I wonder if that guy from Saw used rats for a test run?
Do rodents have any natural tagging system that allows them to identify when a path has been tried or not? I don’t know enough about rodents, rats, and the test methods to understand if the comparison does in fact test memory, or not. I’m not willing to assume that the maze test takes in account every variable. I suppose the scientists are smart of enough to account for all factors, but I’m not willing to assume that and this post didn’t clarify this factor for me.
Ahhh, scientists, forever proving what we already knew.
I was also wondering if they were using scent (especially given rat’s predilection for weeing everywhere) to navigate, but given what an obvious idea it is I assume that they control for that.
Of course, I doubt anything stopped the humans taking the test from weeing on things to keep track of their progress, but I guess none of them tried it.
Maybe not in maze running, but in Scrabble or internet political arguments I like my chances. Bring it, rats!
Wait a moment… According to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it was mice that were smarter than humans…
I too thought of the scent (musk glands) idea, but I hadn’t thought of the urine marker idea. Urinating is probably not a good technique for me; I have a hard time peeing when others are watching and when I start I can’t turn it off. I suppose I could defecate and carry some around to mark paths, but I feel the rat would still finish the maze before me due to the defecation extraction delay.
“I mean, yes idealism, yes the dignity of pure research, yes, the pursuit of truth in all its forms, but there comes a point I’m afraid where you begin to suspect that if there’s any real truth it’s that the entire multi-dimensional infinity of the Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs; and if it comes to a choice between spending another ten million years finding that out and on the other hand just taking the money and running, I for one could do with the exercise.”
-Frankie mouse
I don’t care about rats - as long as I’m smarter than a dolphin. Those smartass mutherfuckers.
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