> Yes, and I'm saying I'm finding his point weak.

This would be a stronger point itself if you didn't succinctly validate it with the second sentence of your initial post!

> The connection to selfies is really weak. It's just classical conditioning.

Isn't the idea that the compulsion to take a selfie being classical conditioning the very point of the piece?

The rats were conditioned to push the button. Whether the rats were conditioned to take a selfie is unclear. The sugar is an unconditioned stimulus, the rat's pleasure of receiving sugar is an unconditioned response, and pushing the button is a conditioned response. The button is a conditioned stimulus. Is the selfie a conditioned stimulus as well? Melodramatically put, is the selfie more than a pearl cast in front of a swine?

My killjoy answer is: give the rat two tunnels. The rat can see partway into the tunnel from the entrance. One tunnel has a selfie inside. The other tunnel has a picture of the wall in the background of the selfie. Add more tunnels and check which tunnels the rat prefers.

My artistic answer: give yourself the pleasure of assuming that the rats like the selfies.

Well sure—I'd also like to point out that rats aren't human, if that helps you understand the piece better.

> After that my girlfriend at the time joked that he was my little friend.

They make decent pets, or so TikTok has convinced me.

I watched the show about ten years after the finale aired and I was shocked to see the finale get such a negative reaction—it's probably my favorite show ending I've ever seen. The combination of "Don't Stop Believing" and the cut to black is unmatched. I don't know what you mean by "cop out"—what ending would you have preferred?