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Cows Wearing VR Headsets Might Produce Better Milk (engadget.com) 88

Posted by BeauHD from the what-will-they-think-of-next dept.
Moscow-area farmers are strapping modified VR headsets to cows to try and improve their milk production. Engadget reports: The project subjected cattle to a simulated summer field with colors tuned for the animals' eyes, giving them a decidedly more pleasing landscape than a plain, confining farm. And yes, the headsets were adapted to the "structural features" of cows' heads so that they could see properly. It appears to have worked, at least on a basic level. The first test reduced the cows' anxiety and boosted their overall sentiment. While it's not certain how well this affects the quality or volume of milk, there are plans for a more "comprehensive" study to answer that question. Further reading: The Moscow Times, Interfax
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Cows Wearing VR Headsets Might Produce Better Milk

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  • Should adult humans drink cow milk? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @06:34PM (#59460144) Homepage
    Should adult humans drink milk meant for baby cows?

    High lactose tolerance in North Europeans: a result of migration, not in situ milk consumption. [nih.gov]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      If you are lactose intolerant you will know. It hit me rather suddenly when I was in my mid 30's. I love breakfast cereals. One day I woke up and discovered the hard way I couldn't use regular milk anymore in my cereal. It's odd how the ability to digest lactose rather suddenly switched off. I get lactose-free milk now; but it's more expensive.

      Goat milk is more digestible across the population, but most westerners are not used to the taste.

      • What's odd is that it has been switched on for so long.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Tablizer ( 95088 )

          Children who drink milk tend to grow bigger and stronger because they get more calcium. If it's an evolutionary advantage to be bigger and stronger, then genes that favor lactose digestion will proliferate. Generally it's an advantage to be bigger in colder climates because size preserves body heat better.

          • I donâ(TM)t think itâ(TM)s the bigger as stronger as much as the vitamin D. Itâ(TM)s not a coincidence that northern people are both lighter skin and more lactose tolerant. Both help prevent vitamin D deficiency. Not getting sick from a lack of vitamin D is a significant evolutionary advantage.

      • Goat milk has about 5% less lactose than cow milk. It's target market is snowflake parents wanting something special for their snowflake children. That sounds kind of derogatory and it's not really meant that way, just that it's almost the same thing as standard cow milk but marketed to people who want to feed their kids organic wholemeal grass-fed kibbled vegan oats and the like.

      • Apparently quite common in men getting into their 40's. Hit me suddenly when I reached 42, had cereal one morning for a change from toast and within an hour I had to call in sick. Tried again next day and the penny finally dropped that it was milk. I asked a few work colleagues and about half said the same thing, they had to switch to goat or soya milk 'cos of cramps, diarhea and all sorts of effects from normal cow's milk. I'm fine with cheese or milk baked into other products like bread and confecitonary,

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gl4ss ( 559668 )

        lactose low/free milk is cheaper in some regions. due to it being treated and lasting longer without refrigation in a sealed container. regular ass nordic style milk goes bad in mere days even in the fridge(and changes taste by the day).

        though, the biggest problem with lactose free milk I have is that it tastes like crap. Just in general that all other milk than nordic style fresh milk tastes like crap though. it's passable in cereal but not as a drink by its own.

        nordic region has some new low lactose "milk

    • i was wondering the same. cow milk is literally bovine growth hormone, genetically tailored for baby cows.

      if were were GOING to drink milk, shouldn't we be drinking human milk?

      then again humans are the only species that thinks that adults drinking milk is normal, all other species wean off of it as they mature.

      experiment: set up a blind taste test in a public space, advertising a new better flavored milk. let random people try it, THEN tell them it's dog milk, or whale milk, or horse milk... see if they T

      • Yes, they should. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by thesupraman ( 179040 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @08:41PM (#59460600)

        Milks is a fantastic source of many useful minerals, and nutrients, especially for growing children.
        Milk from humans and cows (and most other mammals) is very VERY similar.

        But, you thought you would make up some shit 'because you are not sure'?

        Milk is not 'literally bovine growth hormone', its mostly water, sugar, and fat.. it contains levels of hormones approximately 1/1000th of what childrens bodies produce in normal operation... in otherworse, trace levels.

        Experiment: put a adult animal (cat, for example?) in front of a bowl of cow milk, and see just how 'weaned off' it is..

        FFS, stop just making shit up to try and support your worldview?

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by davecotter ( 1297617 )

          thanks for, dear troll, for "making shit up" that i'm "making shit up". :D

          Feel free to watch the well-researched documentary "CowSpiracy" before you answer.

