Posted on 08/15/2016 3:35:40 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Study: Apes Could Make Competent Bartenders
An ape in Sweden has demonstrated human-level flavour prediction abilities by memorising cocktail ingredients, according to a recent study.
By providing a captive orangutan with its own personal cocktail bar, a group of researchers found that large primates exhibit a type of taste memory thought to be unique to humans.
In a new study published in the Animal Cognition journal, researchers at Lund University in Sweden offered Naong, a male orangutan at a Swedish Zoo, three distinct tasting juices – cherry, rhubarb and lemon – as well as cider apple vinegar.
Each in a small bottle on a table adjacent to his cage, Naong accessed the juices using a straw. He learned their flavours, and also the flavour of every possible pairing of the liquids mixed for him by a personal bartender.
The researchers found that Naong not only remembered the flavour of each combination, but could predict whether combinations he had never tasted before would taste pleasant.
Gabriela-Alina Sauciuc of Lund University told New Scientist: “It has been considered that only humans can [make predictions in this way], but we challenged this and showed that an orangutan was able to predict whether never-before-experienced mixes would taste good or bad, and that he could do this as well as 10 human ‘control’ subjects.”
To ensure that it wasn’t colour he preferred, the researchers repeated the experiment using dyes to alter the natural colour of each juice, but it was still the taste rather than the colour that he chose.
Naong stuck with his favourites 88% of the time when offered them in three further rounds of trials.
The study illustrates that it is not just humans who can use prior experiences to predict what will happen in new situations, a ability called “affective forecasting”.
In 2014, researchers at Santa Fe College discovered that chimps and gorillas first developed a taste for alcohol more than 10 million years ago.
"The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your SEIU made a desert of it, ages ago."
Wanda: Oh, right! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people! I’ve known sheep that could outwit you. I’ve worn dresses with higher IQs. But you think you’re an intellectual, don’t you, ape?
Otto West: Apes don’t read philosophy.
Wanda: Yes they do, Otto. They just don’t understand it.
Harambe memes in 3-2-1....
They’re also wonderful bouncers.
“a group of researchers found that large primates exhibit a type of taste memory thought to be unique to humans.”
It seems pets and other large animals have this - they tend to like certain things and know to avoid certain things that may harm them.
I don’t see how this is some new discovery.
What do you mean that you’re out of bananas for banana daiquiris again?
Always tip your bartender. Or they’ll rip your arms out of their sockets.
As a former restaurant owner are you telling me bartenders aren’t monkeys? Who knew? :)
But not liberals. When their experiences go awry they just double down. I think we need a designated branch on the human family tree for them. A stumpy branch that never flowers.
The machines are going to take over.
This is the future because businesses cannot be competitive in this environment. Regulation, taxes, HR costs, labor strikes, lawsuits, rising health care costs, wage increases, and more hidden costs for employees are strangling business. Once automated machines are available any business owner would be a fool to not invest heavily in them and shed themselves of problems and costs.
As long as they make a good 7 and 7.
I started bartending at a young age.
By the time I was 26 I was managing a series of bars.
Once, another bartender and I were confined for three hours in a ‘bar’ (really just a occasional use bar for meetings of this type) while awaiting the end of an owners association on a lake in Minnesota. VERY expensive property and open bar for 300+ folks from all over the country.
The other bartender and I made a wager: pick the last five drinkers to leave the annual meeting.
His picks were #1, #3, #4 and two others who left much earlier.
I won with #1, #2, #3, #4 and, damn it(!) #6.
It was easy for me... by that time I had 15+ years reading folks who order drinks.
No monkey can do that...
Heh ... this reminds me of a variation on an old joke that could go something like:
Wondering about his ancestry, a liberal-progressive looked up his family tree and an ape sh!t on him ...
I, for one welcome our automated AI robotic overlords.
already happened.
My kids and I joke around as we walk around and say , “Robot”. Burger flippers, pizza makers, ticket takers, servers at theaters, check out clerks, mechanics, etc...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBF7EE2xnN4
Won’t stop the inventory shrink...
"Take your stinking paws off that bartender you d@mn dirty ape!"
What if the monkey were expert at selling the drinks?
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