out, but they’ll work it out in the end. If we, humans, have such a strong sense of morality, it should have to be that difficult to agree with such a rule of thumb. And if you are absolutely convinced that you have to have your pork sausage, steak or bacon… at least give those animals a happy life.

Like I mentioned a couple of postings ago, I account my liking of New York largely to a mild tv addiction. Walking through Manhattan for the first time felt really familiar. You’ve probably seen a cheesy flick or read a cheap novel where at some point someone says: “It felt like coming homing to a place where I’d never been.” It was something like that.

A very cosmopolitan thing to be able to say to people: “Oh, you’re going to other side of the world? I know a good place to eat.” This works even better in my case, where seemingly everyone I know is turning vegetarian… in some cases with the exception of fish, which actually does not make you a vegetarian at all (…but in the back of my mind, the late mr. Cobain is wailing ‘it’s okay to eat fish ‘cos they, don’t have any feeeeeelin’…). Anyhow; why does that work even better? Because the ‘place to eat’ in this case is a very vegetarian friendly place and those kind of places are a teeny bit harder to find than a ‘cow and chicken processing’ cholesterol palace. I’m talking about ‘Quantum Leap‘ in the West Village.

I visited that place a couple of times, because of the great ambiance, the friendly staff, the nice location… but the main reason is: they make absolutely breathtakingly, apetite fulfillingly(?), gorgeous food. I don’t vegetarian beacuse I don’t like the taste of meat, I love it. When I eat vegetarian food it is because of my poor conscious. The vegetarian options at Quantum Leap however are so incredibly good that I would turn full time vegetarian straight away, would I live anywhere near that place. Best burgers I ever ate, but no one gets hurt. But the same goes for all the other meal options we’ve tried.

Quantum Leap alone is plenty of reason for me to want to go back to Manhattan. And I haven’t even told you about Gobo restaurant in the West Village yet… what a yummy place!