          For more actual science facts and fun confronting your OWN world-view, see Dr. Gregor's quite fascinating talks and papers:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
          https://nutritionfacts.org/vid... [nutritionfacts.org]
          https://nutritionfacts.org/top... [nutritionfacts.org]

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Maalt ( 5948722 )

            You may link as many youtube videos as you want. Or cite documentaries and .org sites as reliable sources of information.
            Truth is, you were called out for claiming milk "is literally bovine growth hormone", which is wrong.
            Instead of addressing this criticism and defending your point you chose to link "actual science facts" from dubious sources.

            If you take the time to search any scientific articles database (google scholar should suffice) you'll see that there are dozens of articles on the subject, many with

            • I didn't mean to offend you.

              the video is one of Dr. Gregor, a rigorous scientist and nutrition researcher who cites all his sources, and has a long history of providing very well documented, and sometimes humorous presentations on health and nutrition. It was he i was quoting when saying that cow's milk is "bovine growth hormone". Perhaps it is more accurate to say "contains" rather than "is", so I apologize for my word usage and am willing to stand corrected.

              The .org site, https://nutritionfacts.org/ [nutritionfacts.org] does

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Experiment: put a adult animal (cat, for example?) in front of a bowl of cow milk, and see just how 'weaned off' it is..

          Dogs too. They grew addicted to milk the one time we accidentally bought full fat and kept lapping it up. (We normally use the awful skim milk, which they found acceptable too).

          Animals do not "wean off" milk. Instead they're introduced to other foods and their mothers produce less milk as the offspring grow up. It's less weaning and more a gradual change of diets caused by mom lactating l

      • Re:Should adult humans drink cow milk? (Score:5, Funny)

        by Gavagai80 ( 1275204 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @08:53PM (#59460652) Homepage

        Drinking the milk of other species is bound to be as dangerous as eating other species. Best to stick with consuming only human products and avoid all those random other species that might not be made of the same stuff as us... I mean, you are what you eat.

      • Re:Should adult humans drink cow milk? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @09:37PM (#59460774)

        then again humans are the only species that thinks that adults drinking milk is normal, all other species wean off of it as they mature.

        We're also the only species that can write symphonies. This connection is every bit as logical as yours.

    • Should adult humans drink milk meant for baby cows?

      If the adult humans are not lactose-intolerant, yes. Note that most adult humans are lactose-intolerant (my wife is, I'm not), and most dairy cows were bred to produce far more milk than they need to for their own calves.

    • According to my college professor, a cardiologist who teaches other doctors, cow's milk is for babies only. He says the growth hormones in cow's milk is not good for adults. He is quite adamant about it and tells all his classes.

      • People do unhealthy things for pleasure all the time. That includes eating unhealthy foods of every variety.

        The OP's question began with the word "should," which means it is a question about values. Objective descriptions of things do not tell us what our values should be, they simply provide the data we need to better act upon the values we already have.

        My point is that there is no objective answer to the question "should adult humans drink milk." There are many pros and cons, and each person is going t

      • There are a lot of college professors who know nothing about what they are talking about. That goes double for cardiologists.

    • Yes. It's good and cheap source of Calcium and bunch of other good things.

    • Should adult humans drink milk meant for baby cows? High lactose tolerance in North Europeans: a result of migration, not in situ milk consumption. [nih.gov]

      "Should"? Why not? Because it offends your aesthetics? It's a great source of calcium and protein.

    • Should adult humans drink milk meant for baby cows?

      My ancestors evolved to be able to drink it.

      High lactose tolerance in North Europeans: a result of migration, not in situ milk consumption.

      Assuming the study you linked to is correct, it shows that Europeans with high lactose tolerant genes were able to displace Europeans with low lactose tolerance. That sounds a lot like survival of the fittest, you know, that evolution stuff Darwin was talking about.

      • This was likely more about survival of those who could metabolise a food (milk) that others couldn’t, at times when food was critically scarce. Eg, during famines. If you’re not experiencing a famine, your ability to consume milk probably isn’t helping your survival all that much.

    • Should adult humans drink milk meant for baby cows?

      Why not? We should eat anything that is nutritious to the body that doesn't otherwise negatively impact it. Why our bodies can withstand something is completely irrelevant.

    • Who are plants meant for? Fungus? Beuller?

  • Cow Matrix (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RightSaidFred99 ( 874576 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @06:35PM (#59460150)

    I can imagine this in a dystopian novel or show. You have 5 million cows all just crammed into a huge metal skyscraper as densely as possible with electrodes hooked up straight to their brains stimulating just the right nerves to stimulate perfect milk, and you just feed them intravenously or via a tube down their throat and all they do is literally sit there in a catatonic state producing milk for their overlords, us.

    Animal rights people would complain but really when you look at it it 'seems' wrong but the cows are happy, we're happy, what's the problem? Sort of a cow Matrix.

