The experiment is absolutely ingenious -- it's a vending machine that rewards crows with food for depositing certain items inside. The experiment is based on operant conditioning, or the Skinner box method. Crows have an affinity for shiny objects, think money and jewelery, but they're also ravenous scavengers constantly on the hunt for food.
Imagine if you could learn to reward a crow with cheap peanuts in exchange for coins and jewelery he spotted while circling your neighborhood. Picture your sly feathered friend diving back down to the machine to make his deposit, hungry for a nibble from your bulk Costco nuts. At the end of the day, you go back to the dispenser, collect coins as well as the big diamond engagement ring and Chanel watch which you then auction on eBay.
If this works, it will be the ultimate get-rich-quick scheme that will literally cost you peanuts.
Joshua Klein of New York University did the project for his Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Watch the Gizmodo video review here.
Birds As Slaves
Vending Machine Trains Crows To Make You Rich
Trend Themes
1. Operant Conditioning - The use of operant conditioning in training crows to deposit certain items in a vending machine presents opportunities for disrupting traditional animal training methods.
2. Creative Reward Systems - The development of innovative reward systems, such as using food incentives for crows, opens up possibilities for disrupting traditional reward models in various industries.
3. Intelligent Animal Behavior - Exploring and understanding the intelligence and problem-solving abilities of animals like crows can lead to disruptive innovations in the fields of animal cognition and behavioral studies.
Industry Implications
1. Animal Training - The use of the crow vending machine represents a potential disruptive innovation in the animal training industry, offering new techniques for training animals to perform specific tasks.
2. Gamification - Implementing gamification elements, like the use of rewards and incentives, in industries such as education, employee training, and customer engagement can revolutionize traditional approaches.
3. Urban Pest Control - The study of crows' behavior and their attraction to shiny objects can lead to disruptive innovations in urban pest control methods, offering more effective and ethical solutions for managing crow populations.