[WikiEN-l] Policy Creation Procedure

[Ray Saintonge]

Sean Barrett wrote:

>Start with a cage containing five apes.
>
>In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it. Before
>long, an ape will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the
>banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with
>cold water.
>
>After a while, another ape makes an attempt with the same result, all
>the apes are sprayed with cold water. This continues through several
>more attempts. Pretty soon, when another ape tries to climb the stairs,
>the other apes all try to prevent it.
>
>Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one ape from the cage and replace
>it with a new one. The new ape sees the banana and wants to climb the
>stairs. To his horror, all of the other apes attack him. After another
>attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he
>will be assaulted.
>
...

>After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes, all the apes that
>were sprayed with cold water have been replaced. Nevertheless, no ape
>ever again approaches the stairs. Why not?
>
>Because that's the way they've always done it and that's the way it's
>always been around here.
>
Since we also have five members of the Board, was this intended to be an 
allegory?  I'm sure that we have more than our share of experimenters 
willing to throw cold wateron our apes. :-)

Ec