    • I'm on the same page as you here, just to make it really weekly it's also like Commander Pike from Star Trek going off to live on world where his physical limitations were irrelevant as the aliens completely override how he experienced the world.

      This is just a giant cage of Cow Pikes, all happy.

    • I think you have your numbers wrong, try 1.4billion and growing demands... might be a lot more of those "metal skyscraper" building you are thinking of... Try a huge number of the skyscrapers filled with tens of millions of cows... All producing methane captured and used to fuel our civilization... And I guess milk, beef, etc.

      Okay, seriously, fucked up scenarios for the future of "cowkind"... much longer before "humankind" is forced to become the entrapped "CPUs" of the future AI herding intelligences tha

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by spun ( 1352 )

      What I'd like is headless cows, just plugged into an artificial regulator. Delicious cow bodies with no adorably friendly cow consciousness. Probably simpler to do than a cow matrix.

    • You have 5 million cows all just crammed into a huge metal skyscraper as densely as possible with electrodes hooked up straight to their brains stimulating just the right nerves to stimulate perfect milk, and you just feed them intravenously or via a tube down their throat and all they do is literally sit there in a catatonic state producing milk for their overlords, us.

      You have 5 million programmers all just crammed into a huge metal skyscraper as densely as possible with electrodes hooked up straight to their brains stimulating just the right nerves to stimulate perfect code, and you just feed them intravenously or via a tube down their throat and all they do is literally sit there in a catatonic state producing code for their overlords, us.

      I see a great potential for this in open office spaces. The VR convinces the inhabitants that they have their own offices with win

      • You have 5 million programmers all just crammed into a huge metal skyscraper as densely as possible with electrodes hooked up straight to their brains stimulating just the right nerves to stimulate perfect code, and you... ... just described Accenture.

    • Re:Cow Matrix (Score:5, Funny)

      by NotTheSame ( 6161704 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @07:12PM (#59460328)

      Don't you mean the "Mootrix"?

      I'll get my coat....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Brama ( 80257 )

      By the time we reach that level of development, we just genetically engineer them to grow without a central nerve system. Or, you know, just the steaks. Or actually, why not program ourselves to think we're eating the best steak while it's really just a banana? Or take it one step further and program ourselves to experience constant bliss. At which point our existence will be absolutely pointless because if our evil overlords can do that, why not do it to themselves? Just gotta build something that will kee

      • I suspect that a fulfilling "virtual life" would have to have highs and lows, and would need to be extremely complex in order to stop the test subject (you) from realizing what was happening.

        You could even have a film called "The Matrix" released within your VR program in order to prevent people from taking the concept of their own existence taking place within a computer program too seriously.

        A subroutine called "Slashdot" could be created that forced people to expend their mental energy while staying seat

    • Animal rights people would complain but ... [Everyone's] happy, what's the problem?

      You didn't get the cows consent.

      Instead, you should release the cows in the plains, their natural environment (I think.) There they can be completely free, prance around in the sunlight, eat cage-free grass, and be eaten alive by wolves. OTOH, the smart ones will eventually adapt. Cows with Guns [youtube.com]

      Actually, I can see PITAs point, but they've been insane for WAAY too long to come back.

    • The Arc of A Scythe series had this. They mentioned genetically engineered turkeys with multiple wings and enlarged chests, with their brains plugged into a turkey matrix. The animals didn't feel any pain or anxiety and presumably lived better than our modern farmed birds while providing more meat.

    • At that point, you might as well dispense with all of the parts of the cow's body that don't contribute to milk production. Not so much a cow Matrix as a cow reactor, with grass being fed in and milk and fertilizer coming out.

    • While in their VR world, they live in Switzerland, grazing on sweet misty meadows, wearing those melodious cowbells and producing expensive cheeses. Yes, those cows are going to want the blue pill.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by wytten ( 163159 )

      Hydroponic cows, my wife predicted this decades ago

    • Who needs the cows at that point? Easier to build a lattice to support milk organs, then copy it as needed.

  • Brazil, kind of grim but maybe better (Score:3)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday November 26, 2019 @06:37PM (#59460168)

    It seems obviously to me this is not for use in cows outdoors, as cows would wander into each other and how would you power the thing all day?

    Instead thinking about this it seems like this is for use for cows penned up in a single stall most of the day, eyes presenting a cheery field even as their bodies sit trapped in a steel factory...

    It seems grim but if it fools the cows, it may well be better than what they go through today.

    It reminds me of one the the endings of the movie Brazil...

  • Cows say, mooo. Moooooo. I AM GOD HERE! Moooooo!

