Volume II, Number 22 – Content Warning: Language and Horror

To begin with, build a room into which you can put whatever you want, but nothing can leave on its own. Now put two earthlings into the room. Initially they should be as identical as possible: age, sex, height, build, race, etc. Identical twins if you can obtain them. (But see experimental set B, below). Ensure a stable supply of clean drinking water, but no food. And that’s it.
          Let’s think through what happens next. Each earthling grows weaker and more desperate at approximately the same rate. They are starving. Whatever communication functions they command are becoming overrun with stress-induced noise. Eventually one will become too weak to defend themself from the other.
          Now the questions start to arise. Does earthling #1:

  1. Wait until earthling #2 is perceived to be weak and then attack?
  2. Risk an early attack in order to obtain more protein from earthling #2?
  3. Refrain from attacking and therefore die more quickly of either starvation or at the hands of earthling #2?

          The observations are of course repeated for earthling #2.
          Once an earthling is dead, this session’s data collection is complete and the superfluous earthling can be euthanized.
          It is suggested by these authors that to ensure maximum possible information, two experimental strands be followed in parallel:

  1. In experimental set A, we vary the earthlings along axes of age, sex, race, etc. Observe any emerging patterns: Does one set of variables incline toward outcomes 1, 2, or 3 above, for instance. Do non-model emergent behaviors or outcomes develop?
    1. Example: a 34-year-old (n/v) female (v) White Irish (v) human (n/v) // a 34-year-old (n/v) male (v) southeast Kenyan (v) human (n/v)
    2. Example: an 8-year-old (n/v) male (n/v) Brazilian (v) anaconda (v) // an 8-year-old (n/v) male (n/v) Aleutian (v) human (v)
    3. Example: Example: a 20-year-old (v) male (v) Black southern Californian (v) deciduous tree (v) // a 60-year-old (v) female (v) Maori New Zealander (v) human (v) [Example of maximum variability]
  2. In experimental set B, we maintain maximum similarity.
    1. Example: a 15-day-old male Queensland fire ant // a 15-day-old male Queensland fire ant [All metrics n/v]
    2. Example: an 18-year-old female Montenegrin human // an 18-year-old female Montenegrin human [All metrics n/v]
    3. Example: a 7-year-old male Massachusetts bluebird // a 7-year-old male Massachusetts bluebird [All metrics n/v]

          As authorized, the experiments shall be ongoing and data collection will continue indefinitely. [20% of final grade]
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