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There already exists an automated exploit for this behavior: Joshua Klein's Crow Machine: https://www.josh.is/crow-machine/ https://www.josh.is/crow-machine/

by mxfh 12y ago

There already exists an automated exploit for this behavior: Joshua Klein's Crow Machine: https://www.josh.is/crow-machine/ https://www.josh.is/crow-machine/ see also: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=470840 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=470840

im3w1l 12y ago
I think there is a big difference between gift and payment. Your article is on skinnerian conditioning to train crows to pay for peanuts. In this article the crows got peanuts whether they gave gifts or not. They just decided to give gifts. No training occured.
- jmilloy 12y ago
  Clearly, they're the same crows.
- autechr3 12y ago
  Perhaps in the mind of the crows, they are giving gifts as a reward. In effect, training the human (in the article).
  - MollyR 12y ago
    That is mind-blowing, and makes me want to reevaluate the concept of gift giving.
    - qb45 12y ago
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_8hPcnGeCI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_8hPcnGeCI
    - blacksmith_tb 12y ago
      There's a famous quote attributed to the Inuit that Marcel Mauss mentions in The Gift: "Gifts make slaves like whips make dogs." Both halves of that statement are provocative.
      - Khao 12y ago
        So can we consider our paychecks to be gifts then?
- vinceguidry 12y ago
  That only proves how smart crows are, they can both participate in an economy and operate on a gifting basis.
lloydde 12y ago
I stopped being mesmerized by TED talks after reading http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/magazine/12letters-t-CORRECTIONS-1.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/magazine/12letters-t-CORRE... . I was further disappointed that the Ted talk webpage was not updated after that development.
- dchichkov 12y ago
  Er. So does it work or not on wild crows? This article implies that the study on wild crows hadn't been done.
- Panoramix 12y ago
  How does TED fits in all of this?
  - cosmando 12y ago
    A TED talk about this project helped popularize this particular example of crow intelligence. http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of...
    - GigabyteCoin 12y ago
      Darn it... I just watched that the other day and was truly amazed. It was all lies, then? Or mostly lies? I told myself a year or two ago that I was going to stop watching TED talks because of their misinformation problems, and this was the first one I had watched since. Fool me once...
lotsofmangos 12y ago
Paying crows peanuts to 'find' money has to be the best business plan ever. This could be bigger than Apple.
- qohen 12y ago
  Crowsourcing!
davidgerard 12y ago
"We have discovered an intelligent being ... we must TROLL IT!"

by mxfh 12y ago

im3w1l 12y ago

I think there is a big difference between gift and payment. Your article is on skinnerian conditioning to train crows to pay for peanuts. In this article the crows got peanuts whether they gave gifts or not. They just decided to give gifts. No training occured.

jmilloy 12y ago
Clearly, they're the same crows.
autechr3 12y ago
Perhaps in the mind of the crows, they are giving gifts as a reward. In effect, training the human (in the article).
- MollyR 12y ago
  That is mind-blowing, and makes me want to reevaluate the concept of gift giving.
  - qb45 12y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_8hPcnGeCI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_8hPcnGeCI
  - blacksmith_tb 12y ago
    There's a famous quote attributed to the Inuit that Marcel Mauss mentions in The Gift: "Gifts make slaves like whips make dogs." Both halves of that statement are provocative.
    - Khao 12y ago
      So can we consider our paychecks to be gifts then?
vinceguidry 12y ago
That only proves how smart crows are, they can both participate in an economy and operate on a gifting basis.

lloydde 12y ago

I stopped being mesmerized by TED talks after reading http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/magazine/12letters-t-CORRECTIONS-1.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/magazine/12letters-t-CORRE... . I was further disappointed that the Ted talk webpage was not updated after that development.

dchichkov 12y ago
Er. So does it work or not on wild crows? This article implies that the study on wild crows hadn't been done.
Panoramix 12y ago
How does TED fits in all of this?
- cosmando 12y ago
  A TED talk about this project helped popularize this particular example of crow intelligence. http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows?language=en http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of...
  - GigabyteCoin 12y ago
    Darn it... I just watched that the other day and was truly amazed. It was all lies, then? Or mostly lies? I told myself a year or two ago that I was going to stop watching TED talks because of their misinformation problems, and this was the first one I had watched since. Fool me once...

lotsofmangos 12y ago

Paying crows peanuts to 'find' money has to be the best business plan ever. This could be bigger than Apple.

qohen 12y ago
Crowsourcing!

davidgerard 12y ago

"We have discovered an intelligent being ... we must TROLL IT!"