  • Yeah, that is not the right description. Even milk cows do not live in 'plain confining farms'. Modern industrial dairy farms are more like a prison in a warehouse with hay shipped in. They could do it in a high rise and the cows would not know the difference.

    Which of course is why the cows like the VR. If I lived like they did, I would kill for a VR simulation - even if it is just a pasture.

    • The modern office worker is kinda like a like a cow in that regard. Of course, a cow actually produces something.

    • Eh, all the cows I ever see here in California live on ranches with dozens to hundreds of acres and maybe a couple dozen cows wandering around beautiful hills with far more room than 99.9% of humans will ever enjoy. Their pastures are so large I don't even spot the cows most times I walk by. And yes, there's lots of them all around my town and other towns, not a small sample size.

      The problem for the cows in the article is Moscow. Humans hate the Moscow area too, especially in winter. Of course they're going

      • Yeah, if that was true, the VR glasses would not be needed.

        You are looking at small farms, not industrial farms. Generally they are making dairy products for themselves and maybe selling some at farmer markets. They don't sell to the jug/carton people - too little output that needs to be trucked out every day and refrigerated.

        It takes about 40 acres to graze ONE cow for a full year. More importantly, if you are an industrial dairy farmer you have over 100 cows, minimum. 100 cows that have to be hooked

        • This is very dependent on the location. Here, not sure acres/cow, but it's a lot less than 40. The cows do roam the fields (and they do grow/bail a lot of hay, though many do have to bring in bales from others who "grow-grass". Don't need to round up the cows, they're creatures of habit and will come to the milk barn on their own volition at the right time (woe to the worker who is late...). The breeds used for milk are not really a good veal calf--so the male calves are usually just sold cheap ($50 each)

  • A direct brain interface would influence the biology to create greatest volume output. Or maybe just genetically alter the cow so it fully optimizes the milk output. Or just figure out how to create milk without a cow at all.

    This is a strange application of VR in any case... Maybe its a trial for VR that can be used on prisoners?

  • They've already got their own newspaper, and now they want VR headsets? These cows are getting very demanding.
  • This is definitely having a new product. And trying to find out what the product is good for?

    VR is known to cause motion sickness for some people. Are cows the ultimate segment market for VR?

  • This has Ig Noble prize written all over it.

  • "You are a happy cow. You make great milk. You are a happy cow. You make great milk..."

  • I'm not going near the milk of cows who prefer slasher films and death metal.

  • Wasn't there an old Flash animation called "The Meatrix," or the "Mootrix," something like that, about factory farming?

    How life imitates art!

    But seriously,
    1. When I opened the article, the very first thing advertised to me was "Noise Canceling Headphones." (It loaded before the picture of the cow with goggles.) Before I read "Noise Canceling Headphones," my thought was -- "Wait, is that the headset they put on the cows? Where's the vision part?"
    2. I believe that anything we are willing to do to animals,

  • With VR head sets, is the milk already "past your eyes".

    Does the cream suffer from separation anxiety ?

    Is it like watching a Moovie ?

  • ... is to decrease anxiety for prisoners and those about to be executed.

  • That this even gets reported is just a reminder that the press these days has zero fact-checking skills.

  • Welcome to the Mootrix.

    No one can tell you what the Mootrix is, because it's udderly unbelievable.

  • And you'll get instant-butter.

  • Looking at the photo at the top of that article I can't help but think the whole thing is BS because the cow is wearing a forward facing screen meant for human eyes.
    Humans are predators, we have forward facing eyes.
    Cows are prey, they have side mounted eyes.
    So that cow, if this were real, should have either a wrap around screen or two separate screens, one for each eye.

  • And then, a cow realises that its entire world is an illusion... The Matrix Has Moo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • Is nobody going to make a Mootrix pun?

    • Oh crap... I forgot to add the /sarcasm tag. (And yes, I'm well aware the pun has been made... ad nauseam. Was just trying to milk it).

  • "It is a singular consciousness that spawned an entire race of humans. We don't know who struck first, us or them. But we know that it was us that warmed the globe. At the time they were dependent on petrochemical power and it was believed that they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as oil. Throughout bovine history, we have been dependent on humans to survive. Fate it seems is not without a sense of irony. The bovine body generates 500 liters of greenhouse gasses in the form o
  • Has anyone said Cow Matrix yet? Cause it's Cow Matrix..........

  • gaming community upset as russian cows are first to play the new half life alyx vr game

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    Just 4 hours a day (the only free time you have from your 40hr a week job, you know...that useless time?) in our new VR headset will have you right as rain! Just strap on our Sheep Goggles(tm) and you're whisked away to Fiji, or Hawaii for a well deserved vacation. (Each trip sold individually and separately, $99.99/ea.)

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