Up, Down and All Around

Lab Rats

I was channel surfing last night and came across a show that featured an experiment with lab rats. Scientists had wired electrodes directly into the brains of lab rats and had taught them to respond to instructions to turn left, go straight, or turn right based on stimulus to the brain, delivered via those electrodes.

Scientists gave the rat the instruction to turn right by stimulating the appropriate part of the brain so that the rat feels like someone had touched its right whiskers. No one physically touched the rat, of course, but the appropriate part of the brain was stimulated so that the rat felt it. If the rat did actually turn right, then a different part of the brain -- the "happiness" center -- was stimulated as a reward.

Watching that show made me feel creepy. I understood the purpose of the experiments, so it's not like I'm questioning the value of what was being done. And I didn't feel weirded out because they were dealing with rats, even though the poor animals did look kinda weird with those electrodes and equipment sticking out of the tops of their heads.

No, what made me really uneasy while watching the show is the fact that I'd often wondered whether we -- all the people on earth -- are really just lab rats for some higher, more powerful being. And whether the challenges that life (or fate... or destiny...) throws at us are artificially manufactured in some cosmic laboratory just so our reactions can be observed.

Remember William E. Henley's oft-quoted line from Invictus? -- "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." Does that statement actually reflect reality? Are we really in control of our own destinies? Or are we just ignorant little lab rats trapped in some grander experiment that is beyond our comprehension, with no hope of escape?

Paranoia will destroy ya....

Tags: Personal, Religion

Posted by CF at 8:20 AM