The Hundredth Monkey Effect

Note; May be I should've written this post in Arabic langauge, but for some reason I wanted for the content of my subject to reach out to my bilingual readers. Almost all the links included in this post are in Arabics.
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 I have read about this theory; The Hundredth Monkey Effect, for the first time in a booklet at my high school library back in Libya... I was lucky to have such a rich library in my high school, Al-majd Al-shamaly high school in Tripoli, may be it was because of the high education of the organizer of that Library, I hope that Library is still alive...
 I tried to recall the author of that booklet, I think it was for  Asadek Alnehoom الصادق النيهوم but I'm not sure ... The booklet was a summarized Arabic translation for an original English book.

Let me first share with you the idea of the theory, then I will tell you why I remembered it after this long time:

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 monkeys 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. The book is not copyrighted and the material may be reproduced in whole or in part).

What remind me of this is what I read in a blog for a fellow Libyan Blogger. I believe the efforts that are made by him and by many other fellow Libyans in the blog world or  elsewhere are going to make the hundredth monkey effect one day in my beloved society.

Now, upon a request which I read in Bumedian's blog, I am attaching  links for these two posts that he requested to be spread out,

The first one is about a charity work for the seek of preserving the old holy books of Quran, and keeping the book  from the effect of worn out, 

لو تمزق المصحف ؟

http://tripolitanian.blogspot.com/2010/06/blog-post_17.html

Watching these people shouldn't make us feel so small; althought it did for me, but in reality we should learn the concept and try to continue it by whatever skills we have in our different fields.

The second post is about the misuse of antibiotics in Libya. Old post but worth the renewal:

العقار المعجزة ... لكل داء

http://tripolitanian.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-post_13.html

These efforts will never go in vain, I already saw the hundreth monkey effect prevailing while I was working in Tripoli medical center /  pediatric emergency room back in Libya, many Libyans don't like to start antibiotics for their children; not all but many, and many others get convinced easily when the doctor explain to them in simple words why it is inappropriate to start it.

Now, for the seek of honesty,I don't completely agree with all the posts which was written by Bumedian, and that is noraml, but I do like many of his writing,

Here are some posts that there were not any request for them to be spread, but I like the way the post is written, so I would like to share them with my Arabic readers,

I won't explain the idea of the following post, coz then I'll ruin the plot in the story,

من خلال عينيه ...

http://tripolitanian.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-post_27.html

Another good one,

جارنا

http://tripolitanian.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post_02.html

The next link is for a  post which I never met anyone or read anything which touched the subject the way Bumedian did, I do know people who try to solve out this problem and they succeeded, but the way Bumedian put it in words was different for me,

حصن الحرائر

http://tripolitanian.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post_11.html

And many unique posts are there, I have not got the chance to check everything, I discovered this blogs only recently.

Keep going Bumedian, you and the rest of others who have intentions like yours will sooner or later reach-out the hundredth monkey and our socitey will change!

Whoever wants to read more about the hundreth monkey theory here is a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth_monkey_effect

You will see that some researchers have discredited this effect, but I believe that the theory is stronger than the discerdit!