Welcome back reader to the continuation of the experimental series AnimalMomentium. To start from post one click here.
Last post my mate 
On this note... I'd like to introduce Lucky!
What a fantastic creature and so friendly as well.
I first met lucky in a Cambodian wild life sanctuary when I was walking up a road & from no where this huge elephant came running towards me.
Lucky didn't seem like a threat and lucky for me, Lucky came to a full stop and we looked at each other all smiles.
Obviously the people I was traveling with went crazy with the photos (from a safe distance :)). Lucky is very large and could crush you, but super friendly to humans and after staring at me for awhile stepped closer and reached for my hand with trunk.
I was a bit worried about my toe getting stood on, but I decided to give the trunk a little pat.
It wasn't long before Lucky's trainer came running along with a stick and started to whack Lucky..(sounds bad, but was more like a tap then a whip)....this wasn't done in a viscous way, more in a controlling way.
Still, fighting my instinct to grab the stick and whack the trainer back, I more sensibly had a discussion about what was happening instead.
Apparently, Lucky is a significant draw card to the sanctuary and makes them allot of money. People pay an Access Fee for Lucky to do her trick.
The apparent problem was Lucky was suppose to live controlled by a human system(*level 3 system, see below), Lucky had two rules which were never to be broken
- Lucky was never allowed to leave her keepers side - Why? because lucky was large and not trusted to move around, I mean lucky might hurt someone by mistake, right..
- Lucky was only suppose to touch my hand if I had US$ in it - Why? it was her trick to pick US$ notes out of tourists hands. This was apparently great!, it paid for the wage of the trainer and contributed to the ongoing funding for the sanctuary.
..But I think it's worth thinking about this for a while....
In our consumer driven world we are taught we are free to choose (but animals and plants are not). Why?
Apparently simply enough... these things can't comprehend complex systems like we do, so they don't deserve a choice, they are not smart enough and therefore not entitled.
As they must behave and work within our systems OR stay within their allocated wild spaces (provided to them by Humans...a human system), its a problem because failure to comply normally means death.
The interesting thing about this, is it re-assures all humans we are superior and we have more freedom, then any animal or plant will have...thus if your a human, you can feel happy because no matter how low you feel about your life, your still better then animals and plants and therefore your are a winner :)....right?, maybe not.
In animalmomentium #1 I briefly gave some thoughts on nature and systems of trust. How when a child is born (animal or human), they can't use spoken or written language to learn and instead use and trust their own sensors(*lets call this a level 1 system -nature based), later they also completely trust their parents (well...for awhile, *lets call this a level 2 system -nature based), finally humans create systems through the use of language that can't be proven true with all your sensors (*lets call this a level 3 system -complex/human system).
Lucky the Elephant like Smooshi was bought up to trust their parents (or adopted parents in these cases). Unable to comprehend language, unable to use sensors to understand meaning in complex human systems, animals remain like very young human children and have no choice but to follow their sensors to know what to do (they cannot trust beyond a level 2 system). Thus, they simply trust their parents to know what to do. ANIMALS have no chance to verify any level 3 system, the human tries to teach them - but they will only accept if their parent teaches them, due to trust.
Here I would enter the concept of delegated trust...
This is where a parent whom you trust has taught you something, that was taught to them by someone they trusted, not something they learned from a natural system (level 1 or level 2). It is a human made, complex system, which was only able to be taught through the use of language verbal or written, thus cannot be verified as true with all sensors and therefore is unique to humans.
In the human systems that animals must adhere to, they don't even understand the system. If they have a human parent (even the human parent may not fully understand the system as they too cannot use all sensors to know the truth and it was communicated to them with language, you cannot taste words, or touch them for instance). Therefore It is a delegated trust and so the animal cautiously accepts what the parent has taught as true, testing with it's sensors, failing as you can't, thus never clearly understanding, it eventually gives up believes and does what it is told.
This conditioning can of course be re-enforced by nature system bribes, food for instance, treats or a whack with a stick (the animal can understand these things as they use all it's sensors and it can trust them). Be a good animal, trust me, do what I tell you and be controlled by this system...and if you do, you get sweeties :)...Don't and get a whack
Here is a summary quick table of Lordnigel's system covered so far (note none of this is based on science or research, this is just purely my own observations and interpretation - take it or leave it :)):
Summary:
- Natural systems are trusted without the need for language/mathematics etc - touch, feel, smell, taste all sensors combine allow us to trust (& we can influence them)
- Human systems are complex systems/set of behaviors/understanding that cannot be verified and thus trusted with all your sensors. IF you are trained by your parent (whom you trust), then you trust the system. I mean you can attempt to test the system with what sensors you have, but ultimately you can't fully test the system. If your a human, you comprehend the system and see it as "real", but this trust is a kind of illusion, as it's been communicated to you with language, mathematics etc, but you only trust it truly through delegated trust (we are influenced by the systems).
Haha I've probably lost everyone, but as we do more and more AnimalMomentiums it will start to make more sense...I hope :)
Scenario challenge two:
I want you to imagine for a time that all systems created by humans are not trust worthy (we all know this statement isn't true), but for the duration of this post, please just allow your mind to accept the possibility it might be true for at least some systems we might allow to control us today.
Now armed with this truth, how could you find out who the humans were that created it?, and perhaps what is the real purpose of the system you believe in? Lets try a couple of questions:
1. How would you explain to an animal that has never seen paper before, that it is really a petroleum product? I want you to imagine your in a room with lucky and you have a piece of paper in your hand. Explain how you would communicate to Lucky that the piece of paper is made of petrol (we all know it's made from tree's, but let pretend we think it's made from petrol as that's what you have been taught by a human system you trust).
2. How would you explain to a human child, that has never seen paper before, that it is really a petroleum product? I want you to think about, how you would explain it to your child. How will you describe to the child that the paper was created by humans with equipment and something call petroleum.
THAT'S CORRECT I WANT YOU TO TELL ME HOW YOU WOULD LIE - FOR BOTH QUESTIONS.
I'm going to call this a competition - except the prize is low, for anyone who answers both questions, I will give the promise of a 100% upvote.
To my dear friend - how does this post make you feel old pal